Today America returned to space on its own power. We can still get things done if we work hard enough.
Congratulations, SpaceX!
83 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Lynnette,
Thanks for the clip.
For my senior students here in China, I taught a mini-lecture series on the Space Race, from Sputnik to the last Apollo mission. We got into all the details along the way, and they were given different issues to research (mainly to improve their research skills).
As I was teaching that sequence of events, it was hard to believe how long ago all that was. Back in 1969, I was just about to become a teenager when Armstrong took that one small step. I watched that on our small black-and-white TV that we had.
The Apollo 1 fire, when Grissom, White, and Chaffee died, was the pivot point -- as they say now -- of the Space Race story. Here in China, that kind of disaster would have not have been shown nor acknowledged. For the Chinese Communist Party, it would have been a massive loss of face (diu mianzi) and thus scrubbed from existence. As Americans, it could have stopped us or pushed us to do better. Fortunately, we pushed ahead.
Because I don't remember the text limit on Blogger, I'm going to cut my comment into 3 parts.
Part 1
For the last few days, I've been thinking about your comments on voting for McCain back in 2008 and then Obama in 2012.
Back in 2000, as I've mentioned in earlier comments here, I voted for Al Gore and then watched as he conceded to Bush and then retracted his concession. To be honest, I wasn't heavily invested in the outcome. Bush and Gore weren't that different. As I've said many times, I generally don't follow politics, but as a citizen I usually—but not always—vote.
So I voted for Gore because I don't like family dynasties. It seemed to me Bush was a candidate just because his father had been president—same as with Hillary Clinton later, just a candidate because her husband had been president. Anyway, I was more interested in the legal wrangling that followed the 2000 election day, with its contentious legal debates and the scrutiny of hanging chads. When Bush was sworn in on January 20, 2001, I just shrugged my shoulders and went on with life.
But then, on September 11, 2001, I was teaching a morning class and during the break a student approached me in the hallway and said that she had just heard about a plane hitting one of the skyscrapers of the World Trade Center. I smiled and assured her that I had read about small planes now and then getting off track and hitting buildings in Manhattan.
That morning, after talking to the student, I returned to the classroom, taught my class, and then exited the building to the subway and returned to my apartment building. It was only when I was back in my apartment that I realized that something was really wrong. From my apartment building in Queens, I had a view of the Manhattan skyline and when I looked to the south, where normally the World Trade Towers stood, all I could see was smoke. I turned on the TV and had to take a seat on the couch.
Everything changed after that. The assault on America and Americans was not hypothetical to those of us living in New York. It was right in our face. People wanted to kill us. I could smell the stench coming from Ground Zero for weeks after September 11. I knew that this was a challenge like no other that we had experienced. If we failed to respond, we could expect more of the same. To me, this is a basic aspect of human nature. People look for weaknesses and if they find one, they'll exploit it.
This can be scaled up or down. It operates everywhere—even in a classroom. When I teach, I enter a classroom with a highly organized lesson plan that shows the students that I'm in control of the material. Students constantly scrutinize and challenge the teacher—perfectly acceptable and necessary. But if they notice that the teacher is not sure what they're doing, their respect for the teacher drops and there will be discipline issues and the quality of the instruction plummets.
Osama bin Laden had probed a weakness in our then-open system and exploited it. If we as a country failed to respond, we would be like the flailing teacher in front of a class of fractious students.
So George W. Bush was president on September 11. I hadn't voted for him and I wasn't sure how he would respond. I wasn't optimistic. But then he gave Saddam Hussein and his two sons 48 hours to vacate Iraq.
This really surprised me. This was exactly what I would have ordered. I didn't care about the weapons of mass destruction discussion at all. I knew that we needed to hammer someone and no one fit that better than Saddam Hussein and his sons, Uday and Qusay.
Right then, after hearing the ultimatum, I told myself if George W. Bush went through with his threat of invasion, I'd vote for him in 2004. It was as simple as that. 48 hours passed, Saddam Hussein refused to leave Baghdad, and Bush ordered the invasion.
Militaries from around the world watched that invasion as closely as they could—and they realized that the US had serious game in warfare. You can be sure the Chinese were watching. The force projection was beautiful to behold.
After teaching evening classes, I would return home, turn on the TV, and ride with the convoys entering Baghdad. Lots of amazing teamwork and bravery went into toppling the Hussein regime.
And that was how I went from voting for Al Gore in 2000 and then George W. Bush in 2004.
What happened next I'll save for another comment in a couple days. It covers the origin of Iraqi Bloggers Central and my first encounter, as a default liberal, with the illiberal left and the first wave of cancel culture and doxxing coming from the American left.
Osama bin Laden had probed a weakness in our then-open system and exploited it.
I agree. No society is without them. It is how we react that is of a critical nature.
I think there will always be those who can argue the Iraq War was a mistake and those who believe it was necessary. I honestly had felt Saddam should go since the first Iraq War. The problems weren't with the execution of the military invasion, but in the aftermath. And that is where we fell short.
It's odd you should mention this because lately I have been remembering what Rumsfeld said about democracy:
"It's untidy, and freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things," Rumsfeld said. "They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things, and that's what's going to happen here."
He was speaking of Iraq at the time, but it is still true of our democracy here in the States. In this election in 2020 democracy prevailed because millions of good people chose to do something. They stood up and voted. They voted for something besides the authoritarian behavior of Donald J. Trump. They recognized it for what it was. They recognized him for what he is. That millions of other people did not is sad, it's true. Or they did and didn't care, which isn't sad but very disappointing.
It is true that people will exploit our weaknesses. It is up to us to react and defend our democracy.
It covers the origin of Iraqi Bloggers Central and my first encounter, as a default liberal, with the illiberal left and the first wave of cancel culture and doxxing coming from the American left.
I am rather curious about the origins of Iraqi Bloggers Central.
As for the liberal left, right now they are the only one's who appear to be standing up for our democracy and or planet. When the conservative right wake up and smell the coffee I may start to listen to them again. Just not the wild conspiracy theories they are espousing in support of a man who is only out for himself.
I'm all in favor of saving our democracy and I figure I'm about as much of a "tree-hugger" as I can see makes good sense (which is whole lot of the environmental agenda, if not quite all of it).
And I don't consider myself a member of the "liberal left".
The problems weren't with the execution of the military invasion, but in the aftermath. And that is where we fell short.
At IBC, for five years my co-bloggers and I covered each and every twist and turn of that aftermath. I thought in general we did the best we could in a very difficult neighborhood. The learning curve was steep, to be sure, as we figured out the nature of the inter-tribal and inter-sect conflicts that will most likely always be with that area of the Middle East.
To tell you the truth, I would have been okay with just toppling the Hussein regime, finding and removing Saddam and his sons, and then leaving the region completely. The main point was to kill a chicken to scare the monkey, to use the Chinese proverb I mentioned last week.
That's a great quote from Rumsfeld. Recently I was watching an episode of the Milton Friedman documentary Free to Choose and in one of the discussions at the end of that episode I got to see and hear a younger Donald Rumsfeld in a free-flowing debate.
In this election in 2020 democracy prevailed because millions of good people chose to do something.
Lynnette, this is very problematic. Listen, I did not vote for Donald Trump in either election. So let me set you straight on that. But I do not consider that "good people" voted for Biden and "bad people" voted for Trump, as your comments suggest. If I'm wrong on that interpretation, let me know.
Half of the country voted for Trump because they sincerely thought he was the better option to be president. Like you, they mostly relied on their personal experience in life and their instinctual, gut feeling. Obviously, they don't view Trump the way that you do, and they are just as "good" (or "bad," for that matter) as you are. Democracy does not "prevail" only if your team wins.
I am rather curious about the origins of Iraqi Bloggers Central.
Sure, I will get into some of the details, starting with sitting in my New York apartment and reading the first blog posts from Salam Pax. I'll include what happened later, when, as the founding blogger at IBC, elements of the illiberal left tried to cancel and doxx me in New York, something I had never heard of before nor expected -- my first awakening to the real danger of left conformism.
My view of the liberal left is very, very different from yours. We'll get into that later.
Before I discuss environmentalism, you'll need to know a bit of my personal history.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, as I was growing up, my father was a radical conservationist. In that small Iowa town, my dad was an oddity. He pushed conservation as far as he could. For example, we stopped flushing our toilets with regular water flow. Instead, we scooped out the water from the kitchen sink from washing dishes with a pail and then, once a day, he would allow us to force-flush the toilet at the end of the day.
Because we were ten people in a ranch-style house, you can imagine how much feces collected in the toilet over the day. And the stench. My dad's solution. On top of the water tank for the toilet we had a box of old-style matches that we could light to reduce the smell. We sometimes were able to get him to allow us to flush the toilet more than once a day.
We recycled EVERYTHING. I mean, everything. Table scraps went into a special container and then mulched for our growing compost pile behind the house (and then used in our extensive garden (which covered both front and back yards). Canning season was intense and very sweaty. All cardboard, paper, plastic, you name it, was separated and then sold in bulk (if at all possible). My father refused to pay the trash pick up bill the town gave him because he argued correctly that we had no trash cans and nothing to pick up.
These are just two points about serious conservation and environmentalism. With my personal experience from fifty years ago, I look at people who TALK about concerns about the environment and just laugh. Boutique, virtue-signaling environmentalists. I have no patience for them.
Flush your toilet once a day with dish-washing water from the kitchen sink and then we can start talking. If not, please, don't even bring up the subject.
Trying to double down on you controlling the subject matter and the timing? Well it's a hell of an effort; I'll give you that much. But, you're a liar and a fraud and a poseur, and that's still true even when you try to switch that personae to new subject matter. It's just who you are. All of which goes to say… Screw you; I'll bring up any subject I damn well please.
You wanna intimidate Lynnette, be my guest. She can handle ya I'd reckon, and it'll be fun to watch.
Screw you; I'll bring up any subject I damn well please.
Sure, go ahead. No one is stopping you. But if the subject is tree-hugger, Hollywood-style environmentalism, I'm not going to take you seriously. I'd just need to look into your trash can to see how "environmentally conscious" you are.
(Persistent bastard ain't he? For a liar and a fraud and a poseur I mean. Must work for 'im most of the time.)
Of course, Trump is Trump because it usually works for him as well, but that's because he always moves on to a new and basically unsuspecting audience. Jeffrey's trying it here in just one spot.
I listed Jonathan Haidt's The Rightous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion in a previous comment. Here's an excerpt from the concluding chapter that may help.
This book explained why people are divided by politics and religion. The answer is not, as Manichaeans would have it, because some people are good and others are evil. Instead, the explanation is that our minds were designed for groupish righteousness. We are deeply intuitive creatures whose gut feelings drive our strategic reasoning. This makes it difficult—but not impossible—to connect with those who live in other matrices, which are often built on different configurations of the available moral foundations.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– And here is where that last quote can be found online. (One of several places.)
Anybody got a good grasp on how low the probabilities are that Jeffrey would claim to have actually read (or even have) the book, but then just happen to quote from three pages out of the hundreds of pages in those three books, and all three quotes would just happen by chance circumstance be available online?
Anybody got a good guess on the odds against that happenin' by chance circumstance?
(Obviously, Jeffrey does not have a good grasp on it; statistics would seem to be one of the subjects outside his easy comfort level when making public pretense.) ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
That is beyond stupid. As I said, I've read thousands of books. Why would I pretend to have read three books that I thought could help with the discussion? It makes no sense.
But if you want to play, let's go. Here's the first paragraph of the "Acknowledgments" section:
Acknowledgments
I learned from my former graduate student Sara Algoe that we don’t express gratitude in order to repay debts or balance ledgers but rather to strengthen relationships. Furthermore, feelings of gratitude make us want to praise the other person publicly, to relationships I want to strengthen, so many people I want to honor for their help in creating this book..
Haidt, Jonathan. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion (p. 367). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Here's an idea. Why don't YOU read the book and then, right here, you can ask me to summarize any chapter or line of reasoning in the book. You can check to see if I've in fact read it or not.
If you have a Kindle account, I could even lend you my copy for two weeks.
It will cost you no money, just the time for reading. And it's a very good read. You'll learn a lot (or not).
Again, if you want me to lend you my Kindle copy, just say so.
Another book covering the same topic is Hetherington and Weiler's Prius or Pickup? How the Answers for Four Simple Questions Explain America's Great Divide (2018).
I didn't include it because it's a bit more lightweight than the other three books, the argument about fixed vs. fluid worldviews not as convincing.
Do you ever read books? Or just articles at Politico? You really ought to try reading a book now and then.
And here's the final paragraph of the "Acknowledgments" page in Hetherington and Weiler's book:
As our dedication suggests, the imprint left by all four of our wonderful and loving parents shows up in everything we have ever done. The two of us come from very different worlds (one suburbs, one city), very different backgrounds (one Catholic, one Jewish), and have very different loyalties (one Red Sox, one Yankees). Our parents also brought us up in different ways (one more fixed, one more fluid). Yet the two of us find ourselves with more in common than not, which gives us some hope about the future, if people from different backgrounds talk to each other.
Hetherington, Marc. Prius or Pickup?: How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain America's Great Divide (pp. 226-227). HMH Books. Kindle Edition.
Is this the first time you've heard that researchers have located genetic, dispositional aspects to whether people vote liberal or conservative? This idea has been around for about a decade now, bolstered by all the twin studies done up in Lynnette's state, Minnesota.
You can't be that benighted, right? Yes, I know you live in Hayseed Country surrounded by your beloved Trumpkins, but still, you do have Internet access.
Okay, five outta five. We're into truly astronomical odds now. Sooner or later it's gonna occur to our pompous fabulist numbskull here that what he needs to do is just make up a pretend quote from the book and post that here instead of hunting down real quotes from the internet.
(I'll surely occur to him even sooner now that I've given him the hint.)
So, that's the end of the quote hunt for me. Five outta five--truly astronomical odds.
Actually, I have a third choice you didn't deign to offer me, but I don't need your permission.
I could stick with this a little longer and just keep on embarrassing you.
But, that's losing it's charm, so I'm gonna stick with the "down for the rest of the morning notice" I've already given.
And you can continue to try to pretend that you didn't wait to give me that ultimatum about "SHUT THE FUCK UP" until after I'd already given notice I's off to other pursuits. Which I am overdue for now, and so I must now bid you adieu for real this time.
Now there is a humorous aspect to my unusual upbringing. Because we were trained to NOT flush the toilet, my brothers and sisters and I often had trouble when visiting friends. We would be playing at someone's house and then use the bathroom. But as kids we were on automatic mode. We would drop a number two (or two) into the bowl, close the lid, wash our hands, and then leave the bathroom.
Later, of course, the mother would go into bathroom, see the lid down, and lift it up and ... yes, floating there were a few of our turds. Damn. The family name and honor took a hit on those days. Remember this is smalltown Iowa.
All of us still have trouble flushing toilets. I hesitate all the time. It just seems weird to me to automatically flush after only peeing.
Now you can also imagine that when our friends visited us it was a tense situation whenever they had to use our bathroom. We had to explain to them that under no circumstance were they allowed to push the lever to flush (later we simply disengaged it).
Usually, there was so much feces in the toilet that one of us boys would have to use the largest pail of sink water to force flush the toilet. If you didn't use enough water it would then overflow and you'd have turds and urine floating around the bathroom floor. I learned how to force-flush a toilet with a huge bucket of water -- not too fast, not too slow.
When our fiends were in the bathroom, we would stand outside the closed door and call to them, "Don't flush, don't flush!"
My mom, to tell you the truth, didn't like this part of dad's radical environmentalism at all. She fought with dad about this. She wanted a bathroom that her neighbors could use when they were over for a chat and a cup of coffee at the kitchen table.
This is just ONE part of that hyper-environmental upbringing. I could tell many more odd stories.
Maybe later, I'll let you know how all of my brothers and sisters live their lives now.
So if you separate your paper and cardboard and plastic and so on, according to your local rules, that's cool. Yes, indeed, try to show as much concern for the environment as possible. It's commendable.
But now that you know just a bit of my upbringing -- from 50 years ago -- you should understand that when most people talk about being environmentally conscious, from my perspective, it's superficial and risible.
My dad was a fanatic, and that fanaticism makes most of what I see as not serious at all. It's just virtue-signaling about how they really care about the planet -- just words. Meanwhile they're driving huge SUVs and their trash cans are overflowing. And they flush their toilets ten to twenty times a day, not even thinking how much water they're wasting.
I just realized that, here at Lynnette's Still Healing blog, you're the local deformed, ugly TROLL. Anyone who wants to visit her comments page must cross a bridge, and under that bridge you hide day and night. When anyone approaches -- be it me, or Marcus, or Petes -- up the embankment you come, engaging all of us in your inane power games, where you're always right and the rest of us are always wrong. And you actually think you're protecting Lynnette, a woman who needs absolutely no protecting.
Lee, you have really serious mental issues. I'm not kidding about that.
Why not create your own blog? For fifteen years you've been lurking and attacking others on comments pages. Why not have the guts to go to Blogger and make your OWN blog where you really have to stand behind your posts? Say something, instead of always attacking others on the comments pages. Make a blog where you expose all the Trumpkins, if that is your main concern.
And I don't consider myself a member of the "liberal left".
Yes, I understand there are exceptions. You being one of them. I was really referring to our elected leaders on the right who are letting their own agenda get in the way of exercising true democracy. Their selfishness and those who are not even interested in watching over our democracy are the people who are endangering it.
A bipartisan panel in Michigan's largest county unanimously certified its presidential results on Tuesday night, a stunning reversal hours after Republicans had temporarily blocked certification based on dubious claims of voting irregularities in Detroit.
The Wayne County Board of Canvassers initially deadlocked 2-2 on whether to certify the results, with two Democrats voting to certify and two Republicans voting against it, citing concerns of examples where Detroit precincts found discrepancies during their post-election review process. That vote was immediately condemned by Democratic officials and nonpartisan experts, who said the election in Detroit had been conducted cleanly.
While those two Republican canvassers are not elected officials they did stand in the way of what should have been a smooth certification process.
Emily Murphy at the GSA is another example of unprecedented stymying of the system, on the basis of no real evidence of any wrong doing. All of this sowing doubt in our system because of the intransigence of one egotistic man.
Nationally, half of all Republicans now believe (or, at least claim to believe) the November presidential election was "rigged" against Donald Trump. "Rigged", in this context, specifically means that they believe that the vote counts in Biden's favor are fake, that Trump actually got more votes than Biden and the counts in Biden's favor are fabrications. Reuters
But I do not consider that "good people" voted for Biden and "bad people" voted for Trump, as your comments suggest. If I'm wrong on that interpretation, let me know.
My statement was kind of a rip off of the quote:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” ― Edmund Burke
I know people who voted for Trump, at least in 2016, and I don't consider them to be "bad". And a couple for sure in 2020. However, I still think some of them have not really looked at in depth what Trump has been doing. Some of those people are the more religiously inclined or simply looking at one issue that concerns them. I do not consider them deplorable or stupid, as some may. However, having said that I do not respect the true racists within Trump's supporters. And they are there.
As for the people who voted for Biden I am sure they too had certain issues that they were basing their votes on. I am thinking they too did not look too closely.
Obviously, they don't view Trump the way that you do, and they are just as "good" (or "bad," for that matter) as you are. Democracy does not "prevail" only if your team wins.
No, democracy prevails when people practice it. Those who voted this election, for either candidate, were doing that. Those who were/are trying to disenfranchise them are not. As far as I can tell, in this last election cycle, that has been the right wing. Those who muddy the waters with half-assed conspiracy theories, and those who follow them, are not doing our democracy a service by not taking care to look for real evidence. They are spouting nonsense to further whatever issue floats their boat.
I suspect that people like Salam Pax would understand.
"Even Sweden appears to be abandoning the Swedish model. On Monday, the country’s authorities banned gatherings of more than eight people as they grappled with the second coronavirus wave surging through much of Europe." WashingtonPost
Your father was ahead of his time, Jeffrey. While he was rather extreme...
Flush your toilet once a day with dish-washing water from the kitchen sink and then we can start talking. If not, please, don't even bring up the subject.
But he had the right idea. We have had low flush toilets for some time now. Water may well become a scarce commodity in our future.
The composting, a lot of people do now. Recycling is also common place. At least in my state.
You really believe that the local village women went over to his house and sat around the kitchen table and willingly drank a diuretic with the bathroom in the condition that he described?
"Even Sweden appears to be abandoning the Swedish model.
So are we. The Governor is set to announce closing of bars and restaurants to in door dining. We will go back to only pick up. Schools are going to distance learning again. He will also change the rules for gyms.
But there are still stubborn people out there who refuse to understand how difficult this situation is. They refuse to see. Kind of like their refusal to see what Trump is.
You really believe that the local village women went over to his house and sat around the kitchen table and willingly drank a diuretic with the bathroom in the condition that he described?
Probably not more than once. Hence, his mother's ire.
"I do not consider that 'good people' voted for Biden and 'bad people' voted for Trump…"
The "bad people" who voted (more this time than is usually the case) almost certainly voted for Trump. We don't want to pretend this makes all the Trump voters "bad people". But we also don't want to ignore the fact that the "bad people" voted overwhelmingly for Trump, and that the Trump voters know this just as well we do. The Trump voters know who they're getting in bed with. It ain't no secret.
"The recent behavior of Republican canvassers in Michigan is a case in point." Lynnette @ Wed Nov 18, 11:26 am ↑↑
Those Republican "canvassers" have switched back to their original positions and have signed affidavits claiming to have now "rescinded" their votes as board members to approve the vote tallies in majority black areas. (There doesn't seem to be any legal precedent nor presentable theory for "rescinding" their votes of approval once the vote tallies have already been approved and sent off to the Secretary of State, but they don't seem to be daunted by that.)
We're at a quarter million dead from the coronavirus this morning. Kind of a surprise that is hasn't caused Jeffrey to tune in and congratulate Trump on his wonderfulness and superlative in achieving that goal. (With appropriate capitalizations and exclamation points, of course.)
We're approaching a Biden advantage in the popular vote of 6 million votes (79,460,977 to 73,555,771 as of 9:15 am CT) WashingtonPost The recounts and late counted votes might push it over the margin of 6 million before this's over.
RollingStone seems to think there's a lot of "late counted" votes still out there in Biden friendly precincts and the total Biden margin might go as high as 8 million votes before the count is completed.
(There doesn't seem to be any legal precedent nor presentable theory for "rescinding" their votes of approval once the vote tallies have already been approved and sent off to the Secretary of State, but they don't seem to be daunted by that.)
I'm not surprised, not with Trump's encouragement. He will only go kicking and screaming. Never mind that he and his enablers are damaging our country.
RollingStone seems to think there's a lot of "late counted" votes still out there in Biden friendly precincts and the total Biden margin might go as high as 8 million votes before the count is completed.
I would love to see that. The only thing I would like better is if those two Georgia Senate races flip to Democrats. But I'm not getting my hopes up.
The sad thing, though, is normally I would support a split government. But with the Republicans latching onto every conspiracy theory out there and supporting a dictator wanna be, it is hard for me to do that.
There are those out there who feel that the Republicans are really just enjoying sticking it to the Democrats. So, it isn't just Trump who is vindictive enough to let down the country.
"So, it isn't just Trump who is vindictive enough…"
Trump managed to pull out another cadre of previously "hidden" voters. They're largely supporters (with more or less enthusiasm) of groups we already know. "Proud Boys", "Unite the Right", "Oath Keepers", other names we know. The Republican Party needs those voters to keep alive their hopes of holding on to their ever-dwindling electoral advantage. They're not going to toss those new voters back now. That's why they're backing Trump's play to discredit the November 3rd election.
I keep tellin' ya'll; I know these people; I live amongst them; this time they're playin' for keeps. They think this is their last best chance to bring down the government and subjugate a nation they believe is turning against them.
"They believe Trump’s stream of election-fraud allegations and say they’re preparing for the possibility of a ‛civil war’ with the American political left. "“If President Trump comes out and says: ‘Guys, I have irrefutable proof of fraud, the courts won’t listen, and I’m now calling on Americans to take up arms,’ we would go,” said Fryar, wearing a button-down shirt, pressed slacks and a paisley tie during a recent interview at his office. "The unshakable trust in Trump in this town of about 1,400 residents reflects a national phenomenon among many Republicans, despite the absence of evidence in a barrage of post-election lawsuits by the president and his allies. About half of Republicans polled by Reuters/Ipsos said Trump ‛rightfully won’ the election but had it stolen from him in systemic fraud favoring Biden, according to a survey conducted between Nov. 13 and 17. Just 29% of Republicans said Biden rightfully won. Other polls since the election have reported that an even higher proportion - up to 80% - of Republicans trust Trump’s baseless fraud narrative." Reuters
You might notice that the ‛patriot’ in question didn't mentioning actually asking to see the supposed proof, or hear it, nor otherwise did he hint at needing to confirm Trump's supposed ‛proof’. It would be enough if Trump would simply make an otherwise unsupported claim to have such proof.
I notice that Legal Team Trump is having virtually zero effect on the various state legislatures they'd need to take action to throw the November 3rd election to Trump. (And, obviously, they've given up days ago on any hopes they may have actually had of winning any of those absurd legal filings, (assuming, of course).)
So, now that the various Republican state legislatures clearly ain't gonna step up for Trump either….
I was speaking to someone the other day who supported Trump. He isn't in the extreme camp and we could actually find some common ground on some issues. But, anyway, he listened to Rudy Giuliani the other day. I have not seen any clips of that yet, but will look it up when I have more time. But he was saying that like Pence before him with the fly, Giuliani was apparently photo bombed by his hair dye. He seemed to have brown rivulets running down the side of his face. Maybe sweating too much?
"The unshakable trust in Trump in this town of about 1,400 residents reflects a national phenomenon among many Republicans,...
They say there is strength in numbers. I'll take my chances on the close to 80 million people who voted for Biden. They, after all, are on the right side of history.
Besides, I suspect that most of the 73 million people who voted for Trump will not take up arms. There are a lot, like the person I was speaking about earlier, who have no interest in undermining our democracy. If called upon I am sure that our National Guard can handle any insurrection.
Right now it appears that Trump and his followers are flailing about trying to drum up donations for Trump's current and future political expenses.
"The unshakable trust in Trump in this town of about 1,400 residents reflects a national phenomenon among many Republicans,...
They say there is strength in numbers. I'll take my chances on the close to 80 million people who voted for Biden. They, after all, are on the right side of history.
Besides, I suspect that most of the 74 million people who voted for Trump will not take up arms. There are a lot, like the person I was speaking about earlier, who have no interest in undermining our democracy. If called upon I am sure that our National Guard can handle any insurrection.
Right now it appears that Trump and his followers are flailing about trying to drum up donations for Trump's current and future political expenses.
Btw, I bought Obama's latest book, "A Promised Land". I was hesitant at first because it is so long, but I realized that if it is interesting enough length doesn't matter. And I suspect I will find it interesting.
Say what you will about Obama, but he is a normal person. I miss that in a President.
I haven't listed to all of this interview with Obama, but the portion I did made me understand why so many people like him. He really is the antithesis of Trump.
Yeah, NBC Nightly News made mention of it the other night. Trump's got a notice on his website "donate" button, small type, hidden down in a corner somewhere behind a "click here" that's also in real small type. Turns out an individual donor has to donate over $8,000 to his "voter litigation" fund before any of it goes to the current voter litigating. The first $8,000+ goes into Trump's current and future political expenses (and personal legal expenses),
"I suspect that most of the 73 million people who voted for Trump will not take up arms."
I think that's right; most will not. And many of those who would have taken up arms have been disappointed and dispirited by his failure to call for shooting already. This litigation campaign has disappointed them, makes it less likely that they'll answer the call if the call ever comes. (And, I don't think Trump's quite that stupid.)
As Trump hides and continues on with his petulance we are seeing massive food lines in many states as the pandemic rages and help from Washington is no where to be seen.
"…we are seeing massive food lines in many states…"
Lotta things are going to Hell fairly rapidly. I've seen speculations (some of which claim to have sources for their rumors from inside the Trump White House) to the effect that Trump is purposely trashing everything he thinks he can trash and still have any shot at getting his dedicated Trumpkins to forgive him and rally to his support in 2024.
And, I wasn't talking about him leaving the country. Rather: If he starts to hold rallies again, if he takes his Traveling Road Show back out on the road again then I'll take that as a hint that he's checking to see if there's any shot at getting them to rise in arms in his defense. I don't think he'll try it, but, if he goes back out on the road in this environment that'll be one of the things he'll be lookin' at.
And then again, he may be forced to seek refuge soon somewhere under a foreign flag. I'd not be surprised if there's indictments awaiting him in his fairly near future. (Wouldn't shock me to see him arrested on his way out of the White House on the 20th of January, although that'd qualify as a minor surprise.)
The Republican Senate is continuing to approve federal judges at a fantastic rate (shredding the norm that's held for over a hundred years that the Senate does not approve judicial appointments for a President who's just been voted out of office). The latest one is only thirty-three years old; she has absolutely zero trial experience (she worked on a law firms' staff for a couple of trials before she became a lawyer). And she's been rated as unqualified by the American Bar Association. TampaBayTimes
It has occurred to me this morning that Trump has a passion for putting his name on things, but the Republican Party has so far escaped this exercise of Trump's passions.
S'pose there's any chance he'll get it to officially re-named to "Trumpkins of America" or some such thing? (Or "MAGA-Trumpkins" perhaps.)
I've seen speculations (some of which claim to have sources for their rumors from inside the Trump White House) to the effect that Trump is purposely trashing everything he thinks he can trash and still have any shot at getting his dedicated Trumpkins to forgive him and rally to his support in 2024.
Oh, yes, I believe that. He is like the worst renter ever, punching holes in the walls and spilling oil all over the carpet before he leaves. History will show he was the worst president ever.
And, I wasn't talking about him leaving the country. Rather: If he starts to hold rallies again, if he takes his Traveling Road Show back out on the road again then I'll take that as a hint that he's checking to see if there's any shot at getting them to rise in arms in his defense. I don't think he'll try it, but, if he goes back out on the road in this environment that'll be one of the things he'll be lookin' at.
I understood what you were alluding to. I addressed that possibility in my last post with the clip of Lincoln riding through a battle field. While I earlier was okay with Trump simply leaving the country, I am having second thoughts. I am not too sure where he would end up. Once he leaves we will have to "change the locks".
They were just talking about the Sedition Act on CNN and mentioning that one of the requirements was the use of force. The lawyer they spoke to didn't think that what Trump and his allies are doing right now qualified because no force has been used.
Having said that, when I looked it up it does appear that Congress repealed that act. Although there is still the possibility of treason or some other charges.
But in the end I believe that Trump himself is a coward. I do not see him actually physically leading anyone if it will end in jail time.
The latest one is only thirty-three years old; she has absolutely zero trial experience (she worked on a law firms' staff for a couple of trials before she became a lawyer). And she's been rated as unqualified by the American Bar Association.
It has occurred to me this morning that Trump has a passion for putting his name on things, but the Republican Party has so far escaped this exercise of Trump's passions.
There may come a time when the name Trump will evoke a similar emotion to Mudd. I would be careful about adopting that "brand".
In what amounts to the first overt indication by Trump that he will not wholly indulge the militant white supremacists he's been courting, Trump has actually made a Tweet using the phrase "in the best interest of our Country", and suggesting the the GSA formally perform its statutory duty and acknowledge the overwhelming evidence that Biden will garner 306 electoral votes when that college convenes in December.
It's not clear whether he posted this before or after the GSA formally "ascertained" that Biden had won the election, but I don't much reckon the sequence of events is the most important thing here. Whether or not Trump was just racing to catch up with events occurring inside his own government isn't really the point anymore. The "transition" is now officially "on".
Trump has actually made a Tweet using the phrase "in the best interest of our Country"
I saw that. I could give him the benefit of the doubt and believe he may have listened to those voices that were saying he should put country first. But then I remember the interview with Mary Trump where she said she was considering changing her last name. Perhaps he was listening and finally understood what he may be doing to his "brand" with his disgraceful behavior.
California Democrat Dianne Feinstein (age 87) is stepping down as the official "Ranking Member" of the Democratic minority on the Senate Judiciary committee. (Joe Biden headed this committee for years, or served as the "Ranking Member" when the Democrats were in the minority in the Senate.) Feinstein took a load of sh*t from Democrats for going easy on Amy Coney Barrett.
Yeah, I saw that. I didn't realize she was that old. But I think quite a few of the Senators are.
It looks like the CDC is breathing a sigh of relief after the GSA finally ascertained the election. I think they are rather anxious to have a more steady hand on the tiller in future. It does sound like Biden has picked some experienced people for his cabinet.
Not flushing the wc seems just freaky and odd to me. Saving water on taking shorter showers would be much better. A flush of the toilet amounts to what, maybe 20 seconds of showering, maybe just 10. And showering quickly instead of taking baths would be an other way to save water usage.
If saving on water usage for personal hygiene is even a thing. I know it’s not here and I very much doubt it’s a sane conservation strategy in rural Iowa. All the people in the state flushing their toilets 10 times a day and showering twice a day must be minuscule compared to the irrigation of the farmlands in that state, no?
My father had a system for taking showers, too. Once a week in a very cold corner of the basement -- timed. A lot of us played sports, thus gaining access to regular showers. I could give you a hundred more parts of his total system. He even had a system for rinsing a glass after washing by rolling it under a fine stream of boiling hot water. If your fingers weren't nimble, you burned them. As kids, it was just what we knew. We didn't understand that it was unusual.
I'm sure my father knew the numbers. His main concern was the Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system, which is under our part of the Midwest.
Let me add another story about my father's conviction about the importance for conservation, which would later be called environmentalism. Before I tell the story, you'll need a little background.
The family business in that small Iowa town was a combination hardware store and heating installation and tinsmith shop. My paternal grandfather founded and ran the hardware store, in the back of which and later under which, was a full tinsmith shop that my father and uncle ran. They would drive to a farmhouse that needed a new heating system, measure everything, and then return to the tinsmith shop and hand-fabricate all of the ductwork.
In the shop, we got deliveries of sheets of tin and then my dad and uncle would cut, bend, and crimp all of those sheets into ducts with just the right dimensions for that particular farmhouse. Boutique tinsmithing, you might say.
So for many years that was how the dual business ran, Grandpa and Grandma in the store and my uncle and father doing the heating installation and tinsmithing. My uncle and dad, as you can imagine, were master tinsmiths. But in the sixties and into the seventies, heating companies began mass-producing ductwork that priced out the hand-fabricated ductwork that my father and uncle made. Also, houses were more uniform in design, so it was easier just to use the mass-produced ductwork.
In the sixties, when I was a teenager, I was finally strong enough to help my dad and uncle in the tinsmith shop. To bend sheet metal, you use what is called a brake, a huge hand-operated bender that requires strength and teamwork with the guy on the other end of the brake. You need to bend quickly but with lots of force. So I got to participate in the end of that part of the business.
But there was a problem. My uncle and dad had large families to feed and clothe, my uncle with seven children and my father with eight. And the tinsmith shop just wasn't bringing in enough money. So my uncle and dad had to have a talk with Grandpa. They told him they needed to move into and enlarge the hardware business. I recall that my Grandpa wasn't too happy about it, but he reluctantly agreed.
With my uncle and father in the hardware store and Grandpa now tending to his huge vegetable garden, the family store was greatly expanded and became, in a way, a proto-mall. You could find anything in this so-called hardware store. Lynnette and Lee may remember stores like that if they're old enough.
On Friday nights, farm families would come to town to do basic shopping. Ma and Pa would send the kids to the movie theater across the street and then spend a couple hours in our store shopping for the week. I grew up in the store, assembling all the bikes, trikes, and wheelbarrows. Also running the register and helping customers.
All of the local construction companies had accounts with our store. They'd come in and just say put it on the account and they’d pay at the end of the month. We had a huge wall of bins with every type of nail and screw and bolt you'd ever want. Under the floor we had huge rolls of rope. My uncle and dad had cut small holes in the floor and to buy rope, we'd just grab the end of the rope and walk it to the other end of the store, looking at the marks for length on the floor itself. Very cool. You want a shotgun? No problem. You want a new casserole dish? We got it. We want a new toy for you child? Hell, we got a basement full of toys. That store was jam-packed with stuff.
Okay, now I can get to the story. All of those items delivered to us on tractor-trailers arriving from Chicago came in packages—most of them using a combination of cardboard and Styrofoam and some plastic. The packaging drove my dad nuts. It was too much and mostly unnecessary. As you can imagine, my father made sure that everything that could be recycled was recycled. The cardboard was easy. We broke down all of the boxes, stacked them, bound them, and then took them one of the first places starting to re-use cardboard. But what about the Styrofoam? Dad kept collecting bags of it while researching what to do. Then he discovered that he could use it to insulate a home. You needed to smash the Styrofoam into pieces and then treat it to make it inflammable. So that’s what we did. If I remember correctly, I think dad just used the mulcher for the garden to grind up the pieces of Styrofoam.
Now remember, we're talking late Sixties, early Seventies. No one is even thinking about increasing the insulation in their homes. That would come much later. But I recall a whole span of weeks one fall when my dad and I re-insulated our house using bags and bags of those ground-up Styrofoam pieces and rolls of regular insulation. If any of you have done any insulating, you'll know that those small pieces of insulation get everywhere on your body. I scratched a lot that fall.
But that winter, with the house now far better insulated, we were able to use far less fuel to heat the house.
So that's a positive spin, I believe, on just one of my father's ways of being a more responsible member of society, someone really concerned about the environment and not just spouting trendy words and phrases about how much they care about the environment.
Happy Thanksgiving to both of you. Perhaps, like me, you have much to be thankful for on this day. Personally, not politically. Please set aside politics for one day. Let's count our blessings.
Corona is just another hoax. It’s not much more dangerous than the seasonal flu and no more people are dying than in a normal year. Really old and really unhealthy people may die from it, just like from the flu. Not an argument for total shutdown.
And, you have to ask yourselves, why was that article pulled and by whom?
83 comments:
Lynnette,
Thanks for the clip.
For my senior students here in China, I taught a mini-lecture series on the Space Race, from Sputnik to the last Apollo mission. We got into all the details along the way, and they were given different issues to research (mainly to improve their research skills).
As I was teaching that sequence of events, it was hard to believe how long ago all that was. Back in 1969, I was just about to become a teenager when Armstrong took that one small step. I watched that on our small black-and-white TV that we had.
The Apollo 1 fire, when Grissom, White, and Chaffee died, was the pivot point -- as they say now -- of the Space Race story. Here in China, that kind of disaster would have not have been shown nor acknowledged. For the Chinese Communist Party, it would have been a massive loss of face (diu mianzi) and thus scrubbed from existence. As Americans, it could have stopped us or pushed us to do better. Fortunately, we pushed ahead.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Fortunately, we pushed ahead.
Perseverance in adversity is an admirable quality. SpaceX had failures in the beginning, but they kept at it until they got it right.
Everybody makes mistakes, no one is perfect. It is learning from our mistakes that makes us stronger.
And if we never admit our mistakes we just keep on making them. Possibly why China has so many buildings that are crumbling away.
What I think is really amazing is the reusable rocket that SpaceX has developed. That has made space travel more cost efficient.
Lynnette,
Because I don't remember the text limit on Blogger, I'm going to cut my comment into 3 parts.
Part 1
For the last few days, I've been thinking about your comments on voting for McCain back in 2008 and then Obama in 2012.
Back in 2000, as I've mentioned in earlier comments here, I voted for Al Gore and then watched as he conceded to Bush and then retracted his concession. To be honest, I wasn't heavily invested in the outcome. Bush and Gore weren't that different. As I've said many times, I generally don't follow politics, but as a citizen I usually—but not always—vote.
So I voted for Gore because I don't like family dynasties. It seemed to me Bush was a candidate just because his father had been president—same as with Hillary Clinton later, just a candidate because her husband had been president. Anyway, I was more interested in the legal wrangling that followed the 2000 election day, with its contentious legal debates and the scrutiny of hanging chads. When Bush was sworn in on January 20, 2001, I just shrugged my shoulders and went on with life.
But then, on September 11, 2001, I was teaching a morning class and during the break a student approached me in the hallway and said that she had just heard about a plane hitting one of the skyscrapers of the World Trade Center. I smiled and assured her that I had read about small planes now and then getting off track and hitting buildings in Manhattan.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Part 2
That morning, after talking to the student, I returned to the classroom, taught my class, and then exited the building to the subway and returned to my apartment building. It was only when I was back in my apartment that I realized that something was really wrong. From my apartment building in Queens, I had a view of the Manhattan skyline and when I looked to the south, where normally the World Trade Towers stood, all I could see was smoke. I turned on the TV and had to take a seat on the couch.
Everything changed after that. The assault on America and Americans was not hypothetical to those of us living in New York. It was right in our face. People wanted to kill us. I could smell the stench coming from Ground Zero for weeks after September 11. I knew that this was a challenge like no other that we had experienced. If we failed to respond, we could expect more of the same. To me, this is a basic aspect of human nature. People look for weaknesses and if they find one, they'll exploit it.
This can be scaled up or down. It operates everywhere—even in a classroom. When I teach, I enter a classroom with a highly organized lesson plan that shows the students that I'm in control of the material. Students constantly scrutinize and challenge the teacher—perfectly acceptable and necessary. But if they notice that the teacher is not sure what they're doing, their respect for the teacher drops and there will be discipline issues and the quality of the instruction plummets.
Osama bin Laden had probed a weakness in our then-open system and exploited it. If we as a country failed to respond, we would be like the flailing teacher in front of a class of fractious students.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Part 3
So George W. Bush was president on September 11. I hadn't voted for him and I wasn't sure how he would respond. I wasn't optimistic. But then he gave Saddam Hussein and his two sons 48 hours to vacate Iraq.
This really surprised me. This was exactly what I would have ordered. I didn't care about the weapons of mass destruction discussion at all. I knew that we needed to hammer someone and no one fit that better than Saddam Hussein and his sons, Uday and Qusay.
Right then, after hearing the ultimatum, I told myself if George W. Bush went through with his threat of invasion, I'd vote for him in 2004. It was as simple as that. 48 hours passed, Saddam Hussein refused to leave Baghdad, and Bush ordered the invasion.
Militaries from around the world watched that invasion as closely as they could—and they realized that the US had serious game in warfare. You can be sure the Chinese were watching. The force projection was beautiful to behold.
After teaching evening classes, I would return home, turn on the TV, and ride with the convoys entering Baghdad. Lots of amazing teamwork and bravery went into toppling the Hussein regime.
And that was how I went from voting for Al Gore in 2000 and then George W. Bush in 2004.
What happened next I'll save for another comment in a couple days. It covers the origin of Iraqi Bloggers Central and my first encounter, as a default liberal, with the illiberal left and the first wave of cancel culture and doxxing coming from the American left.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Osama bin Laden had probed a weakness in our then-open system and exploited it.
I agree. No society is without them. It is how we react that is of a critical nature.
I think there will always be those who can argue the Iraq War was a mistake and those who believe it was necessary. I honestly had felt Saddam should go since the first Iraq War. The problems weren't with the execution of the military invasion, but in the aftermath. And that is where we fell short.
It's odd you should mention this because lately I have been remembering what Rumsfeld said about democracy:
"It's untidy, and freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things," Rumsfeld said. "They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things, and that's what's going to happen here."
He was speaking of Iraq at the time, but it is still true of our democracy here in the States. In this election in 2020 democracy prevailed because millions of good people chose to do something. They stood up and voted. They voted for something besides the authoritarian behavior of Donald J. Trump. They recognized it for what it was. They recognized him for what he is. That millions of other people did not is sad, it's true. Or they did and didn't care, which isn't sad but very disappointing.
It is true that people will exploit our weaknesses. It is up to us to react and defend our democracy.
It covers the origin of Iraqi Bloggers Central and my first encounter, as a default liberal, with the illiberal left and the first wave of cancel culture and doxxing coming from the American left.
I am rather curious about the origins of Iraqi Bloggers Central.
As for the liberal left, right now they are the only one's who appear to be standing up for our democracy and or planet. When the conservative right wake up and smell the coffee I may start to listen to them again. Just not the wild conspiracy theories they are espousing in support of a man who is only out for himself.
democracy and or planet.
That should be our
I'm all in favor of saving our democracy and I figure I'm about as much of a "tree-hugger" as I can see makes good sense (which is whole lot of the environmental agenda, if not quite all of it).
And I don't consider myself a member of the "liberal left".
New covid numbers out today. All 50 states have double digit increases, this week over last week.
Lynnette,
The problems weren't with the execution of the military invasion, but in the aftermath. And that is where we fell short.
At IBC, for five years my co-bloggers and I covered each and every twist and turn of that aftermath. I thought in general we did the best we could in a very difficult neighborhood. The learning curve was steep, to be sure, as we figured out the nature of the inter-tribal and inter-sect conflicts that will most likely always be with that area of the Middle East.
To tell you the truth, I would have been okay with just toppling the Hussein regime, finding and removing Saddam and his sons, and then leaving the region completely. The main point was to kill a chicken to scare the monkey, to use the Chinese proverb I mentioned last week.
That's a great quote from Rumsfeld. Recently I was watching an episode of the Milton Friedman documentary Free to Choose and in one of the discussions at the end of that episode I got to see and hear a younger Donald Rumsfeld in a free-flowing debate.
In this election in 2020 democracy prevailed because millions of good people chose to do something.
Lynnette, this is very problematic. Listen, I did not vote for Donald Trump in either election. So let me set you straight on that. But I do not consider that "good people" voted for Biden and "bad people" voted for Trump, as your comments suggest. If I'm wrong on that interpretation, let me know.
Half of the country voted for Trump because they sincerely thought he was the better option to be president. Like you, they mostly relied on their personal experience in life and their instinctual, gut feeling. Obviously, they don't view Trump the way that you do, and they are just as "good" (or "bad," for that matter) as you are. Democracy does not "prevail" only if your team wins.
I am rather curious about the origins of Iraqi Bloggers Central.
Sure, I will get into some of the details, starting with sitting in my New York apartment and reading the first blog posts from Salam Pax. I'll include what happened later, when, as the founding blogger at IBC, elements of the illiberal left tried to cancel and doxx me in New York, something I had never heard of before nor expected -- my first awakening to the real danger of left conformism.
My view of the liberal left is very, very different from yours. We'll get into that later.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
"We'll get into that later."
So, you're now in charge of both the subject matter and the timing? Interesting development (assuming it holds out--which I'd not bet on were I you.)
Before I discuss environmentalism, you'll need to know a bit of my personal history.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, as I was growing up, my father was a radical conservationist. In that small Iowa town, my dad was an oddity. He pushed conservation as far as he could. For example, we stopped flushing our toilets with regular water flow. Instead, we scooped out the water from the kitchen sink from washing dishes with a pail and then, once a day, he would allow us to force-flush the toilet at the end of the day.
Because we were ten people in a ranch-style house, you can imagine how much feces collected in the toilet over the day. And the stench. My dad's solution. On top of the water tank for the toilet we had a box of old-style matches that we could light to reduce the smell. We sometimes were able to get him to allow us to flush the toilet more than once a day.
We recycled EVERYTHING. I mean, everything. Table scraps went into a special container and then mulched for our growing compost pile behind the house (and then used in our extensive garden (which covered both front and back yards). Canning season was intense and very sweaty. All cardboard, paper, plastic, you name it, was separated and then sold in bulk (if at all possible). My father refused to pay the trash pick up bill the town gave him because he argued correctly that we had no trash cans and nothing to pick up.
These are just two points about serious conservation and environmentalism. With my personal experience from fifty years ago, I look at people who TALK about concerns about the environment and just laugh. Boutique, virtue-signaling environmentalists. I have no patience for them.
Flush your toilet once a day with dish-washing water from the kitchen sink and then we can start talking. If not, please, don't even bring up the subject.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
"…please, don't even bring up the subject."
Trying to double down on you controlling the subject matter and the timing?
Well it's a hell of an effort; I'll give you that much. But, you're a liar and a fraud and a poseur, and that's still true even when you try to switch that personae to new subject matter. It's just who you are.
All of which goes to say… Screw you; I'll bring up any subject I damn well please.
You wanna intimidate Lynnette, be my guest. She can handle ya I'd reckon, and it'll be fun to watch.
Lee,
How many times do you flush your toilet each day?
Do you realize how much water you use with each flush?
I learned this basic lesson fifty years ago.
You mouth words about concern for the environment, but I need to know what your actions are.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Lee,
Screw you; I'll bring up any subject I damn well please.
Sure, go ahead. No one is stopping you. But if the subject is tree-hugger, Hollywood-style environmentalism, I'm not going to take you seriously. I'd just need to look into your trash can to see how "environmentally conscious" you are.
I grew up without a trash can.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
(Persistent bastard ain't he? For a liar and a fraud and a poseur I mean. Must work for 'im most of the time.)
Of course, Trump is Trump because it usually works for him as well, but that's because he always moves on to a new and basically unsuspecting audience. Jeffrey's trying it here in just one spot.
Bit of a brief reprieve. I'm guessin' he's trying to figure his next move.
I'll make it easy on 'im.
Ciao for now Jeffrey; you got all night to figure your next move.
Lynnette,
I listed Jonathan Haidt's The Rightous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion in a previous comment. Here's an excerpt from the concluding chapter that may help.
This book explained why people are divided by politics and religion. The answer is not, as Manichaeans would have it, because some people are good and others are evil. Instead, the explanation is that our minds were designed for groupish righteousness. We are deeply intuitive creatures whose gut feelings drive our strategic reasoning. This makes it difficult—but not impossible—to connect with those who live in other matrices, which are often built on different configurations of the available moral foundations.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Good morning Jeffrey:
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
And here is where that last quote can be found online. (One of several places.)
Anybody got a good grasp on how low the probabilities are that Jeffrey would claim to have actually read (or even have) the book, but then just happen to quote from three pages out of the hundreds of pages in those three books, and all three quotes would just happen by chance circumstance be available online?
Anybody got a good guess on the odds against that happenin' by chance circumstance?
(Obviously, Jeffrey does not have a good grasp on it; statistics would seem to be one of the subjects outside his easy comfort level when making public pretense.)
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Good bye Jeffrey, for now.
Lee,
That is beyond stupid. As I said, I've read thousands of books. Why would I pretend to have read three books that I thought could help with the discussion? It makes no sense.
But if you want to play, let's go. Here's the first paragraph of the "Acknowledgments" section:
Acknowledgments
I learned from my former graduate student Sara Algoe that we don’t express gratitude in order to repay debts or balance ledgers but rather to strengthen relationships. Furthermore, feelings of gratitude make us want to praise the other person publicly, to relationships I want to strengthen, so many people I want to honor for their help in creating this book..
Haidt, Jonathan. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion (p. 367). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Dumbass.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Lee,
Here's an idea. Why don't YOU read the book and then, right here, you can ask me to summarize any chapter or line of reasoning in the book. You can check to see if I've in fact read it or not.
If you have a Kindle account, I could even lend you my copy for two weeks.
It will cost you no money, just the time for reading. And it's a very good read. You'll learn a lot (or not).
Again, if you want me to lend you my Kindle copy, just say so.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Lee,
Another book covering the same topic is Hetherington and Weiler's Prius or Pickup? How the Answers for Four Simple Questions Explain America's Great Divide (2018).
I didn't include it because it's a bit more lightweight than the other three books, the argument about fixed vs. fluid worldviews not as convincing.
Do you ever read books? Or just articles at Politico? You really ought to try reading a book now and then.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Lee,
And here's the final paragraph of the "Acknowledgments" page in Hetherington and Weiler's book:
As our dedication suggests, the imprint left by all four of our wonderful and loving parents shows up in everything we have ever done. The two of us come from very different worlds (one suburbs, one city), very different backgrounds (one Catholic, one Jewish), and have very different loyalties (one Red Sox, one Yankees). Our parents also brought us up in different ways (one more fixed, one more fluid). Yet the two of us find ourselves with more in common than not, which gives us some hope about the future, if people from different backgrounds talk to each other.
Hetherington, Marc. Prius or Pickup?: How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain America's Great Divide (pp. 226-227). HMH Books. Kindle Edition.
Boy, that's pretty kumbaya, right?
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
"Here's the first paragraph of the 'Acknowledgments' section:"
And here is where that quote appears online. Four in a row. You really don't understand statistics, or you wouldn't keep doing this.
Lee,
Is this the first time you've heard that researchers have located genetic, dispositional aspects to whether people vote liberal or conservative? This idea has been around for about a decade now, bolstered by all the twin studies done up in Lynnette's state, Minnesota.
You can't be that benighted, right? Yes, I know you live in Hayseed Country surrounded by your beloved Trumpkins, but still, you do have Internet access.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Lee,
Why in God's name would I go to Google Books when i have my own copy?
Fricking dumbass. Note the Kindle edition pagination.
I'll LEND you my copy. Just give the word.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
"And here's the final paragraph of the 'Acknowledgments' page…"
And here is where that can grabbed online. Five in a row now.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
(And they just don't learn.)
Okay, five outta five. We're into truly astronomical odds now. Sooner or later it's gonna occur to our pompous fabulist numbskull here that what he needs to do is just make up a pretend quote from the book and post that here instead of hunting down real quotes from the internet.
(I'll surely occur to him even sooner now that I've given him the hint.)
So, that's the end of the quote hunt for me. Five outta five--truly astronomical odds.
Ciao for now Jeffrey.
Lee,
That's also Google Books.
I'll LEND you my copy RIGHT NOW.
You have two choices, Borrow my copy or SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Actually, I have a third choice you didn't deign to offer me, but I don't need your permission.
I could stick with this a little longer and just keep on embarrassing you.
But, that's losing it's charm, so I'm gonna stick with the "down for the rest of the morning notice" I've already given.
And you can continue to try to pretend that you didn't wait to give me that ultimatum about "SHUT THE FUCK UP" until after I'd already given notice I's off to other pursuits. Which I am overdue for now, and so I must now bid you adieu for real this time.
Lynnette,
Now there is a humorous aspect to my unusual upbringing. Because we were trained to NOT flush the toilet, my brothers and sisters and I often had trouble when visiting friends. We would be playing at someone's house and then use the bathroom. But as kids we were on automatic mode. We would drop a number two (or two) into the bowl, close the lid, wash our hands, and then leave the bathroom.
Later, of course, the mother would go into bathroom, see the lid down, and lift it up and ... yes, floating there were a few of our turds. Damn. The family name and honor took a hit on those days. Remember this is smalltown Iowa.
All of us still have trouble flushing toilets. I hesitate all the time. It just seems weird to me to automatically flush after only peeing.
Now you can also imagine that when our friends visited us it was a tense situation whenever they had to use our bathroom. We had to explain to them that under no circumstance were they allowed to push the lever to flush (later we simply disengaged it).
Usually, there was so much feces in the toilet that one of us boys would have to use the largest pail of sink water to force flush the toilet. If you didn't use enough water it would then overflow and you'd have turds and urine floating around the bathroom floor. I learned how to force-flush a toilet with a huge bucket of water -- not too fast, not too slow.
When our fiends were in the bathroom, we would stand outside the closed door and call to them, "Don't flush, don't flush!"
My mom, to tell you the truth, didn't like this part of dad's radical environmentalism at all. She fought with dad about this. She wanted a bathroom that her neighbors could use when they were over for a chat and a cup of coffee at the kitchen table.
This is just ONE part of that hyper-environmental upbringing. I could tell many more odd stories.
Maybe later, I'll let you know how all of my brothers and sisters live their lives now.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Lynnette,
So if you separate your paper and cardboard and plastic and so on, according to your local rules, that's cool. Yes, indeed, try to show as much concern for the environment as possible. It's commendable.
But now that you know just a bit of my upbringing -- from 50 years ago -- you should understand that when most people talk about being environmentally conscious, from my perspective, it's superficial and risible.
My dad was a fanatic, and that fanaticism makes most of what I see as not serious at all. It's just virtue-signaling about how they really care about the planet -- just words. Meanwhile they're driving huge SUVs and their trash cans are overflowing. And they flush their toilets ten to twenty times a day, not even thinking how much water they're wasting.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Lee,
I just realized that, here at Lynnette's Still Healing blog, you're the local deformed, ugly TROLL. Anyone who wants to visit her comments page must cross a bridge, and under that bridge you hide day and night. When anyone approaches -- be it me, or Marcus, or Petes -- up the embankment you come, engaging all of us in your inane power games, where you're always right and the rest of us are always wrong. And you actually think you're protecting Lynnette, a woman who needs absolutely no protecting.
Lee, you have really serious mental issues. I'm not kidding about that.
Why not create your own blog? For fifteen years you've been lurking and attacking others on comments pages. Why not have the guts to go to Blogger and make your OWN blog where you really have to stand behind your posts? Say something, instead of always attacking others on the comments pages. Make a blog where you expose all the Trumpkins, if that is your main concern.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Just time for a quick comment.
And I don't consider myself a member of the "liberal left".
Yes, I understand there are exceptions. You being one of them. I was really referring to our elected leaders on the right who are letting their own agenda get in the way of exercising true democracy. Their selfishness and those who are not even interested in watching over our democracy are the people who are endangering it.
The recent behavior of Republican canvassers in Michigan is a case in point.
A bipartisan panel in Michigan's largest county unanimously certified its presidential results on Tuesday night, a stunning reversal hours after Republicans had temporarily blocked certification based on dubious claims of voting irregularities in Detroit.
The Wayne County Board of Canvassers initially deadlocked 2-2 on whether to certify the results, with two Democrats voting to certify and two Republicans voting against it, citing concerns of examples where Detroit precincts found discrepancies during their post-election review process. That vote was immediately condemned by Democratic officials and nonpartisan experts, who said the election in Detroit had been conducted cleanly.
While those two Republican canvassers are not elected officials they did stand in the way of what should have been a smooth certification process.
Emily Murphy at the GSA is another example of unprecedented stymying of the system, on the basis of no real evidence of any wrong doing. All of this sowing doubt in our system because of the intransigence of one egotistic man.
America is better than this.
Nationally, half of all Republicans now believe (or, at least claim to believe) the November presidential election was "rigged" against Donald Trump. "Rigged", in this context, specifically means that they believe that the vote counts in Biden's favor are fake, that Trump actually got more votes than Biden and the counts in Biden's favor are fabrications. Reuters
But I do not consider that "good people" voted for Biden and "bad people" voted for Trump, as your comments suggest. If I'm wrong on that interpretation, let me know.
My statement was kind of a rip off of the quote:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” ― Edmund Burke
I know people who voted for Trump, at least in 2016, and I don't consider them to be "bad". And a couple for sure in 2020. However, I still think some of them have not really looked at in depth what Trump has been doing. Some of those people are the more religiously inclined or simply looking at one issue that concerns them. I do not consider them deplorable or stupid, as some may. However, having said that I do not respect the true racists within Trump's supporters. And they are there.
As for the people who voted for Biden I am sure they too had certain issues that they were basing their votes on. I am thinking they too did not look too closely.
Obviously, they don't view Trump the way that you do, and they are just as "good" (or "bad," for that matter) as you are. Democracy does not "prevail" only if your team wins.
No, democracy prevails when people practice it. Those who voted this election, for either candidate, were doing that. Those who were/are trying to disenfranchise them are not. As far as I can tell, in this last election cycle, that has been the right wing. Those who muddy the waters with half-assed conspiracy theories, and those who follow them, are not doing our democracy a service by not taking care to look for real evidence. They are spouting nonsense to further whatever issue floats their boat.
I suspect that people like Salam Pax would understand.
"Even Sweden appears to be abandoning the Swedish model. On
Monday, the country’s authorities banned gatherings of more than
eight people as they grappled with the second coronavirus wave
surging through much of Europe."
WashingtonPost
Your father was ahead of his time, Jeffrey. While he was rather extreme...
Flush your toilet once a day with dish-washing water from the kitchen sink and then we can start talking. If not, please, don't even bring up the subject.
But he had the right idea. We have had low flush toilets for some time now. Water may well become a scarce commodity in our future.
The composting, a lot of people do now. Recycling is also common place. At least in my state.
You really believe that the local village women went over to his house and sat around the kitchen table and willingly drank a diuretic with the bathroom in the condition that he described?
I listed Jonathan Haidt's The Rightous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion in a previous comment.
I have bought that book and one other. I have been trying to single handedly keep my local Barnes & Noble afloat.
"Even Sweden appears to be abandoning the Swedish model.
So are we. The Governor is set to announce closing of bars and restaurants to in door dining. We will go back to only pick up. Schools are going to distance learning again. He will also change the rules for gyms.
But there are still stubborn people out there who refuse to understand how difficult this situation is. They refuse to see. Kind of like their refusal to see what Trump is.
You really believe that the local village women went over to his house and sat around the kitchen table and willingly drank a diuretic with the bathroom in the condition that he described?
Probably not more than once. Hence, his mother's ire.
"I do not consider that 'good people' voted for Biden
and 'bad people' voted for Trump…"
The "bad people" who voted (more this time than is usually the case) almost certainly voted for Trump. We don't want to pretend this makes all the Trump voters "bad people". But we also don't want to ignore the fact that the "bad people" voted overwhelmingly for Trump, and that the Trump voters know this just as well we do. The Trump voters know who they're getting in bed with. It ain't no secret.
"The recent behavior of Republican canvassers in Michigan is a
case in point."
Lynnette @ Wed Nov 18, 11:26 am ↑↑
Those Republican "canvassers" have switched back to their original positions and have signed affidavits claiming to have now "rescinded" their votes as board members to approve the vote tallies in majority black areas. (There doesn't seem to be any legal precedent nor presentable theory for "rescinding" their votes of approval once the vote tallies have already been approved and sent off to the Secretary of State, but they don't seem to be daunted by that.)
We're at a quarter million dead from the coronavirus this morning. Kind of a surprise that is hasn't caused Jeffrey to tune in and congratulate Trump on his wonderfulness and superlative in achieving that goal. (With appropriate capitalizations and exclamation points, of course.)
We're approaching a Biden advantage in the popular vote of 6 million votes (79,460,977 to 73,555,771 as of 9:15 am CT) WashingtonPost The recounts and late counted votes might push it over the margin of 6 million before this's over.
RollingStone seems to think there's a lot of "late counted" votes still out there in Biden friendly precincts and the total Biden margin might go as high as 8 million votes before the count is completed.
(There doesn't seem to be any legal precedent nor presentable theory for "rescinding" their votes of approval once the vote tallies have already been approved and sent off to the Secretary of State, but they don't seem to be daunted by that.)
I'm not surprised, not with Trump's encouragement. He will only go kicking and screaming. Never mind that he and his enablers are damaging our country.
RollingStone seems to think there's a lot of "late counted" votes still out there in Biden friendly precincts and the total Biden margin might go as high as 8 million votes before the count is completed.
I would love to see that. The only thing I would like better is if those two Georgia Senate races flip to Democrats. But I'm not getting my hopes up.
The sad thing, though, is normally I would support a split government. But with the Republicans latching onto every conspiracy theory out there and supporting a dictator wanna be, it is hard for me to do that.
There are those out there who feel that the Republicans are really just enjoying sticking it to the Democrats. So, it isn't just Trump who is vindictive enough to let down the country.
"So, it isn't just Trump who is vindictive enough…"
Trump managed to pull out another cadre of previously "hidden" voters. They're largely supporters (with more or less enthusiasm) of groups we already know. "Proud Boys", "Unite the Right", "Oath Keepers", other names we know. The Republican Party needs those voters to keep alive their hopes of holding on to their ever-dwindling electoral advantage. They're not going to toss those new voters back now. That's why they're backing Trump's play to discredit the November 3rd election.
I keep tellin' ya'll; I know these people; I live amongst them; this time they're playin' for keeps. They think this is their last best chance to bring down the government and subjugate a nation they believe is turning against them.
"Never mind that he and his enablers are damaging our country."
That is not an accident; it's not a side effect. That's the point and purpose of it all.
That is not an accident; it's not a side effect. That's the point and purpose of it all.
That's very, very scary.
"They believe Trump’s stream of election-fraud allegations and say
they’re preparing for the possibility of a ‛civil war’ with the American
political left.
"“If President Trump comes out and says: ‘Guys, I have irrefutable
proof of fraud, the courts won’t listen, and I’m now calling on
Americans to take up arms,’ we would go,” said Fryar, wearing a
button-down shirt, pressed slacks and a paisley tie during a recent
interview at his office.
"The unshakable trust in Trump in this town of about 1,400 residents
reflects a national phenomenon among many Republicans, despite
the absence of evidence in a barrage of post-election lawsuits by the
president and his allies. About half of Republicans polled by
Reuters/Ipsos said Trump ‛rightfully won’ the election but had it
stolen from him in systemic fraud favoring Biden, according to a
survey conducted between Nov. 13 and 17. Just 29% of Republicans
said Biden rightfully won. Other polls since the election have reported
that an even higher proportion - up to 80% - of Republicans trust
Trump’s baseless fraud narrative."
Reuters
You might notice that the ‛patriot’ in question didn't mentioning actually asking to see the supposed proof, or hear it, nor otherwise did he hint at needing to confirm Trump's supposed ‛proof’. It would be enough if Trump would simply make an otherwise unsupported claim to have such proof.
I notice that Legal Team Trump is having virtually zero effect on the various state legislatures they'd need to take action to throw the November 3rd election to Trump. (And, obviously, they've given up days ago on any hopes they may have actually had of winning any of those absurd legal filings, (assuming, of course).)
So, now that the various Republican state legislatures clearly ain't gonna step up for Trump either….
That leaves him with only one recourse.
I was speaking to someone the other day who supported Trump. He isn't in the extreme camp and we could actually find some common ground on some issues. But, anyway, he listened to Rudy Giuliani the other day. I have not seen any clips of that yet, but will look it up when I have more time. But he was saying that like Pence before him with the fly, Giuliani was apparently photo bombed by his hair dye. He seemed to have brown rivulets running down the side of his face. Maybe sweating too much?
"The unshakable trust in Trump in this town of about 1,400 residents
reflects a national phenomenon among many Republicans,...
They say there is strength in numbers. I'll take my chances on the close to 80 million people who voted for Biden. They, after all, are on the right side of history.
Besides, I suspect that most of the 73 million people who voted for Trump will not take up arms. There are a lot, like the person I was speaking about earlier, who have no interest in undermining our democracy. If called upon I am sure that our National Guard can handle any insurrection.
Right now it appears that Trump and his followers are flailing about trying to drum up donations for Trump's current and future political expenses.
"The unshakable trust in Trump in this town of about 1,400 residents
reflects a national phenomenon among many Republicans,...
They say there is strength in numbers. I'll take my chances on the close to 80 million people who voted for Biden. They, after all, are on the right side of history.
Besides, I suspect that most of the 74 million people who voted for Trump will not take up arms. There are a lot, like the person I was speaking about earlier, who have no interest in undermining our democracy. If called upon I am sure that our National Guard can handle any insurrection.
Right now it appears that Trump and his followers are flailing about trying to drum up donations for Trump's current and future political expenses.
Btw, I bought Obama's latest book, "A Promised Land". I was hesitant at first because it is so long, but I realized that if it is interesting enough length doesn't matter. And I suspect I will find it interesting.
Say what you will about Obama, but he is a normal person. I miss that in a President.
I haven't listed to all of this interview with Obama, but the portion I did made me understand why so many people like him. He really is the antithesis of Trump.
Yeah, NBC Nightly News made mention of it the other night. Trump's got a notice on his website "donate" button, small type, hidden down in a corner somewhere behind a "click here" that's also in real small type. Turns out an individual donor has to donate over $8,000 to his "voter litigation" fund before any of it goes to the current voter litigating. The first $8,000+ goes into Trump's current and future political expenses (and personal legal expenses),
"I suspect that most of the 73 million people who voted
for Trump will not take up arms."
I think that's right; most will not. And many of those who would have taken up arms have been disappointed and dispirited by his failure to call for shooting already. This litigation campaign has disappointed them, makes it less likely that they'll answer the call if the call ever comes. (And, I don't think Trump's quite that stupid.)
That leaves him with only one recourse.
He did say once that if he lost he may have to leave the country. I'm good with that.
As Trump hides and continues on with his petulance we are seeing massive food lines in many states as the pandemic rages and help from Washington is no where to be seen.
"…we are seeing massive food lines in many states…"
Lotta things are going to Hell fairly rapidly. I've seen speculations (some of which claim to have sources for their rumors from inside the Trump White House) to the effect that Trump is purposely trashing everything he thinks he can trash and still have any shot at getting his dedicated Trumpkins to forgive him and rally to his support in 2024.
And, I wasn't talking about him leaving the country. Rather: If he starts to hold rallies again, if he takes his Traveling Road Show back out on the road again then I'll take that as a hint that he's checking to see if there's any shot at getting them to rise in arms in his defense. I don't think he'll try it, but, if he goes back out on the road in this environment that'll be one of the things he'll be lookin' at.
And then again, he may be forced to seek refuge soon somewhere under a foreign flag. I'd not be surprised if there's indictments awaiting him in his fairly near future. (Wouldn't shock me to see him arrested on his way out of the White House on the 20th of January, although that'd qualify as a minor surprise.)
The Republican Senate is continuing to approve federal judges at a fantastic rate (shredding the norm that's held for over a hundred years that the Senate does not approve judicial appointments for a President who's just been voted out of office).
The latest one is only thirty-three years old; she has absolutely zero trial experience (she worked on a law firms' staff for a couple of trials before she became a lawyer). And she's been rated as unqualified by the American Bar Association. TampaBayTimes
She was confirmed on a straight party-line vote.
It has occurred to me this morning that Trump has a passion for putting his name on things, but the Republican Party has so far escaped this exercise of Trump's passions.
S'pose there's any chance he'll get it to officially re-named to "Trumpkins of America" or some such thing? (Or "MAGA-Trumpkins" perhaps.)
That would be fun.
I've seen speculations (some of which claim to have sources for their rumors from inside the Trump White House) to the effect that Trump is purposely trashing everything he thinks he can trash and still have any shot at getting his dedicated Trumpkins to forgive him and rally to his support in 2024.
Oh, yes, I believe that. He is like the worst renter ever, punching holes in the walls and spilling oil all over the carpet before he leaves. History will show he was the worst president ever.
And, I wasn't talking about him leaving the country. Rather: If he starts to hold rallies again, if he takes his Traveling Road Show back out on the road again then I'll take that as a hint that he's checking to see if there's any shot at getting them to rise in arms in his defense. I don't think he'll try it, but, if he goes back out on the road in this environment that'll be one of the things he'll be lookin' at.
I understood what you were alluding to. I addressed that possibility in my last post with the clip of Lincoln riding through a battle field. While I earlier was okay with Trump simply leaving the country, I am having second thoughts. I am not too sure where he would end up. Once he leaves we will have to "change the locks".
They were just talking about the Sedition Act on CNN and mentioning that one of the requirements was the use of force. The lawyer they spoke to didn't think that what Trump and his allies are doing right now qualified because no force has been used.
Having said that, when I looked it up it does appear that Congress repealed that act. Although there is still the possibility of treason or some other charges.
But in the end I believe that Trump himself is a coward. I do not see him actually physically leading anyone if it will end in jail time.
The latest one is only thirty-three years old; she has absolutely zero trial experience (she worked on a law firms' staff for a couple of trials before she became a lawyer). And she's been rated as unqualified by the American Bar Association.
Is there the possibility of impeachment?
It has occurred to me this morning that Trump has a passion for putting his name on things, but the Republican Party has so far escaped this exercise of Trump's passions.
There may come a time when the name Trump will evoke a similar emotion to Mudd. I would be careful about adopting that "brand".
"Having said that, when I looked it up it does appear
that Congress repealed that act."
Congress has passed and repealed (or had overturned by the courts), several versions of a "Sedition Act" over the years.
"Is there the possibility of impeachment?"
It's unlikely. Only a very few federal judges have ever been impeached. But, it is possible.
In what amounts to the first overt indication by Trump that he will not wholly indulge the militant white supremacists he's been courting, Trump has actually made a Tweet using the phrase "in the best interest of our Country", and suggesting the the GSA formally perform its statutory duty and acknowledge the overwhelming evidence that Biden will garner 306 electoral votes when that college convenes in December.
It's not clear whether he posted this before or after the GSA formally "ascertained" that Biden had won the election, but I don't much reckon the sequence of events is the most important thing here. Whether or not Trump was just racing to catch up with events occurring inside his own government isn't really the point anymore.
The "transition" is now officially "on".
Trump has actually made a Tweet using the phrase "in the best interest of our Country"
I saw that. I could give him the benefit of the doubt and believe he may have listened to those voices that were saying he should put country first. But then I remember the interview with Mary Trump where she said she was considering changing her last name. Perhaps he was listening and finally understood what he may be doing to his "brand" with his disgraceful behavior.
The "transition" is now officially "on".
I will still not be absolutely happy until Jan. 20, 2021.
But this is a start.
California Democrat Dianne Feinstein (age 87) is stepping down as the official "Ranking Member" of the Democratic minority on the Senate Judiciary committee. (Joe Biden headed this committee for years, or served as the "Ranking Member" when the Democrats were in the minority in the Senate.) Feinstein took a load of sh*t from Democrats for going easy on Amy Coney Barrett.
Yeah, I saw that. I didn't realize she was that old. But I think quite a few of the Senators are.
It looks like the CDC is breathing a sigh of relief after the GSA finally ascertained the election. I think they are rather anxious to have a more steady hand on the tiller in future. It does sound like Biden has picked some experienced people for his cabinet.
Jeffrey,
Not flushing the wc seems just freaky and odd to me. Saving water on taking shorter showers would be much better. A flush of the toilet amounts to what, maybe 20 seconds of showering, maybe just 10. And showering quickly instead of taking baths would be an other way to save water usage.
If saving on water usage for personal hygiene is even a thing. I know it’s not here and I very much doubt it’s a sane conservation strategy in rural Iowa. All the people in the state flushing their toilets 10 times a day and showering twice a day must be minuscule compared to the irrigation of the farmlands in that state, no?
Marcus,
My father had a system for taking showers, too. Once a week in a very cold corner of the basement -- timed. A lot of us played sports, thus gaining access to regular showers. I could give you a hundred more parts of his total system. He even had a system for rinsing a glass after washing by rolling it under a fine stream of boiling hot water. If your fingers weren't nimble, you burned them. As kids, it was just what we knew. We didn't understand that it was unusual.
I'm sure my father knew the numbers. His main concern was the Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer system, which is under our part of the Midwest.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Marcus,
This response has two parts.
Part 1
Let me add another story about my father's conviction about the importance for conservation, which would later be called environmentalism. Before I tell the story, you'll need a little background.
The family business in that small Iowa town was a combination hardware store and heating installation and tinsmith shop. My paternal grandfather founded and ran the hardware store, in the back of which and later under which, was a full tinsmith shop that my father and uncle ran. They would drive to a farmhouse that needed a new heating system, measure everything, and then return to the tinsmith shop and hand-fabricate all of the ductwork.
In the shop, we got deliveries of sheets of tin and then my dad and uncle would cut, bend, and crimp all of those sheets into ducts with just the right dimensions for that particular farmhouse. Boutique tinsmithing, you might say.
So for many years that was how the dual business ran, Grandpa and Grandma in the store and my uncle and father doing the heating installation and tinsmithing. My uncle and dad, as you can imagine, were master tinsmiths. But in the sixties and into the seventies, heating companies began mass-producing ductwork that priced out the hand-fabricated ductwork that my father and uncle made. Also, houses were more uniform in design, so it was easier just to use the mass-produced ductwork.
In the sixties, when I was a teenager, I was finally strong enough to help my dad and uncle in the tinsmith shop. To bend sheet metal, you use what is called a brake, a huge hand-operated bender that requires strength and teamwork with the guy on the other end of the brake. You need to bend quickly but with lots of force. So I got to participate in the end of that part of the business.
But there was a problem. My uncle and dad had large families to feed and clothe, my uncle with seven children and my father with eight. And the tinsmith shop just wasn't bringing in enough money. So my uncle and dad had to have a talk with Grandpa. They told him they needed to move into and enlarge the hardware business. I recall that my Grandpa wasn't too happy about it, but he reluctantly agreed.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Marcus,
Part 2
With my uncle and father in the hardware store and Grandpa now tending to his huge vegetable garden, the family store was greatly expanded and became, in a way, a proto-mall. You could find anything in this so-called hardware store. Lynnette and Lee may remember stores like that if they're old enough.
On Friday nights, farm families would come to town to do basic shopping. Ma and Pa would send the kids to the movie theater across the street and then spend a couple hours in our store shopping for the week. I grew up in the store, assembling all the bikes, trikes, and wheelbarrows. Also running the register and helping customers.
All of the local construction companies had accounts with our store. They'd come in and just say put it on the account and they’d pay at the end of the month. We had a huge wall of bins with every type of nail and screw and bolt you'd ever want. Under the floor we had huge rolls of rope. My uncle and dad had cut small holes in the floor and to buy rope, we'd just grab the end of the rope and walk it to the other end of the store, looking at the marks for length on the floor itself. Very cool. You want a shotgun? No problem. You want a new casserole dish? We got it. We want a new toy for you child? Hell, we got a basement full of toys. That store was jam-packed with stuff.
Okay, now I can get to the story. All of those items delivered to us on tractor-trailers arriving from Chicago came in packages—most of them using a combination of cardboard and Styrofoam and some plastic. The packaging drove my dad nuts. It was too much and mostly unnecessary. As you can imagine, my father made sure that everything that could be recycled was recycled. The cardboard was easy. We broke down all of the boxes, stacked them, bound them, and then took them one of the first places starting to re-use cardboard. But what about the Styrofoam? Dad kept collecting bags of it while researching what to do. Then he discovered that he could use it to insulate a home. You needed to smash the Styrofoam into pieces and then treat it to make it inflammable. So that’s what we did. If I remember correctly, I think dad just used the mulcher for the garden to grind up the pieces of Styrofoam.
Now remember, we're talking late Sixties, early Seventies. No one is even thinking about increasing the insulation in their homes. That would come much later. But I recall a whole span of weeks one fall when my dad and I re-insulated our house using bags and bags of those ground-up Styrofoam pieces and rolls of regular insulation. If any of you have done any insulating, you'll know that those small pieces of insulation get everywhere on your body. I scratched a lot that fall.
But that winter, with the house now far better insulated, we were able to use far less fuel to heat the house.
So that's a positive spin, I believe, on just one of my father's ways of being a more responsible member of society, someone really concerned about the environment and not just spouting trendy words and phrases about how much they care about the environment.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Lynnette and Lee,
Happy Thanksgiving to both of you. Perhaps, like me, you have much to be thankful for on this day. Personally, not politically. Please set aside politics for one day. Let's count our blessings.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Thank you, Jeffrey.
Happy Thanksgiving to you too!
This was somehow pulled from the web but not bf it was archived:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201126163323/https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
Corona is just another hoax. It’s not much more dangerous than the seasonal flu and no more people are dying than in a normal year. Really old and really unhealthy people may die from it, just like from the flu. Not an argument for total shutdown.
And, you have to ask yourselves, why was that article pulled and by whom?
Post a Comment