Monday, November 14, 2016

SUPERMOON

 The November SuperMoon will be 14% larger + 30% brighter than usual, and the most amazing since 1948. Hoping for good weather.



"The second in a triad of supermoons—when the full moon makes a close approach to Earth—will rise in the east after sunset. While the last three months of 2016 each boast a supermoon, this month’s full moon will be the largest and closest to 
Earth since 1948, making it a truly beautiful sight to behold."

20 comments:

  1. The moon was gorgeous last night, hope I catch it tonight. My timing of when I retire isn't always uniform.

    "She is dismissive to the extreme of anyone who disagrees with her or challenges her and she's really big on calling people names."

    Susan, you described my sister. Maybe the similarities partly explain her fervent, almost fanatic, support of Clinton.

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  2. Here is something potentially VERY good:

    The Lawsuit That Could Save the Planet [Click] I sent e-mails to the President, Vice President and Attorney General's office urging them to immediately settle this case.

    --Alan

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    1. Alan, wouldn't it be better to wait and force the Trump admin. to defend?

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  3. Alexander Hamilton described the framers' view of how electors would be chosen, "A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated [tasks]."[26] The founders assumed this would take place district by district. That plan was carried out by many states until the 1880s. For example, in Massachusetts in 1820, the rule stated "the people shall vote by ballot, on which shall be designated who is voted for as an Elector for the district."[27] In other words, the people did not place the name of a candidate for a president on the ballot, instead they voted for their local elector, whom they trusted later to cast a responsible vote for president.

    Some states reasoned that the favorite presidential candidate among the people in their state would have a much better chance if all of the electors selected by their state were sure to vote the same way – a "general ticket" of electors pledged to a party candidate.[28] So the slate of electors chosen by the state were no longer free agents, independent thinkers, or deliberative representatives. They became "voluntary party lackeys and intellectual non-entities."[29] Once one state took that strategy, the others felt compelled to follow suit in order to compete for the strongest influence on the election.[28]

    When James Madison and Hamilton, two of the most important architects of the Electoral College, saw this strategy being taken by some states, they protested strongly. Madison and Hamilton both made it clear this approach violated the spirit of the Constitution. According to Hamilton, the selection of the president should be "made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station [of president]."[26] According to Hamilton, the electors were to analyze the list of potential presidents and select the best one. He also used the term "deliberate." Hamilton considered a pre-pledged elector to violate the spirit of Article II of the Constitution insofar as such electors could make no "analysis" or "deliberate" concerning the candidates. Madison agreed entirely, saying that when the Constitution was written, all of its authors assumed individual electors would be elected in their districts and it was inconceivable a "general ticket" of electors dictated by a state would supplant the concept. Madison wrote to George Hay,

    The district mode was mostly, if not exclusively in view when the Constitution was framed and adopted; & was exchanged for the general ticket [many years later].[30]

    The founders assumed that electors would be elected by the citizens of their district and that elector was to be free to analyze and deliberate regarding who is best suited to be president.

    Madison and Hamilton were so upset by what they saw as a distortion of the framers’ original intent that they advocated for a constitutional amendment to prevent anything other than the district plan: "the election of Presidential Electors by districts, is an amendment very proper to be brought forward," Madison told George Hay in 1823.[30] Hamilton went further. He actually drafted an amendment to the Constitution mandating the district plan for selecting electors.[31]

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  4. Another reason for the Electoral College was the difficulty of tallying the vote in the days when ballot boxes had to be delivered on horseback, or at best by wagon. Then the results had to be delivered the same way. The process was slow and uncertain; sometimes the ballot boxes were stolen, and it was deemed necessary to send both real and dummy ballot boxes in hopes that the real one would get through. By 1860 the telegraph had made communication of results much faster--nearly as fast as today, even in the South, where infrastructure development lagged.

    Alan

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  5. Just been wondering HOW you deport 3 million people? How many planes, railroad cars, ships, trucks does it take? How do you get the designated mother country to agree to take these people in? Do you just fly into the airport, open the cargo doors, and push them out and fly off before they can stop you.

    They had almost 800 at Gitmo. Sixty remain as of October 16. . . .

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    1. Glanced at a headline today or yesterday that Trump's election has frightened the remaining prisoners at Gitmo. Should bloody well think so, poor devils! I'd rather not think about what he's going to do to them when he gets around to them.

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    2. as to transport, what a pity the architects of similar programs for the Third Reich aren't around to give Grump some helpful suggestions on that point . :P

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  6. "More than six-in-10 Americans, 62 percent, say Trump’s administration will “reduce unemployment and create new jobs,” and 60 percent say Trump will “improve the economy.”"

    I hope they're right, but I won't be holding my breath.


    Poll: Americans believe Trump can bring prosperity, skeptical he can bring peace
    - Click

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    1. Well, they're in for a big shock. He's going to do the same thing the rich always do. Step on the poor and funnel money to the rich.

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  7. From FB:

    U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders
    56 mins ·

    It’s not just this election where it is still hard to believe that Trump won. But Republicans control the Senate. They control the House. They have done phenomenally well over the past eight years in state legislatures around the country, in governor races. And people are asking: How does it happen that a political party which wants to give tax breaks to billionaires, which nobody supports; which wants to cut programs for working people; wants to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; many of whose members do not even believe in the reality of climate change – how in God’s name do these guys win elections? Well, the Democratic leadership of today hasn’t figured this out. It is time for profound change.
    Love

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    1. Back around 10th grade or so I perused the copy of Mein Kampf in the school library. (Also Mallory's Le Mort de Arthur.) The one snippet that stuck in my mind was the dictum that if you tell people enough lies often enough they are sure to believe some of them.

      Alan

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  8. "Dunn says she told him they had a right to protest. She says he replied if she didn't believe what he believed, his practice wasn't for her and she needed to go. So she left."

    Patient Says Pro-Trump Doctor Kicked Her Out Over Disagreement - Click

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    1. "You have not converted a man because you have silenced him" - John Morley

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  9. So, there it is. In keeping with this HORRIBLE political season:

    The National Nurse legislation is not going to pass this session. Instead, the staff of the bill's chief sponsor (Sen. Merkley) has told Bernie's staff that they need to do another revision and will see about reintroducing it next session.

    After 12 YEARS of rewrites and fine tunings on this bill, which requires no appropriation, this new turning seems to me little more than a stall tactic. I find I am left with little faith in the legislative system to bring this worthy, bipartisan bill to fruition.

    I’m heartbroken. Truly, I don’t even know what is left to say. I have no faith in the coming Administration, and anticipate no priority for healthcare legislation and support for nurses. So, I do not see how the bill could possibly fare well going forward.

    I’m not sure I even want our precious bill and hard effort dirtied by being passed by that Administration and signed by that hand. We fought the good fight and the system itself is the problem. The more I read the Constitution and see what the Founders intended, the more I recognise how warped and rotten our governing system has become.

    I am so immensely proud of all that Nurse Teri and the Advocacy Team crafted, offered and worked for!! It is still good and wise and right. The time we are in makes it impossible. But it doesn’t make what we did wrong...!

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  10. Also, as of last Friday, Howard is no longer affiliated with DFA. Jim is still there.

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    1. Such strange, unwanted times.

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    2. I would say that is fitting as Howard has demonstrated he doesn't know shit about Democracy.

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