Friday, November 02, 2018

4: All Souls Day

                                                                                                                                                                                                  ©iStockphoto.com/rzelich

13 comments:

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    1. Wow! Lots of interesting links from that article, too. The article about gene flow appearing to be only from neanderthals to modern humans (which I had suspected from previous reportage) raises the question of why it might be so. It occurs to me that a male neanderthal might more easily have had his way with a modern human woman than the other way around because of mismatched size and strength.

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    2. I don't suppose that there is any evidence that Ms Neanderthal was less likely than Mr. Neanderthal to help provide the occasional wooly rhinoceros for the larder.

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    3. I'm proud to have 301 Neanderthal variants. (More than 86% of people who have utilized 23andMe.)

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  2. Democrats Are Avoiding Bill Clinton [Click]

    Congress Thinks Voters Are More Conservative Than They Actually Are [Click] Not news, but nice to see it formally confirmed.

    A Hamstrung President [Click] Worth quoting at length for the nice turns of phrase [chortle]. (Which raises the question in my mind of whether there might be an emoji for chortling, or some acronym, e.g. CWG “chortling with glee.” And what is the etymology of “chortle” anyway? Gotta consult Webster.) Webster says it is most likely a portmanteau of “chuckle” and “snort.” Works for me.

    Playbook: “One constant during Trump’s presidency is that he’s seemed surprised by the constraints of the office. He came in as the CEO of a family real estate empire, who had to learn to deal with Congress, congressional leaders and the guardrails around the executive branch.”

    “If Democrats take the House, Trump will be further shackled. The policy preferences he’s enumerating at the moment — new asylum policies, a militarized southern border and a new tax bill — would likely go up in smoke in divided government. There are serious concerns at the top of the GOP food chain that the White House is not fully attuned to this reality.”
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    The VA Shadow Rulers’ Signature Program Is ‘Trending Towards Red’ [Click] Oh, boy—having been through hospital and wider healthcare systems software transitions, I can clearly hear the alarm bells. Time to deep-six this turkey—but it’s being cooked up by Dear Leader’s pals. What could possibly go wrong? Besides everything…

    Elizabeth Warren Test-Drives Her Presidential Campaign [Click] Surprisingly low turnouts.

    The Incredible Shrinking Planet [Click] Mercury has shriveled over billions of years, and it’s got the landforms to prove it.

    Trump’s attempt to overturn the Obama administrations’s auto fuel efficiency rules appears doomed. [Click] CWG!

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    1. Mercury is shrinking? I never knew that. Fascinating!

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  3. I've been avoiding Bill Clinton since before his foolishness killed Al Gore's chances. Nice to hear that the Dems are evolving.

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    1. Yes, I have never forgiven him for Blue Dogs, NAFTA, The Third Way. He steered the Democratic Party right into Republican-lite. And Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Tom Perez are just more of the same old wishy-washy don't rock the boat blandness.

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    2. Susan, last night I was watching some news show or other in which the interviewer was asking some guy, who is some Democrat or other, about rhetoric. He said that DT has many phrases that seem to strike a chord with his base and are memorable. He asked if the Dems can counter with some memorable word or words of their own. At which the guy just rambled on and after the momentum was quite lost kind of ended with "When they go low, we go vote." What a sad attempt! I wished Howard Dean had had the handling of that moment.

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  4. Has anyone else here watched Upstart Crow or The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel? Both are great comic relief!!

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  5. It's a sad commentary, and I hope it isn't so, but I can't help but wonder if the gunman who attacked the yoga studio in Tallahassee was some sort of violent radical "christian."

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