Wednesday, June 24, 2020

June Roses

41 comments:

  1. From the Washington Post:

    Donna Edwards: It doesn’t matter which woman Joe Biden picks as his running mate [Click] The title of the column, in a way, contradicts its thesis: that the important point is how well Biden and his VP can work as a team—which none of us can know. Point well taken.

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  2. California urges people to wear masks amid record Covid-19 hospitalizations [Click] This article shows that things are not as bad as they might sound. And here is another presentation of death rates per 100K residents:
    Coronavirus map of the US: latest cases state by state [Click]

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  3. Court Panel Orders Judge to Dismiss Michael Flynn Case [Click] I wonder if the judge will call for a hearing by the full court.

    Jacksonville voters don’t want the Republican National Committee’s convention to come to town [Click]

    Biden Takes Dominant Lead Nationally [Click] “Dominant” is nice, but there is still plenty of time for improvement.

    At Trump’s megachurch phoenix rally no temperature checks, almost no masks, no social distancing. [Click] Sounds like a coronavirus incubator to me.

    Whole Foods house brand bottled water contains has relatively high levels of arsenic. [Click] Barely within FDA limits, at least three times as much as other brands. Oopsie…

    California weighs overturning 24-year ban on affirmative action [Click] It would require a ballot initiative, which is a heavy lift.

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    1. In re "Biden Takes Dominant Lead Nationally:"

      "...the most important finding may be that 50% of voters have a 'very unfavorable' impression of Trump, while just 27% of voters have a 'very unfavorable' impression of Biden."

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  4. NY, NJ & CT Governors Announce Quarantine for Visitors [Click] from Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington.

    What If I Told You Joe Biden Is Actually Running a Great Campaign? [Click]

    Trump’s Smoke-Him-Out Strategy [Click] I should argue that Trump does not do strategy, only tactics.

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  5. About fifteen minutes ago we felt a small (where we are) earthquake. It seems to have been centered near Lone Pine, on the far side of the Sierra Nevada. There was a series of weak evident foreshocks, followed by one of magnitude 5.8. Of course that could be a foreshock of a large quake. If so, I will let you know.

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    1. Yikes! I will keep an eye on the USGS site today, Alan!
      Hoping that was the last of it. Do take care. ❤️

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    2. It wasn't even a dish-rattler for us. Despite the fact that there are no known earthquake faults in this area and damaging earthquakes are all but unknown (the Fort Tejon quake in 1857 damaged some chimneys in Fresno), our house was built to the same standard as ones in the San Francisco Bay Area. Some of the custom made iron pieces in the framing were really impressive. (We have a large laminated beam over a garage door that the engineer dealt with.) And our house is built on some of the thickest, hardest hardpan in the area. Not to worry.

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    3. (One more reason to be happy staying home, Alan.)

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    1. "Kosovo President Hashim Thaci indicted on war crimes charges ahead of planned White House meeting"


      Sounds right up DT's alley, to be honest.

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  7. OHIO: As of Wednesday afternoon, there have been at least 46,759 confirmed or probable cases in the state, 2,755 deaths, and 7,447 hospitalizations, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

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  8. VT: 1184/ 56 (+20😳/ 0)
    198 active/ 0 x 7 days
    Recovered: 930 (+3)
    In Hospital = 4 (+2)
    Tests 59,860 (only +532)

    Interesting that this week we have had the least amount of per day testing, and we're finding higher numbers of cases.

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  9. From politicalwire.com:

    A new Public Policy Polling survey in North Carolina finds Joe Biden leading Donald Trump in the presidential race, 48% to 46%. In the U.S. Senate race, Cal Cunningham (D) leads Sen. Thom Tillis (R), 44% to 40%.

    A new Quinnipiac poll in Ohio finds Joe Biden leading Donald Trump in the presidential race, 46% to 45%. Said pollster Tim Malloy: “You have to go back 60 years to find an election where Ohio was not a lynchpin or a pathway to the presidency. That is why this very close horse race is so deeply consequential. The mantra in the backrooms of GOP and Democratic campaign headquarters has to be… ‘Don’t lose Ohio!'”

    A new Marquette Law School Poll in Wisconsin finds Joe Biden widening his lead over Donald Trump, 49% to 41%. In early May, it was Biden 46% to 43%.

    Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs told the Jackson Free Press that residents should prepare for an overwhelmed hospital system in which basic emergency care will be rationed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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  10. From politicalwire.com:

    A new Public Policy Polling survey in North Carolina finds Joe Biden leading Donald Trump in the presidential race, 48% to 46%. In the U.S. Senate race, Cal Cunningham (D) leads Sen. Thom Tillis (R), 44% to 40%.

    A new Quinnipiac poll in Ohio finds Joe Biden leading Donald Trump in the presidential race, 46% to 45%. Said pollster Tim Malloy: “You have to go back 60 years to find an election where Ohio was not a lynchpin or a pathway to the presidency. That is why this very close horse race is so deeply consequential. The mantra in the backrooms of GOP and Democratic campaign headquarters has to be… ‘Don’t lose Ohio!'”

    A new Marquette Law School Poll in Wisconsin finds Joe Biden widening his lead over Donald Trump, 49% to 41%. In early May, it was Biden 46% to 43%.

    Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs told the Jackson Free Press that residents should prepare for an overwhelmed hospital system in which basic emergency care will be rationed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

    Washington Post:
    The shift of the coronavirus to primarily red states is complete — but it’s not that simple [Click] In fact, it is downright complicated.

    That's all for now. Sorry for the overdose.

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  11. Re the last post on the last thread: Don't know if it's cynicism or superstition, or maybe simple caution, but words like "landslide" make me nervous. Wasn't that what they said about Clinton about this time in '16? Look how well that worked out.

    However, that does remind me that a couple days ago People for the American Way wanted me to take a survey, choosing who I would like to see as Biden's running mate. Abrams was at the top of the list, but scrolling down, I came across Tammy Duckworth. Hadn't heard she was in the running. Now, that would be quite something: A woman, as he has apparently committed to, a veteran, a non Anglo and a person with a pretty visible disability. She's also a senator of long enough standing to be respected and to know how Congress works. Not to mention, she says what she thinks and has no patience with Capt. Bone Spurs, as she calls Trump. I might be more inclined to vote for Biden if it meant voting for Duckworth and thereby lining her up for a presidential run in '24. She'd be a bigger draw for me than Abrams. Imagine having a genuine war hero in the White House again instead of all these damned draft dodgers. Not, of course, that Obama was old enough to be a draft dodger, but Trump, Dubya and Clinton all were. The last veteran to be president was Bush 41. And if we could have a female vet, that would be all the better. Oh well, a girl can dream, I guess.

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    1. I am also naturally hesitant to use the word "landslide" before the fact, but if one sees a large gray quadruped with a prehensile proboscis hastening directly toward oneself, it might be in order to yell "Elephant!" We have been so long conditioned to close presidential elections that we tend to think they are the only practical possibility. But they do occur.

      I agree that Duckworth is well worth consideration as VP. Her command experience would IMO be a good substitute for political executive experience.

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    2. P.S.: As memory serves me, Duckworth referred to DT as "Cadet" Bonespurs rather than "Captain" Bonespurs.

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    3. I am very, very, very tired of all these fundraising letters asking me to tell them who my choice for VP is. It isn't, and shouldn't be, up to me. But the Tribune has mentioned that Duckworth is in the running (I passed along that into a few weeks ago) and, as an Illinoisan I would be happy with that.

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    4. And incidentally, Clinton couldn't be a draft dodger because she wasn't eligible for the draft. She could theoretically have volunteered, but that would have been unusual at the time.

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    5. Bill--surely the reference was to Bill Clinton.

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    6. As for those surveys asking me who (among the presented alternatives) I favor for VP (and send some money), I just trash them. Usually they show up in my suspect mail folder, so a couple of keystrokes takes care of the lot. One of my listservs has been very busy on account of covid-19; on heavy days I select the whole page, unselect the few I want, and trash the rest.

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    7. Oops--several replies above I meant to say that landslide elections do occur. I should be most surprised to ever again see anything on the scale of the reelection of Nixon, however.

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  12. Bill—I thought you might find this interesting.
    COVID-19 autopsy discoveries [Click] Egad—circulating megakaryocytes. For others—those are the cells, almost never seen outside the bone marrow, which fragment to produce platelets.

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  13. “A judge has ruled that Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) has no right to sue Twitter over statements made by a fake Internet cow, someone parodying his mother and a Republican strategist.” the Fresno Bee reports.

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  14. The De­mo­c­ra­tic Na­tional Com­mit­tee said that Joe Biden will ac­cept the pres­i­den­tial nom­i­na­tion in Mil­wau­kee, but the party will urge del­e­gates to skip the sum­mer con­ven­tion be­cause of coro­n­avirus con­cerns, the Wall Street Journal reports.

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  15. The Trump campaign has named Hogan Gidley as its new press secretary, replacing Kayleigh McEnany, who became the White House press secretary in April, CBS News reports.

    Gidley is currently the principal deputy press secretary at the White House.

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  16. Replies
    1. That's where my ring was, waiting to be repaired. I am so glad I agreed to have them remake the ring from scratch (in Toronto)! I'd still be waiting!

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  17. Jon Stuart is on Colbert tonight!

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