Sunday, June 07, 2020

Pansy


46 comments:

  1. Some of our peaches are ripening, and our Santa Rosa plums are developing color.

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    1. I am perhaps more sympathetic than most to people frustrated by the legalities of voter residency. I did not vote in the 1960 election, the first presidential election for which I was eligible, because my legal voting residence would have been Chicago --- where I had not lived for a year and a half and to which I had no intention of returning. I also remember the tap dancing about whether Rahm Emanuel was a legal Chicago resident when he first ran for mayor.

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    2. Absentee voting was very unusual in those days. My father failed to vote only once--Nov. 5th, 1940--because that was the day my brother, his first child, was born. So far I have not missed a single election since I turned 21, despite having moved here and there over the years. Back in the day, when I voted in person, I tried to be the first in my precinct to vote, and often came close. Twenty-five years ago we moved into a 100% vote by mail precinct--OK in California for maybe 30 years or so as an economy for precincts that are small, remote, or difficult to staff. Having done it for so long, I think of it as perfectly normal. Granted that hand-counting the ballots is far more laborious than machine counting, it got the job done about as fast. A while back I was reading an interview with a fellow from a mail ballot counting machine company, and he said there was little time left to order the equipment that would be needed for a big increase in mail ballots this coming November.

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    3. I'm not sure it came across that I had no problem with voting absentee. The problem was that the only place I could send my vote was one I had absolutely no current or (as far as I knew) future connection to. I went to college in Chicago and lived there another three years, but all that was in the past.

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    4. I probably should add that I _would_ have voted had I been able to do so from my mother's address in California, since I intended to join her following my release from active duty. That intention established a connection that didn't exist with Chicago.

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    1. Speaking of liars, I seem to recall a certain Secretary of State peddling stories about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and alliance with Al Qaeda; and insisting that when he addressed the UN Security Council Picasso's Guernica be covered up. Granted that he has apologized, said he was sorry and that he was deceived, the streets were full of people who saw it was rubbish. But he probably has some influence.

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    2. Yes, Colin Powell is no beacon of virtue, but I'll take all the anti-trump people I can get.

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    3. It's a good indicator of where we are...!

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  4. A new EPIC-MRA poll in Michigan finds Joe Biden leading Donald Trump in the presidential race, 53% to 41% with 6% undecided.
    In the U.S. Senate race, Sen. Gary Peters (D) leads challenger John James, 51% to 36%.

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  5. Quote of the Day
    June 7, 2020 By Taegan Goddard

    “What he actually did — as you saw for the remaining days — was turn out more people and more people who were there for peaceful protests.”

    — Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, telling ABC News that President Trump’s actions made the protests against police violence bigger.

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  6. A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds Joe Biden leading Donald Trump in the presidential race nationally, 49% to 42%.

    By an 11-point margin, more Americans want a Democrat-controlled Congress than one controlled by Republicans.

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  7. VT Sun: 1063/55 (+16/ 0)
    118 known active cases
    One death in past month
    Recovered: 890 (+2)
    In Hospital 1 ( 0)
    Tests 41,218 (+1135)

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  8. America’s Built-in Protection Against Bad Leadership [Click] “For all its failures, the U.S. has structural advantages over rival powers—and will come out of the pandemic even stronger.” This might seem too optimistic by half, but an argument for optimism is not unwelcome.

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  9. The Enormous Scale of This Movement [Click] “The nationwide demonstrations could carry on for days or weeks—maybe even through November.” November? That would certainly be interesting...

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  10. The Lessons of 1884 [Click] “When Grover Cleveland clinched the Democratic nomination and faced an allegation of misconduct, he wrote up a new political playbook.”

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  11. Biden to Meet With George Floyd’s Family in Houston [Click]

    Having three memorial services for Mr. Floyd in different parts of the country reminds me of the progress of President Lincoln’s funeral train. [Click]

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    1. Gee, Alan, I thought you were way younger than Lincoln! 😉

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  12. America Is Giving Up on the Pandemic [Click] “Businesses are reopening. Protests are erupting nationwide. But the virus isn’t done with us.” Trump will try to blame it on anyone but himself; I expect that people will think what happened on his watch is his responsibility.

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    1. The fundamental point is absolutely on target, but this is another of the articles that irritate me by dividing everything into the greater NYC area ("Northeast") and "the rest of the country." As of yesterday, Illinois had 975 new cases. That's certainly more than their arbitrary line of 400 but far below the 2000+ at the mid-May peak. Numbers are coming down faster than I expected. Of course, it remains to be seen what effect the protests, the current limited reopening, or spill-over from anything-goes-Wisconsin will have.

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  13. Bird’s Eye View of Protests Across the U.S. and Around the World [Click] You don’t have enough tear gas or bullets to stop this, Donnie. It's time to head for your bolt hole. (Not that I expect you have or ever had enough sense to ready a bolt hole.)

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    1. Wow! Those pictures are amazing. I'm especially moved to see other countries standing against our violent police.

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    2. Y'know, it really gives me hope that the world gets it that it's not Americans but our moronic leadership that is the problem. I feel like they are cheering us on for finally growing a spine and standing up.

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  14. George Floyd GoFundMe accounts approaching sixteen million dollars.

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    1. And--wait for it--the average donation IS.....$27.

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    2. I have noticed the same phenomenon elsewhere; $27 seems often to be about the average of what large numbers of people will contribute.

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  15. OHIO: As of Sunday afternoon, there have been at least 38,476 confirmed or probable cases in the state, 2,377 deaths, and 6,497 hospitalizations, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

    Sorry I'm late with the info today.

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  16. Why K-pop Fans Are No Longer Posting About K-pop [Click] “Twitter fan accounts are organizing to support the protests, often before the celebrities they love say a word.” Wow! Culturally deprived old fogey that I am, I don’t completely understand this at the first reading (if indeed I ever will), but it is certainly interesting. Sounds like it is basically a distributed denial of service attack.

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  17. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/07/politics/donald-trump-leadership/index.html

    "Trump makes self-aggrandizement his constant theme, telling Americans "I alone can fix it" and publicly thanking himself for positive developments. Unerringly, he responds to setbacks on coronavirus, civil unrest and anything else by blaming others."

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    1. "In a president, character is everything," wrote the renowned speechwriter Peggy Noonan. And therein lies President Donald Trump's inability to meet this American moment." Also from the CNN article I linked above.

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  18. The billionaire cofounder of Home Depot plans on donating up to 90% of his $5.9 billion fortune, and Trump's 2020 campaign will be one of the beneficiaries
    https://www.businessinsider.com/home-depot-bernie-marcus-donate-fortune-trump-2019-7?fbclid=IwAR1TAbzOaskCf8ZaKjiL8RE3Z0Ef3zvA05iZK4bdojBqvHXCUipQmVmkxwc

    7 Companies You Should Renounce If You Support Black Lives Matter
    https://www.ccn.com/7-companies-you-should-renounce-if-you-support-black-lives-matter/

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    1. The CEO of Lowe's is African American and Lowe's has donated $25million to minority businesses.

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    2. Thanks for the information, listener. I had thought Lowe's was a division of Walmart. Checking up, that is Sam's Club. Here they are in almost the same location, and they both have white on blue signage.

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