Category — Uncategorized

I’m thinking about how to write about Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Kathryn Harris, the 2000 election in Florida, the 2008 Democratic primary, and why I have never voted for Barack Obama, and will never vote for Hillary Clinton.

I started voting for Democrats in 1964. Unfortunately the party hasn’t nominated any Democrats lately.

As long as the Greens will nominate real liberals or progressives I will vote Green. I’m here and I vote in every election. Give me someone I can vote for in good conscience and I will do it.

Now all they have to do is figure out how to pay for it, because Scotland will probably split off thanks to this vote.

The BBC has extensive coverage including: “How do I tell the cats?” – the world reacts to #Brexit online. Edward Snowden noted before the count was completed: “No matter the outcome,#Brexit polls demonstrate how quickly half of any population can be conviced to vote against itself. Quite a lesson.” Abe Lincoln put it this way: “You can fool all of the people some of the time; some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”

My favorite response was from the Canadian highlighting the British Empire.

Six ways Brexit could hit Americans. Short term a good time for a vacation in Britain, but Brits probably won’t visit the US because the Pound is falling.

The vote is setting off a massacre of the leaders of political parties, as it should. What kind of fool does something like this to themselves?

Family and neighbors always seem to describe murderers as quiet people, nothing out of the ordinary.

I remember Thomas Mair’s Brother saying he was non-violent and non-political and then he appeared in court:

The man accused of shooting and stabbing British MP Jo Cox to death in a brutal street attack ranted against “traitors” during a brief court appearance on Saturday.

“Death to traitors, freedom for Britain,” 52-year-old Thomas Mair said when asked to give his name in Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London, the Press Association reported.

To be fair, he did let his subscription to the South African neo-Nazi periodical lapse, but he still had the books he bought from the US neo-Nazis and other Nazi mementos in his house. Then there is the totally illegal firearm and large hunting knife. The facts don’t seem to coincide with non-violence or non-political.

It should also be noted that Mr. Mair did help neighbors weed their gardens when not planning to murder Members of Parliament.

More rain down here, but the nasty stuff is about 100 miles inland along the northern Gulf Coast.

The Belgians are leaning towards the possibility that the real target of the Brussels attacks was the Prime Minister. The majority of the people involved in the Paris & Brussels attacks seem to have met at school and/or prison. The Belgian authorities have decided to extradite Salah Abdeslam to France and concentrate on the other members of the Brussels gang.

As I continue to use it, I get more and more annoyed with Windows 10. It has all of the disadvantages of IOS, and none of the features. They have even managed to screw up Solitaire …

This cycle it has a theme song. What has floated to the top of the Republican pot of candidates is not the cream, but the scum.

Some people have just noticed that Joe Scarborough is not an unbiased reporter of facts. As a local (to me) attorney, my former Congresscritter, and current talking head, there has never been any indication of any kind of unbiased or informed individual in his resume, and I’m not even going to talk about the dead intern in his office. Ignore him and he might quit and move. It worked for his first marriage and Congressional career… 😈

Today is Queen Elizabeth’s 89^th birthday, but it won’t be officially celebrated until June.

It was cool today after the cold front that has been stalled in the area and responsible for over a week of rain finally made its way through. The temperature is expected to bounce back tomorrow which will make my cats happy. I put the heater away, so last night was not pleasant for them.

Sydney and New South Wales Australia are being mugged by an intense low pressure system that has caused flooding and winds of over 60mph. While not an ‘official’ tropical storm, the effects are the same with major damage in the area.

As was suggested a couple of days ago, the Chinese icebreaker, Snow Dragon, may be trapped in the ice.

The rescue of the passengers from the Russian research vessel, Akademik Shokalskiy, isn’t over yet. The Australian icebreaker, Aurora Australis, is standing by to render assistance to the Chinese vessel.

There is a higher than normal tide expected today, and that might break up the ice enough for the Snow Dragon to break free. If it remains stuck, it may have to await the arrival of the US Coast Guard’s heavy icebreaker, Polar Star.

Note that the eastern half of the US can understand about the conditions in the Antarctic this morning, as freezing temperatures are being experienced from the North Pole down to the Gulf of Mexico. Montana is warmer than the Florida Panhandle this morning.

The BBC reports that the Antarctic rescue of Akademik Shokalskiy ship was completed.

There was a break in the weather and the passengers were transferred by the helicopter of the Chinese Snow Dragon from an ice floe by the stranded ship to another ice floe where they boarded a boat that took them to the Aurora Australis.

The crew stayed on the Akademik Shokalskiy, awaiting a heavy icebreaker or weather change to free the ship.

The BBC is reporting that Rescue for Antarctic ice-bound ship under threat

A rescue mission for a ship trapped in ice in Antarctica is under threat as reports have emerged that one of the assisting vessels may itself be stuck.

Fifty-two passengers and four crew members were due to be evacuated by helicopter from China’s Xue Long ship as soon as conditions allowed.

However, the Xue Long has barely moved in a day and may be stuck in the ice.

If you don’t keep moving in polar waters, the ice will collect around you. The Snow Dragon [Xue Long] has the helicopter that was to be used in the attempt to remove the passengers and crew from the Russian vessel, and may have held position too long hoping to launch its helicopter.

Now it looks like they are going to have to await the arrival of the US Coast Guard heavy icebreaker, Polar Star to break through the ice pack.

Since Christmas Australian researchers have been stuck in pack ice in the Antarctic. The way things are going they may be there for some time.

The researchers are aboard the Russian research ship, Academic Shokalskiy, which was designed for polar exploration, so they are in no immediate danger, but the first attempt at a rescue by the Chinese icebreaker, Snow Dragon, failed as the ice was too thick for the vessel to clear a path.

The BBC reports that:

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is coordinating the rescue, confirmed that a French vessel had also failed to penetrate the ice.

The agency said another boat, the Aurora Australis, was on its way to the Russian vessel and expected to arrive on Sunday.

It is high summer in the Antarctic, so the temperatures are relatively benign, but massive blocks of ice break off from the ice pack and are blown by the wind to form the structures that have entrapped the research vessel.

And I have been busy with Real Life™, as happens from time to time. It is the curse of the blogging class.

The BBC mentioned something I heard in the car – Ukraine violence: US considers sanctions. When I heard the NPR report my first reaction was what makes this any different than what the NYPD did to the Occupy movement in New York? It is hypocrisy to talk about the right to assemble and demonstrate in Kiev after you have ignored it in NYC, Oakland, et al. If you are going to impose sanctions, what about Bahrain?

CNN covered the Mandela memorial ‘selfie’:

Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt made headlines after snapping a selfie of herself nestled in between UK Prime Minister David Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama at Mandela’s memorial service on Tuesday.

From the picture accompanying the article I got the impression that Zero was going to hear about his conduct from his wife.

The Repubs are venting their rage over Zero shaking hands with Raul Castro. Mr. Mandela had good relations with Cuba and support from the Castros, so it would have been rather churlish not to shake hands.

I guess Zero should have taken lessons on how to conduct himself at solemn events from a Republican.

Men never do evil so completely or cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. – Blaise Pascal¹

Congresscritter Devin Nunes (R-CA 22) called his follow House Republicans who shut down the government over Obamacare: “Lemmings with suicide vests”. Tonight on All In with Chris Hayes there was a segment called GOP acting like ‘lemmings with suicide vests’ with two Republicans who were insiders in government for many years that is quite informative.

Via Steve Bates, Paul Krugman wonders:

Coming back to the class warfare issue: my working theory is that wealthy individuals bought themselves a radical right party, believing — correctly — that it would cut their taxes and remove regulations, but failed to realize that eventually the craziness would take on a life of its own, and that the monster they created would turn on its creators as well as the little people.

And nobody knows how it ends.

I see two possible solutions. In the first the townspeople trap the creature and its creator in the castle and burn it down. The second solution goes back a 150 years when it was rooted out with blood and gunpowder.

This isn’t going to end quickly, we are too close to the debt ceiling, so they are just going to stonewall until they gain that leverage to the shutdown. This is a crusade for the ‘lemmings’ against those they perceive are agents of evil, so there will be no compromise.

1. Via Kryten in comments.

This is the BBC’s version of the big story: Pope Francis: Who am I to judge gay people? That will probably get him knocked off DonoWho’s Christmas card list.

The ABC notes that the Pope’s attitude is not shared by Vladimir Putin.

In Florida news, it’s a good thing that people aren’t using their grills in the rain, because a major Blue Rhino propane facility is busy exploding. A lot of people use the Blue Rhino tank swap systems to fuel their propane needs. People don’t know, or forget that unlike natural gas, propane is heavier than air. This is usually discovered when people store their grills in the garage with their water heater, and the pilot light on the water sets off the propane leaking from the grill.

Over at the Tchotchke News Network they have the the latest developments: They have determined Tamerlan’s cause of death; female DNA was found on the fragments of one bomb; and a fingerprint was found on a fragment. They don’t know what the cause of death is, only that is has been determined. No one knows who the DNA or fingerprint belong to, and it doesn’t actually prove anything useful to anyone except a defense attorney wanting to stir up doubt among the jurors, but it was headlined.

Tomorrow is the first of the month, so maybe things will get better if their budget for part-timers is replenished every month.

There is a profile of the newest member of Jokhar’s Federal defense team, Judy Clarke, but it was written when she was appointed to defend the Arizona shooter, so they are just updating an old piece, not doing anything new.