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Post by joew on Oct 1, 2018 17:21:21 GMT -5
The Republicans should consider Jeff Flake their hero. If they had steamrolled the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh through the Senate, it would probably have cost them tens of thousand of votes in November. Those votes could have made the difference in some close races, and those races could have determined whether the Republicans kept their majorities in the House and Senate. As long as the FBI investigation is reasonably thorough, it will take away the biggest talking point the Democrats had on the Kavanaugh issue.
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Post by BoatBabe on Oct 1, 2018 20:33:56 GMT -5
Jeff Flake put our country and the common good ahead of his party, a commendable action. It's nice to see a John McCain moment when he wasn't here to do it himself. I applaud him.
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Post by doctork on Oct 2, 2018 17:19:48 GMT -5
Sadly even Flake himself acknowledged he could not have spoken out as he did if not for the fact that he is not running for re-election. And he may have alienated a lot of Republicans. It seems the party is now the Trumpians, no one will stand up for what had been presumably "real" Republican values for over 100 years.
The Democrat running to replace him (Kyrsten Sinema) is a very good candidate and she has a good chance of winning - she is rather like Gabby Gifford, conservative for a Democrat, but right for Arizona and primarily concerned about her constituents, less likely to put Party First above all else.
Her Republican opponent, Martha McSally (Col, USAF, Ret) is also an outstanding candidate, too conservative for my taste, but a remarkable woman and a real hero - first woman fighter pilot in combat (USAF), first woman to head a fighter squadron. In Congress she has not been inclined to bow down to Trump, but now that she won the primary, Trump has endorsed her. Her primary opponents were Trump-worshipers, so good riddance (one was the infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio). I don't know how she would do in the Senate, but as a career officer who has really served her country, I hope she would be a person of honor and integrity.
It is my personal bias that career military officers who stick around to be General or Admiral tend to be primarily politicians, while those who retire at O-6 grade as Colonels (Army, Air Force) or Captains (Navy, Coast Guard) have a different view of politics, different life goals, often better qualified to serve the people. We sorely need people with real military experience (doctors too IMHO) when the Beltway folks are making important decisions - like defense and health care.
As always, we'll see.
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Post by gailkate on Oct 26, 2018 12:53:20 GMT -5
It's sad rereading these comments, given the criminally insufficient "investigation" he chose to accept when he voted for confirmation. But it's even sadder to have witnessed the past few days of blaming and finger pointing and guffawing from the Fox-fed Trump disciples. A. if the bombs were real, they were the media's fault. B. the bombs weren't real, just a hoax by Democratic operatives. Never in our lifetime could either party have responded thus to acts of terrorism. Here's a link to the van of the suspect arrested today in Florida. Covered with Trump stickers and things like "CNN sucks." cbsnews3.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2018/10/26/745211ab-da54-41a4-8c93-48b092dca30b/resize/620x/7d384118c4c1e720a87337de0692e30d/seized-van-twitter.jpg
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Post by Jane on Oct 29, 2018 18:27:51 GMT -5
I don't recognize my country. And now troops are heading to the border to wreck havoc on those poor, desperate people trying to escape death and destruction in their own country.
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Post by gailkate on Oct 29, 2018 22:01:09 GMT -5
I think everyone is shaken. This seems like a nightmare movie.
Some hope on the border thing -Despite how Trump sounds as if these troops will be ready to open fire, Mattis says they really are support - engineers and logistics types who will not be be threatening exhausted civilians. ( I'm willing to say that some of them probably are no-goods, but a tiny minority.) Also, I've read that no one plans to send the 5,000 he's bragged about. He doesn't really care, just loves the bombast and attention.
I'll bet every one of us was brought up to be compassionate and kindly toward the unbalanced, even if they're unlovable and possibly dangerous. I'm struggling so with this, unable to live up to the values I'm supposed to cherish.
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Post by doctork on Oct 29, 2018 22:28:23 GMT -5
I believe it is illegal to use active duty military for domestic law enforcement, absent an act of Congress. And it is CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) who are responsible for managing border security. I suppose the administration has figured some way around any inconvenient laws.
Meanwhile Trump plans to insert himself into Pittsburgh tomorrow, where he isn't wanted. Pittsburgh and people of conscience everywhere want tomorrow, this whole week, to be focused on those lost and their families. Now it will be the blowhard Orangeman trying to grab all the attention from the grieving people, trying to deflect any notice of his bigotry and anti-Semitism.
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Post by BoatBabe on Oct 29, 2018 23:18:05 GMT -5
You all say it so well. I am gobsmacked enough that, after a full day of work, the evening news is something I can hardly get through. My Dahhlink screams and swears at the TV, and I can't even fully believe it, let alone hear most of it. So, I'm blessed, I guess: just oblivious enough.to get by.
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Post by doctork on Oct 30, 2018 0:42:44 GMT -5
At times it is impossible to be oblivious.
It's almost election day and I have been mindful of your cautions about our ballot initiatives in Washington the State. Still, I am wondering what you think about I-1631, (I think I have the # right) - the one about making the oil companies pay a carbon tax. All of the supporters are organizations I have faith in - the state AFP, several reputable professors at WWU, and a bundle more at U-Dub.
All the anti-ads are paid for by Big Oil, who claim all the costs will ultimately be paid by consumers. I am sure much of the cost will, but it's hard to imagine it could be worse than it is now. WA is always the highest, or second-highest gas cost in the US, and Bellingham is always the highest in WA, even though I can see two of those big refineries from my house (Really - though only at night, when I can see the lights).
I'm also thinking of voting in favor of a tax on sugary soft drinks and juices, even though I usually oppose those Nanny State taxes. But I truly believe that High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is evil, and highly addictive to boot. I used to think that was my personal prejudice until last weekend at that addictions conference when one of the speakers showed a lot of research evidence showing that HFCS is exactly that - addictive, and hugely damaging.
Perhaps both of the "tax" proposals should be considered user fees. There is a high cost to "low-price" fuel and here in the US I don't think we truly pay the costs related to high gasoline usage, though I suspect Big Oil pays much less of its shares than We the Driver/People.
Same with HFCS, except most of us don't realize the actual harm yet. Just like back in the 1990's when Purdue Pharma said this new Oxycontin was great - non-addictive, should be used lots more because evil doctors were ignoring their patients' pain.
OK, enough reality. Reminds me of this old Patrick Sky folk song: "Reality is bad enough, why should I tell the truth?" Why indeed?
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Post by gailkate on Nov 1, 2018 20:44:03 GMT -5
I'm going to have to look up that song, K.
So now the bluster isn't 5,000 troops but 15,000 - who will be authorized to shoot it someone throws a stone. I guess he thinks that would be an act of war, justifying his use of force without congressional approval. I'm annoyed that the media aren't doing enough to tell the whole story. Caravans aren't that uncommon and and we've dealt with them for years. We've never had to shoot unarmed refugees at the border. I saw a funny clip of Trevor Noah doing a stand-up routine. He noted that there would be far more troops than refugees so it could be hand-to-hand combat. "Hey, Brad, you take Jose, and I'll get Maria and her kids all by myself.' He also thought it could be fun to play Red Rover. The soldiers link arms and the refugees storm them, fall back, and do it again.
Of course, it's not funny, and what's really not funny is the insult to our troops. Trained, ready to deploy to real danger, and he sends them down to the border like little tin soldiers he can just play around with.
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Post by doctork on Nov 1, 2018 22:11:07 GMT -5
I suspect once the election is over, news about the caravan will fade. Red meat for the base can be reduced once the voting is done. Plus, the caravan won't arrive for several weeks, if ever, so why the fuss now?
Not to mention - isn't deployment of US military forces for domestic problems illegal? Posse commitatus I think, though y'all know I slept through history class.
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Post by gailkate on Nov 3, 2018 20:44:38 GMT -5
Yes, it's definitely illegal except for extraordinary situations. Trump obviously thinks he can turn this into something extraordinary that only he can command.
Comment on FB: " I've been out of the military for 8 years but I still remember the f--king rules of engagement. In no scenario is it ok for our Armed Forces to fire at civilians throwing goddam rocks. That is called an unlawful order. Punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice."
It's obviously open to question if people are hurling bricks or chunks of stone big enough to crack a skull or breastbone, but that's not what he said, nor is it what he claimed the immigrants did to the Mexican army. Israelis fire on Palestinians throwing rocks ( Trump probably learned from Netanyahu that he can get away with a lot), but the Palestinians are a hostile force. I don't think live bullets are the answer in that case either, but at least that's an example where there could be different opinions.
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Post by BoatBabe on Nov 4, 2018 18:06:38 GMT -5
An interesting fact to me is that the real military, not the reserves, have been ordered to our southern border (at what cost?) for 45 days. Even Tom Brokaw was appalled to see concertina wire being put up by our military with their rifles only feet away.The "invaders" can not possibly be at the American boarder before 45 days. The invaders are walking. So the military guys will be gone by the time the caravan of "illegal immigrants" could possibly get there. Nice red meat baiting for The Orange One's base.
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Post by doctork on Nov 4, 2018 23:58:26 GMT -5
Notice that this political stunt will compel all those military forces to be separated from their families over the holiday period, not terribly respectful of those who are working to protect us from danger. These men and women have already served deployment after deployment overseas to defend against our real enemies will now spend Thanksgiving and Christmas putting up barbwire to keep out some asylum claimants who might get there next year.
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Post by doctork on Nov 6, 2018 2:17:09 GMT -5
I'm giving a big sigh of relief. I filled out my ballot and will drop it off at the ballot box tomorrow - we have only vote-by-mail here in the Isolated Kingdom.
I am just really sick of the endless nasty ads, shouting at various political events, and constant vituperative remarks. Glad the campaigning is over.
Dealing with the results? I'll take the Scarlett O'Hara approach, worry about that "tomorrow."
BTW, Gone With the Wind was voted #6 in The Great American Read.
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Post by jspnrvr on Nov 6, 2018 12:15:28 GMT -5
Ok, I got my voting taken care of. It went smoothly, no KKK or Black Panthers,or Antifa or Nazis patrolling outside the Seventh Day Adventist Church that serves as our polling place for Precinct 53. Now to run some errands, stock up on snacks and be ready to settle in for results this evening.
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Post by BoatBabe on Nov 7, 2018 9:32:43 GMT -5
We only have voting-by-mail here in Seattle (I think in most of the state . . . ) so we voted three weeks ago when our ballots arrived. We've never voted so early. As soon as we voted, the plethora of political ads became so irritating, that I started listening to Animal Rescue, instead of the 06:00 news, on a kids' channel with NO political ads! Dire circumstances require sturdy solutions.
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Post by Jane on Nov 7, 2018 10:58:22 GMT -5
I think I will take that as my life motto: "Dire circumstances require sturdy solutions."
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Post by gailkate on Nov 7, 2018 20:06:36 GMT -5
I like it, too - and we're going to need it. Will this drama never end?
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Post by doctork on Nov 7, 2018 23:11:24 GMT -5
I like that one too. Dire circumstances require sturdy solutions. If the solutions are sturdy, can they also be creative or imaginative or innovation? Those are often good too.
BoatBabe, I think the whole state is vote-by-mail now. No "I Voted" stickers for going to the polls any more. I read of one colleague who said he received his "I Voted" sticker in his vote-by-mail ballot.
I wanted to wait until closer to the end to be sure I had all the latest info. However, I studied the massive voter information book that arrived about the same time as the ballot, and I don't think I changed any vote in the interim.
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Post by booklady on Nov 12, 2018 6:58:45 GMT -5
I'm confused about the constitutionality of early voting. Doesn't the US Constitution set "the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November" as Election Day? I am old-fashioned, and becoming more so every day. I think in national elections the entire country should go to the polls on the same day and vote with ballots that have at least some kind of paper trail that can be secured, viewed with pairs of human eyes, and retained for inspection.
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Post by BoatBabe on Nov 12, 2018 9:45:38 GMT -5
Oh, we vote on paper ballots. We just vote at home and mail in the ballots. There is a paper trail. We have no polling places here. It was deemed too expensive to man polling places, and the percentage of voters has increased since we went to vote-by-mail. They really do check the signature on the ballot against the signature on file. One year, my husband's scribble was off from his signature on file, and he had to resubmit his signature example before they would count his votes. He did, and they did.
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Post by booklady on Nov 12, 2018 15:55:18 GMT -5
Thank you, BB. Interesting! Do you know how long it has been done that way where you live?
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Post by joew on Nov 12, 2018 17:41:34 GMT -5
I'm confused about the constitutionality of early voting. Doesn't the US Constitution set "the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November" as Election Day? I am old-fashioned, and becoming more so every day. I think in national elections the entire country should go to the polls on the same day and vote with ballots that have at least some kind of paper trail that can be secured, viewed with pairs of human eyes, and retained for inspection. It's not the Constitution, but an act of Congress in 1845 which set the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November as the date for choosing electors for president. Subsequently the same date was established for electing Senators and Representatives. I'm not sure how they get away with allowing early voting, but as our Town Counsel once advised the Board of Selectmen, "You can do whatever you want as long as nobody objects." Great legal advice!
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Post by BoatBabe on Nov 12, 2018 20:37:10 GMT -5
Thank you, BB. Interesting! Do you know how long it has been done that way where you live? I think King County (the Seattle area) has done it longer than the whole State of Washington. We have never had a "polling place" since we moved to Seattle, so that's been, what? Fifteen or 20 years? They don't count the ballots until Election Day. The problem is, the ballots must be postmarked by 8:00 p.m. on that Tuesday after the first Monday, and the postal branches stay open and hand-stamp your ballot. If a race is very close, we wait days for valid ballots to be delivered by USPS and counted. There are secure ballot drop-boxes scattered around the city that get there faster, but you might not have one close to you. That's one reason we voted as soon as we received our ballots. We wanted our votes counted on Election Day.
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Post by doctork on Nov 12, 2018 21:46:03 GMT -5
We first moved to WA in 1999 and I remember going to the polls in person at the nearby elementary school at least once or twice. A couple weeks ago I read a news story that WA has one of the most secure election systems among all 50 states. My husband also had his mailed-in ballot signature checked once too. I think they are very careful.
In Arizona we voted on paper ballots, once at the elementary school, next time at the Mormon Church. In New York we voted on a machine by clicking on keys, then pulling the machine arm (like a slot machine!) so the vote registered. There wasn't a paper ballot there. Every place else (CO, VA, WV, PA) we've had paper ballots.
I think all votes are counted at the same time, or if they begin counting as the early votes roll in, the results are not announced to avoid discouraging any potential voters. There was a big scandal a few elections ago in Florida when its election was called when the polls were closed at Eastern Time, but the polls were not closed in the Florida panhandle which is on Central Time.
It would be unfair to many voters if there were no early voting or absentee ballot options. I spent many years being on call every third night, and it could start Tuesday at 0700 and end Wednesday night when the work was done - no chance to vote in person. Then last year my surgery was right around election day and I couldn't have actually gone out to vote.
But yeah, there can be some delays for mailed-in absentee ballots. The USPS is always that speedy, to say nothing of international mail that may be used by our armed forces (or ex-pats) living overseas.
PS - the ballot box I use is in our grocery store parking lot, just a few blocks away from home.
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Post by gailkate on Nov 13, 2018 2:09:19 GMT -5
Grocery parking lot! Kind of like the town square.
I think there has to be some period of time in which we all vote, but I see no reason for that particular day. I'd like it to be a week or even a month, and including a weekend. It should be EASY.
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Post by gailkate on Nov 18, 2018 21:45:10 GMT -5
So we've stumbled through this very disturbing election - closing polls, denying Indian rights to vote, so much messing around in Georgia and Florida that I don't know what to think.. It's changed my mind about absentee ballots. I ordered one of those folding cane things with an attached seat so I can stand in line or get someone to hold my place and sit against the wall. I will never let people argue about whether it's worth it to count my vote! So, if I look like a tottery old lady, so be it. (In fact, so is it. ) As I said in the grief thread, I'm grieving my illusions. Some of you undoubtedly know Anne Lamott. Her latest piece has comforted me somewhat. I can't quite get to where she's heading, but that's probably because I'm not where she's starting. There’s the rage and the grief of these times: fires destroying my state, Kavanaugh, soldiers waiting to attack the shoeless refugees at my border, and—oh, yeah—the attempted destruction of our democracy. But these are not what make me feel like giving up some days. They are not what do me in; neither are what look to my tiny princess self like treason, or the UN Report on climate change, the one that gives us 12 years to turn things around before a cataclysm. Oh well, these things happen. My grandson will be 21 in 2130—he will have had a good run.
These were the catastrophes that had my book tour audiences in literal tears, ready to give up on goodness, sanity, decent futures for their loved ones.
But not me, baby. A few little bumps in the road don’t make me give up, because there is so much to do, and the work brings us well-being—rest a while, march, feed the poor—go outside and look up. I read them the chapter called “Don’t Let Them Get You To Hate Them.” Love is why we have hope, and hope is why we never give up. I redistributed the wealth of Hershey’s Kisses and M&M’s that my readers give me. We had Hershey’s Kiss communions, we looked into each other’s eyes. We were connected and okay for the moment, which is pretty much all we ever have.
Some of them join me in the belief that we shall overcome, although it may not be Tuesday right after lunch. That we already have everything we need inside us, a connection to the love we carry within us, that is greater than us and has a life of its own. My writer friend Mark Yaconelli has promised me that this love goes beyond our beliefs, rules and identities, and that the more we give our lives to love’s power, the wider this channel opens up inside us and around, till we find ourselves living in its wake.
I reminded people that we have already lived through times that were catastrophically insane—Florida 2000 comes to mind, Iraq, the torture. And that we will again, because over and over we discover that love and goodness are sovereign here. Look at how against all odds, we’ve once again saved Obamacare, look at the student marches, the firefighters here in California. I mean Wow, the third great prayer. Or, for you non-believers, Holy Shit.
People in my audiences asked if there was anything I couldn’t bear up under—anything that made me feel like giving up.
You mean, beside the fact that I am turning into grandma pudding, and not just the upper arms? You mean besides my cherished cat having run away while I was on vacation? You mean other than those?
Yes. There is one thing. It’s the fever dream weirdness of it all, the druggy freakshow of the numbskulls in power, the furious, badgering incoherence.
On the day I got home from book tour, two days ago, pooped and ecstatic, Trump decreed that these fires—1,000 people missing!—were a result of not raking leaves. Through prayer and meditation, a few phone calls and a LOT of popcorn, I calmed myself. And then, in an interview about Mueller’s questions, he said, “I answered them very easily... The questions were very routinely answered by me -- by me. OK?”
Who TALKS like this? I could not find my footing for awhile. This is what my friend’s grandfather use to call “crab salad.” This is what leaves me tottering near hopelessness, because there is no appropriate response, not even silence. And I might have given up on the power of rising up, of resurrection, if I did not have my precious community, my faith, my pets, the Blue Wave, and bags of Halloween candy on sale for $1.99. (You actually lose money if you don’t buy a sack or two.)
But the main reason I don’t give up is because desperation has given us Mother Strength. Black Lives Matter, the student marches against gun violence, the new House—we got mother strength when Elizabeth Warren would not shut up on the Senate floor while reading the letter of Coretta Scott King, even though Mitch McConnell told her to, repeatedly. We have the strength of a mother whose child is very, very sick, and there is nothing on earth more powerful.
My favorite scripture passage of all time is Rumi saying that through love, all pain will turn to medicine, which so recently the Parkland students gave us, but my second favorite is in Matthew 15, when the Gentile woman begs an exhausted Jesus to come heal her dying daughter. He is trying to rest, and besides, has thought until then that his mission is to save only the Chosen people, so he tells her, “Maybe later, when I’ve rested, and everyone has eaten.” She famously replies that even dogs will eat before her people, that the dogs will get the leftovers from the children’s table, that the dogs are next in line, before her child.
And this sassy shiksa talking back radicalizes him. He no longer sees his mission of love and healing as exclusive.
This might well be from today. Jesus insults her in a conventionally racist way, and when she gives him back as good as she has gotten, he all but smites His own forehead. She’s right: he needs to heal her child. My Jesuit friend Jim Harbaugh says, “It’s her faith, but you could also correctly say it's her balls. I like that Jesus likes that in a woman.”
She has the G.O.D., the gift of desperation. I know that the mystery of grace means that Donald Trump is the sick child, too, as precious to God as your newest nephew, niece, baby daughter, AND that his brutal ignorant incoherence, the savage syntax, has bestowed on me the miserable blessing of desperation, that can change the world. I see it all around me now, finally; in you, in our young, in our elderly; and we can be glad in it.
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Post by BoatBabe on Nov 19, 2018 9:55:04 GMT -5
The Gift of Desperation. I recognize it.
I usually say, "The best lessons are not the easy ones," and the Gift of Desperation is one of the best.
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