11 School Shooting Deaths In Canada!

pic.twitter.com/yFhvD8hhfA

— Emily Winston (@Emywinst) November 25, 2022

Vox Populi, Vox Dei, Elon? Nope.

full quote is "Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, vox populi, vox dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit.”

it translates to:

"Do not listen to those who say the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the tumult of the crowd is always close to madness." pic.twitter.com/K77VU6eUrB

— shauna (@goldengateblond) November 20, 2022

It turns out that's not really the "full quote"; it's somebody's commentary on "vox populi, vox dei." Nevertheless, "vp, vd" is a flawed concept. You can't always be governed by a majority belief. If something is the wrong thing to do, a poll to the contrary doesn't change that fact. For example, I believe that Ukraine deserves to be supported in its resistance to Russian aggression, and I believe that's an objective truth. If a poll runs 9 to 1 that the U.S. and the West should stop supporting Ukraine, all that means is that the poll is wrong. If a January 6, 2020 poll ran 9 to 1 that Mike Pence should be hanged, all that means is that the poll is wrong. You may not agree with policy decisions that Joe Biden has made, but he has most certainly not committed any "high crimes or misdemeanors," and if a poll runs 9 to 1 that he should be impeached -- yes, you guessed it: The poll is wrong. 

An aside: How many of those votes were bots? And how easily could this poll be gamed?

NY Post's Brutal Takedown Of Trump's "Big Announcement"

The New York Post is a Rupert Murdoch paper. So is The Wall Street Journal, but that's in the conservative mainstream. The Post is on the other end of the spectrum, a right-wing muckraking tabloid. It's believed the Post has been Trump's favorite newspaper; if so  -- not anymore! 

The day after Trump's speech announcing his candidacy, the front page of the Post didn't cover it -- except for about a 1-inch banner at the very bottom of the page, saying "Florida Man Makes Announcement - page 26."

That's some pretty decent trolling. But if you turn to page 26, the complete article was less than a column, headed "Been there, Don that." The article, too, is brutal -- here it is in its entirety:

With just 720 days to go before the next election, a Florida retiree made the surprise announcement that he was running for president. In a move no political pundit saw coming, avid golfer Donald J. Trump kicked things off at Mar-a-Lago, his resort and classified-documents library. Trump, famous for gold-plated lobbies and for firing people on realtity television, will be 78 in 2024. If elected, Trump would tie Joe Biden as the oldest president to take office. His cholesterol levels are unknown, but his favorite food is a charred steak with ketchup. He has stated that his qualifications for office include being a “stable genius.” Trump also served as the 45th president.

HCR On Nancy Pelosi Stepping Down

 Click here for a Heather Cox Richardson post for November 17 that gives a good summary of Nancy Pelosi's farewell speech as she steps down from her Democratic leadership position. I thought her octegenarian second-in-command, Steny Hoyer, would be a candidate for her position, but I guess he's stepping down; Pelosi's hand-picked successor is Hakeem Jeffries (who I think would be good).

Tor

Click here for an article by Bob Rankin entitled "Want Safer Internet? Just Add Onions." It's an introduction to using the Tor Network, which is safe and secure, but cumbersome!

Will The Trumpies Come Crawling Back?

1/ Don't worry, gentry conservatives. We get it.

You're writing "No" now but soon enough you'll write "While we have deep reservations about Donald Trump, Joe Biden is a socialist Marxist antifa Soros dupe and while Trump's tweets are terrible, his polices...

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) November 16, 2022

Andrew Wortman: Why Trump Will Never Be President Again

I'm still having trouble embedding tweets. I hope this works for you:

Donald is “running for POTUS again.” Hilarious. Here are all the reasons he will never be President again no matter what he says or does:

1.) He is under a dozen investigations for crimes ranging from espionage to seditious conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and is going to prison

— Andrew Wortman (@AmoneyResists) November 16, 2022

Well Said, Ann Coulter! I Agree!

She's a little late to the party, having been a hardcore Trumper for years, but . . .

Sometimes following right wing social media isn’t terrible. pic.twitter.com/IwVyBDa0Nv

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) November 11, 2022

Who's President, Anyway?

pic.twitter.com/yDKOJtFH2w

— JC #MyBodyMyChoiceVoteBlue (@deweyjaci76) November 12, 2022

If L.A. County Were A State, It'd Be The Eighth Largest

L.A. County is the second tweet (but the first one's good too; click the arrow):

That’s just Los Angeles county. Lol. LA County pays more in federal income taxes than all those states combined. LA COUNTY! https://t.co/ux4MSOHUtd

— J-Nouri (@jnouri13) November 12, 2022

Those Solid Red Election Maps Are Misleading

 

Another US election, another "Land doesn't vote, people do" style map showing the election results. pic.twitter.com/XmMTSUKJof

— Simon Kuestenmacher (@simongerman600) November 11, 2022

The Democratic Republic of Wisconsinistan?

 Click here for an article by my favorite columnist, Charlie Pierce at Esquire, entitled "No One Can Pretend that Wisconsin Is a Republic," subtitled, "Whatever it is, it's a far cry from a representative democracy."

 Charlie says:

On Tuesday, the Democratic Party got 51 percent of the vote statewide. This got the Democrats…30 percent of the seats in the state legislature. Any reasonable definition of “a Republican Form of Government” cannot possibly include this kind of result. It is completely and utterly a product of grotesque partisan gerrymandering sanctioned by the Supreme Court in its disgraceful decision Rucho v. Common Cause three years ago.

The die was cast on this atrocity last April, when the state supreme court ruled that this year’s elections would be contested on the ludicrous maps produced by the state legislature, itself the product of past gerrymanders. The U.S. Supreme Court was a critical accessory after the fact.

And:

The roundness and completeness with which extreme conservatism has deformed the American republic is occasionally stunning.

 

Steph Curry is a Machine

Steph Curry is robot🌟

pic.twitter.com/f426Ia7Qld

— Tansu YEĞEN (@TansuYegen) November 6, 2022

Workout Buddy

Morning Yoga.. 🐶

🎥 IG: my_aussie_gal pic.twitter.com/gxQlHqG11v

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) November 6, 2022

Don Winslow on Joe Manchin

Since @Sen_JoeManchin decided to attack @POTUS Biden days before the mid-terms, I am re-posting one of the best videos we have ever made.#JoeManchinSenatorForSale = 4.7 MILLION VIEWSpic.twitter.com/vzRH137MOH

— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) November 6, 2022

Dance Fever? The NIcholas Brothers

Apparently Fred Astaire said this was the best on-screen dancing he'd ever seen (the Nicholas Brothers appear starting about 3:15):

Cool Mouse Trick

 I just found a cool mouse trick.

You know when you're selecting text to highlight so you can copy and paste from one document to another? And how annoying it can be trying to get your cursor in just exactly the right place?

Just put your cursor anywhere on the first word of the text you want and double-click. The word highlights; don't release your mouse. Then you can drag the cursor over the text until you get as far as you want.

Another way: select text with your keyboard, not your mouse. Move the cursor to where you want to begin, and press Shift-right arrow (Shift-left arrow goes in the opposite direction). That advances your marked text one letter at a time. Press Shift-Control-arrow to move one word at a time.

Interesting military video

 I wish there were more military videos like this one -- it's really easy to follow and understand (copy and paste it into your address bar):

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1568299481648578561

David Corn's New Book

Click here for a short article at Mother Jones by David Corn promoting his new book American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy. His thesis is that "since the 1950s, the Republican Party has brazenly encouraged and exploited right-wing extremism."

An illustrative paragraph: "It chronicles how the Republicans have fueled and fed on the worst elements of American public life since the McCarthy era. This includes Eisenhower surrendering to McCarthy in 1952; Goldwater’s alliance with the Birchers; Nixon’s racist Southern strategy; the rise of the New Right and the religious right (and their politics of hatred); Reagan’s partnership with the Moral Majority, whose leaders called for executing gay people, and his political ties to former Nazi collaborators (yes, really); the Limbaughization, Foxification, and Gingrichization of the GOP; the Bushes’ reliance on far-right and extreme (and bonkers) Christian right operatives; Palinism (as in Sarah); the Tea Party; and—ta dum!—Trump." 

 

 

Find Low Airfares

 

Click here for an article by Bob Rankin entitled "Find The Lowest Airfares Online."