heron

Uh-Oh!!! Just read a blurb that Steve Bannon is lurking around the campaign and that Trump is referring to him in positive terms. It was a VERY anti-Trump site and little more than gossip, so no point in citing it. If the rumor proves true, though, we may be in for another invasion of the Bannon Bots.

One theory I’ve read is that higher turnout tends to favor Democrats. Thus all the hoo-ha over voter ID as well as various dirty tricks i.e. mailing out or advertising wrong information about voting sites, etc.

Clearly I’m being too obscure. My reference is to the Red Hat Society, a loose association of, initially, old women which later opened itself to women of all ages. Inspired by a poem by Jenny Joseph written in 1961: “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple with a red hat that doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.” It goes on to celebrate the idea that the joy of old age is to finally shed the constraints of “adulting” and do precisely whatever we want and social norms be jiggered. As an old red hat lady, I object to the name being co-opted as a term of contempt.

Please to note, I wrote that I empathize, not that I agree. I still think you’re spitting fire in largely the wrong direction.

I don’t have statistics, but I suspect that many, if not most small businesses like independent hair salons or tattoo parlors are not owned by fat-cat 1%-ers. Some are not even comfortably middle-class. It’s distressing to see the vitriol heaped on people who work just as hard as I do, at even greater personal risk. Why aren’t we going after the ones trying to game the system for cash they don’t need? Sorry, but any company that pays six and seven figure salaries to top echelon management (ie those hospital systems doing all the lay-offs. Better yet the chain restaurants and publicly traded corporations, etc.) has no business claiming they can’t make payroll. I would expect them to tap their own executives and shareholders first for the cash. Why should a small business go under so that the owners of the big corps don’t have to feel the pinch? They took the profits quickly enough! The old saw is right: we’re a country of privatized profits/benefits and socialized costs/consequences. (Looking at you, Walmart, Big Ag, Big Oil, Big Pharma, et al.) When I view things in that larger context, I find myself empathizing more with the small businessperson fighting for economic survival, guns and all. Sometimes I think we’re raging at the wrong people on this one.

Me, either. Still ... watching the federal clown show, I gotta wonder what’s the political equivalent of declaring bankruptcy?

Anyone notice that there doesn’t seem to be a “Questioning Bernie Sanders” thread? Are the Bernie bros at it again?

a somewhat ot tidbit, posted with a liberal alert: columnist: registering poor to vote 'like handing out burglary tools to criminals' | tpmmuckraker link to the original column: articles: registering the poor to vote is un-american couldn't tell you whether this guy is a lone looney or reflects sentiments present but unspoken in his community. i confess to considerable observer bias, but where does the constitution say that voting rights must depend on the size of your bank accounts and stock portfolios? there is certainly class warfare being waged ... the question being who declared war on whom?

May he reap his eternal reward asap.

The coffee is brewed too weak for me and the superfluous packaging could fill a landfill in a few months. Have tried both Keurig and Tassimo ... not impressed.

Now, here's something that's truly scary: The 2012 Speculatron Weekly Roundup For August 19, 2011

Here's a look at what I believe to be one of the reasons for the anti-EPA rhetoric from Republican candidates: Fracking - ProPublica It's a collection of investigative articles on the subject of natural gas and the unanswered questions about hydraulic fracturing - fracking - and what it might be doing to ground water supplies. I worry a lot that, in our panic over the economy, jobs and high energy prices, such questions get lost. Who benefits from ignoring these issues?

Interesting piece from FactCheck.org:

It's heartening to see that some folks have figured out that it's a bad idea to poop where you eat. Of course, if they are pooping where we are eating ... well that's a different story. Just more liberal class warfare.

Child Poverty Rate Climbs In 38 States