Comments Briefly on Moderation...

 ...until David in Cal deals with this issue. 

Kyle Rittenhouse

Illinois teen Kyle Rittenhouse will face homicide charges in Wisconsin after judge OKs extradition
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/523704-illinois-teen-kyle-rittenhouse-will-face-homicide-charges-in-wisconsin

Let's face it: Kyle Rittenhouse went to Wisconsin to hunt.

He killed two people there, and is charged with first-degree intentional homicide.

Rittenhouse lived in Illinois. He had no business in Wisconsin, let alone taking an semi-automatic rifle there as a 17-year old. Crossing state borders was itself a crime -- he was only 17 -- and it also speaks to motive. He wasn't contracted by any business to guard it -- he lied about that. He took a gun to use it, like a deer hunter carries a gun into the forest.

Rittenhouse is charged with attempted intentional homicide in the wounding of a third. He’s also facing a misdemeanor charge of underage firearm possession for wielding a semi-automatic rifle. He faces life in prison. 

He's no hero. He first shot a man in the head at a gas station. That's why others were chasing him. They were the heroes.

The police handled him with kid gloves, practically as one of their own. That deserves investigation too.

And some people wonder why the left is suspicious of the police.

Attn: David in Cal

Attention David in Cal: 

 You wrote the following about me: 

David Appell might say that criticizing black American culture is automatically racist. All cultures are equally valid, according to many liberals. I disagree with that POV. 

This is a very low accusation, as is sometimes the way with you. I doubt I ever wrote this. You can either prove I wrote this, by quoting me with a link, or withdraw your claim. 

All your future comments on other topics will be deleted until you do. This is what I've decided is necessary.

You often make outrageous statements here and, when challenged, roll up into a ball and ignore the challenges. It's time you finally show some fortitude and stand behind your claims, especially when they denigrate others here. Or apologize. 

I've said when I was wrong. (And this link was hardly the only time.) Unsubstantiated personal accusations have no place here.

I'm serious.

PS: I really don't want you to leave this blog -- I appreciate your alternate POV. But I don't want you to make up lies about people either.

Trump: Doctors Get More Money if Someone Dies of COVID

Imagine you're an ER doctor, or a doctor who works in an ICU, or one who deals with infectious diseases. You've been struggling with COVID-19 since February, which has often, frustratingly, frighteningly, meant a shortage of PPE for you and your residents and students and your nurses. You've worked overtime, and then double overtime, and then triple overtime, so you often sleep in the hospital and have barely seen your family for several months. You've lost 15 pounds. So many of your patients have died you're in a daze and can't remember any of them. You honestly don't know why you yourself aren't infected -- it hardly seems possible. Your exhaustion is far beyond anything you ever experienced as a resident. You pass friends and colleagues in the hallway like ghosts. You're experiencing heart pains for the first time in you're life but can't take the time out for tests. 

And then the President of your country says this, and the people listening to him laugh:

TRUMP: “You know, our doctors get more money if someone dies from COVID, you know that right?”

Beyond reprehensible. pic.twitter.com/k5wuLDZOrz

— Tim Hogan (@timjhogan) October 30, 2020

Question: How exactly do you feel?

Trump Angry He Can't Infect More

Or perhaps just giving up.

Angry at restrictions on gatherings in Minnesota that prevented him from speaking in front of a large crowd of supporters, Trump stalked off the stage after less than 30 minutes at his final stop of the day Friday.https://t.co/BHHDSn7eZk

— Annie Karni (@anniekarni) October 31, 2020

Bruce Springsteen on Trump

He's still one of my favorite all-time artists. He has a new XM Sirius radio program (so costs $$$), covered in this CBS News article. Here he makes a insightful point:

"[There's] no time when the president takes off his blue suit, red tie uniform and becomes human, except when he puts on his white shirt and kaki pants uniform and hides from the American people to play golf," Springsteen continues — going on to note the lack of "images of the first family together enjoying themselves together in a moment of relaxation," like the Obamas in Hawaii or the Bush family in Kennebunkport.

"Where'd that country go? Where did all the fun, the joy and the expression of love and happiness go?"

When Springsteen wrapped up the reading, he added his own final line: "On November 3rd, vote them out."

I've always been surprised that not one Trump kid ever told their daddy to shove his money and went off to do what they wanted, whether it was become a stockbroker or computer programmer or build kayaks in British Columbia. The likelihood is that they were as beaten and cowed by their pathological father as he was by his.

No, It's Not Because of More Testing

President Trump and his odious first-born say COVID-19 cases are up because of more testing. Not bloody likely! Here's a graph from the WSJ showing cases and testing since September 30th:

Percentage change in seven-day average of Covid-19 

testing and positive cases since Sept. 30

Source: Johns Hopkins University (cases); 

Covid Tracking Project (testing)

Since not every test is positive, tests would have to be increasing faster than cases if the increase in cases were due to testing. It's not.

More Trump lies, Sr and Jr.  

Rocket Launch as Seen from the Space Station

I think this is way cool -- a (speeded-up) video of a rocket launch as seen from the International Space Station:


The yellow line is from sodium from meteors burning up in the upper atmosphere, as Scott Manley explains here:

When Wolves Attack

 

Trailer for "The Midnight Sky"

Here's a trailer for a scifi movie coming out in December: The Midnight Sky. It's based on a book I read early last year, Good Morning, Midnight, by Lily Brooks-Dalton, who I then saw read at the Salem, Oregon library about a month later. I liked the book a great deal, and gave it 5 stars on my Goodreads page. (I think she had a better title, but maybe a bit too literary for a movie.) She wasn't supposed to (or so she said), but she let it drop that a movie deal had just been signed with Clooney starring and directing. 

I don't know if I'll see the movie. As a rule I don't see movies of books I've read, because I don't want the images I've created in my mind to be overwritten by the movie. The overwrite can happen very quickly. I saw maybe 2 seconds of a commercial for the wonderful book All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, and I still can't get the image from the commercial out of my mind or away from the book.

I just watched this trailer, so I'm already ruined for this book. I might see it just because I like George Clooney, but not if I have to go to a theatre. Oh yeah: the scientist in the book (Clooney's role) was much older. That mattered. 

Classless Things Republicans Have Just Done

All class, they are. 

1) Ugly troll of Hillary Clinton:

Amy Coney Barrett, confirmed. Happy Birthday, @HillaryClinton!

— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) October 27, 2020

2) McConnell says the new Supreme Court justice will be a "political asset." And we thought the judiciary was to be politically neutral.

McConnell: Newly confirmed SCOTUS Justice Amy Coney Barrett will be a "political asset" for GOP candidates pic.twitter.com/0lKwHsqQsU

— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 27, 2020

3) Racist Jared Kushner says blacks "have to want to be successful:"

Jared Kushner on the Black community: "President Trump's policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they're complaining about, but he can't want them to be successful more than that they want to be successful." pic.twitter.com/SX9vWiAfag

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 26, 2020

Trump Says It Should Be Illegal for the Media to Cover the Pandemic

His inner fascist speaks again; as of right now 86,000 people agree with him:

We have made tremendous progress with the China Virus, but the Fake News refuses to talk about it this close to the Election. COVID, COVID, COVID is being used by them, in total coordination, in order to change our great early election numbers.Should be an election law violation!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2020

Proud Boy Repeatedly Flashes White Supremacist Symbol at Trump Rally

Here's a man in a Proud Boys hat at Trump's recent rally in Florida repeatedly flashing the white supremacist "OK" hand sign. He's wearing a white shirt/sunglasses/black hat with a yellow logo, just to the right of Trump from our point of view:

Here's a supercut of a guy throwing up what appears to be a white power hand gesture throughout Trump's rally in The Villages, Florida pic.twitter.com/QdZv3yIyyl

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 23, 2020

Here's a close-up of his hat

which matches the Proud Boy logo you can see amongst this image page of them, such as this:

The Atlantic's Endorsement

Ending to only the fourth time The Atlantic has made an endorsement for president:

Two men are running for president. One is a terrible man; the other is a decent man. Vote for the decent man.

It's all worth reading.

When Trump Mocked Biden for Wanting to Talk About Middle-Class Families

Here was an astonishing Trump response last night at the debate, captured by Slate, showing that Trump is ensconced in a Fox News bubble and just doesn't get that he's the president of real people with real problems. Biden:

Trump's response:

Trump mocks Biden for wanting to turn the conversation to the problems of middle-class families, calling him a "typical politician!"

Trump would rather talk about a fake scandal, avoid talking about his own scandals and corruption, or the coronavirus problem (a scandal), or the economic depression, or anything in his record. Really telling.

Eleven days until this fool is kicked out.

Wow, Joe Really Gets It

One of the biggest, most significant, most courageous statements ever made by a major American politician:

Joe Biden: "I would transition from the oil industry, yes."

Pres. Trump: "Oh. That's a big statement."

"It is a big statement." https://t.co/zkoTdi6727 #Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/Eh24bXuDkh

— ABC News (@ABC) October 23, 2020

Great Line

 Joe Biden, to Trump: "this guy has a dog whistle about as big as a fog horn."

Cooling Down a Warming Place to Make it Warmer

I once heard a comedian tell a joke about the butter box in a refrigerator, a warm box in the otherwise cold refrigerator, and the refrigerator was a cold box in a warm house, with the house being a warm box in the cold outdoors. That was the gist of it.

This is even worse: According to The Guardian, in the Arctic, ConocoPhillips is looking into "cooling devices that will chill the ground beneath its structures, insulating them from the effects of the climate crisis."

CleanTechnica says this means making the permafrost stable enough for trucks to drive over it and oil rigs to drill into it. Here's the Environmental Impact Statement if you want to dig into it. Notice the caribou on the cover page -- their babies too! -- happily coexisting amidst all the oil infrastructure, one big happy family. 

Of course, the more drilling they do, the warmer the planet gets, so the more permafrost will melt, and the more cooling they'll have to do. I wonder how long it can go on. Probably longer that I can imagine.

Luntz on Trump

“Nobody cares about Hunter Biden … why is [Trump] spending all his time on him?” Luntz asked. “Hunter Biden does not help put food on the table. Hunter Biden does not help anyone get a job. Hunter Biden does not provide health care or solve COVID. And Donald Trump spends all of his time focused on that and nobody cares.” 

-- Prominent Republican pollster Frank Luntz, The Hill, 10/20/20.

Biden Says, Yes, He'll Listen to the Scientists

...yes https://t.co/RzZ3j3zoAL

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 19, 2020

.@realDonaldTrump — if you had listened to the scientists, it wouldn't be this bad. pic.twitter.com/0eNuV4pAMK

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 20, 2020