User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
Vind(icated)man
https://youtu.be/6CXvAyK6dOE
My take (Craig here): I’ve watched several of his interviews and I don’t know where he lives or where it would be but I think this guy should run for Congress. There’s a gentle authenticity about him I find really compelling.
Author: patd
“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
View all posts by patd
32 thoughts on “Vind(icated)man”
“a gentle authenticity”
craig, good way to put it.
that gentleness really shows in how he talked about his dad, especially when talking about the politics of the paterfamilias.
bbronc, sorry i didn’t see your pending draft for a thread when i jumped the line and posted mine. maybe craig will publish it tomorrow. sometimes he doesn’t see the drafts but an email helps to alert him to it.
Our society is shaped not only by the rights it declares but also by its willingness to protect and enforce those rights. Nowhere is this clearer than in the area of voting rights.
Fifty-six years ago Friday, the Voting Rights Act became law. At the signing ceremony, President Lyndon B. Johnson rightly called it “one of the most monumental laws in the entire history of American freedom.”
[…]
In a column published after his death, Lewis recalled an important lesson taught by Martin Luther King Jr.: “Each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something.”
On this anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, we must say again that it is not right to erect barriers that make it harder for millions of eligible Americans to vote. And it is time for Congress to act again to protect that fundamental right.
“…Abbott is following through on a statement he made toward the start of the quorum break, saying he would make sure the second special began the day after the first one ends.”
TX Dems are gonna have stay in DC forever, at this rate.
“He also wants legislation that ensures that masks and vaccinations are not mandatory in schools, which he has already ordered through executive action.”
Greg Abbott wants a law on the books that makes sure more TX kids get sick/die from covid; his EO wasn’t enough. What is wrong with him?
jamie, looks like chris is trying to out do randy
Belle ain’t out of the weeds yet–the variants are coming!
Good employment numbers from July – we’ll see how the building surge will affect the numbers in the fall.
The United States added 943,000 jobs in July, the second straight month of strong growth in the labor market, a promising sign for the country’s recovery as the pandemic threatened to undo progress in recent weeks.
The unemployment rate fell to 5.4 percent from 5.9 percent, a sizable monthly drop. It was the highest number of jobs added since last August, and surpassed June’s impressive numbers, which were revised up in the latest report to 938,000.
The two reports make for two straight months when nearly 1 million jobs were added – totals that are close to the optimistic predictions many economists had last year about how vaccinations would smooth the way for the labor market recovery.
***
Haven ‘t done a deep dive into the numbers, but Wapo notes that Dining, Leisure and Entertainment figured heavily into the picture.
And on the COVID front, case numbers and trajectory look like last November. that BTW is not good. We went from 11,414 per day on July 5 to 99,699 on August 5 (using 7 day rolling average). The last 80K jump in daily cases in a month or less was last October 31 to November 25, and the only other similar rise of that magnitude was December 1 – January 12 (a jump of 87 K over a 43 day period). In short, from simply a numbers perspective, the GROWTH of cases over the past month is as bad as its ever been – but the victims now are by and large the unvaccinated. Deaths, thankfully, are not following suit.
Here’s the buzz – of the top 25 states in per capita new cases 20 are Republican states, (14 of 15 for comparison with the lowest 15) two are republican states that voted for Biden and 3 are Dem states (those are at Nos. 23, 24 & 25. Similarly, 12 of the lowest 15 are Dem states (13 of 16 if you count DC) – not sure what’s going on with ND and OH, although DeWine doesn’t seem to be trying to compete with Abbott and DeInSanity in killing his state’s citizens.
i tried a few months ago, using “easily available (😉)” data, to try and draw a correction between covid deaths and Republican electoral losses, and while i couldn’t determine a direct link, it certainly didn’t help the GQP.
Rising crime rates are the Dem achilles’ heel, right now, so i’m hoping for some initiative from Biden on that ASAP
Agreed. The challenge is doing something, anything to address it and effective messaging. The numbers probably won’t do an abrupt about face, but they are as follow: the rise in crime rate was 25% in 2020, (BBC) but it was driven primarily by the rise in the murder rate (Guardian). The “crime rate” isn’t rising so much as the gun violence murder rate is.
What we know and don’t know
The homicide increase appears to be primarily driven by rising gun violence, with the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive reporting nearly 4,000 additional gun killings nationwide in 2020 compared with the year before.
But what’s happening with homicides is not part of some broader “crime wave.” In fact, many crimes, from larcenies to robberies to rape, dropped during the pandemic, and continued to fall during the first few months of 2021. “Crime” is not surging. Even the broader category of “violent crime” only increased about 3% last year, according to the preliminary FBI data from a large subset of cities. It’s homicide in particular that has increased, even as other crimes fell.
Advertisement
Early data also suggests the homicide increase isn’t happening at random, but that much of the additional violence is clustered in disadvantaged neighborhoods of color that were already struggling with higher rates of gun violence before the pandemic, according to Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist who has authored multiple national reports on crime and violence trends.
“Everything we know suggests that the increases in homicide are occurring in the very neighborhoods where homicide has been traditionally concentrated,” he said. “What we’re not seeing is a spreading-out of homicide.”
National demographic data for the people killed in 2020 is not yet available. But it’s likely that a substantial proportion of the homicide victims were Black Americans, at the same time that Black Americans were suffering disproportionate rates of Covid-19 infection and death, as well as witnessing the aftermath of a global uprising against police killings of unarmed Black people.
[…]
We’ll see what happens in the last 5 months of this year, but the real challenge IMHO is messaging, and making sure that the message is that the rise in the murder rate was huge in the last year of Dumbass the Former’s reign of terror and that the Biden admin is working with the states and cities to address it.
Having read “1984” a little too early, i’ve historically been fearfully-opposed to the development of an American surveillance state, but if everyone is going to run around with their cellphone cameras voluntarily recording every waking second of their lives, anyway, maybe federal funding for more municipal security cameras is the easiest, most practical short-term solution, and would allow the opportunity to assert, “Hey, at least we’re doing something”.
If you could show Orwell cellphone cameras and facebook, i’d imagine he’d be like “Oooh… didn’t see that coming”
“What’s up, peeps, it’s your boy, Winston, comin’ at ya with another Victory Gin review video, smash that ‘like’ and ‘subscribe’ button if you love Big Brother!”
“Going forward, in Texas, there will not be any government-imposed shutdowns or mask mandates,” Abbott said. “Everyone already knows what to do.”
Folks know they shouldn’t drink and drive, either, but they do. Does that mean we shouldn’t implement laws or lead on that issue, too? Lead, you weak idiot!
Abbott is afraid that if he caves and DeSantis doesn’t, he’ll lose popularity with the GQPers.
When the ICU at Cook Children’s gets overrun with 3rd-graders, there will be political hell to pay.
It’s piling up on Cuomo. Executive Assistant No. 1 (or is it 2?) filed a criminal complaint for groping her in selfies. At some point (before 8/13) I see this as reaching a critical mass and he steps down. Or not. That’ll be up to him.
I hope there are special measures in the infrastructure bill for the long term unemployed over the age of 50
How as is it? Mr C is in the hospital -not serious- overnight Kaiser closed the hospital to all visitors but didn’t bother to tell anyone
big covid problems apparently
good depictions in today’s ‘toons of gov desanitizer
and
KGC… my very best to Mr. C!
I’ve been helping with setting up for my annual 9 day fair that starts tomorrow. I’ll be sparse here for awhile. All the craftsmen that do other fairs are reporting record sales. It seems people couldn’t wait to purchase American made crafts again.
I thought Vindman showed what grace under fire looks like when he testified in Congress last year.
BiD, they should check out the gov’s ofc. – best place in today’s TX to round up snakes
Cobra Grand Prairie | Cobra loose in Grand Prairie Texas | Cobra Cherry Street Grand Prairie Texas A venomous West African Banded Cobra snake may be on the loose in Grand Prairie. A “dangerous, venomous” snake is got out after a “cage malfunction”. The owner lives off the 1800 block of Cherry Street in Grand Prairie. If you see it call 911. Grand Prairie Animal Services said they were notified a snake was missing from a home on the 1800 block of Cherry Street, near Interstate 30 and Belt Line Road, The owner reported his cobra was missing from its enclosure and that he wasn’t sure where it went. Grand Prairie police initially said the person had a permit for the snake, but the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said Wednesday that the municipality where the owner lives prohibits people from owning this type of snake. The West African banded cobra one of the most venomous snakes in the world.
I’ve just been listening to Cuomo‘s lawyers give a statement, and my earlier assessment may change. I’m thinking the odds are trending toward Cuomo not resigning. It’s clear that they’ve got a fulsome defense in the works and that there are some questions regarding Ms. Boylen’s account of the event on November 13 and the AG investigation of it. I don’t know which version is true but I know that there are two sides to the story now and it’s gonna take time to get the facts out to find out where the truth seems to lie. I think as it stands right now I rate the odds are 50-50 at best he’ll resign by the 13th trending toward “I’m not resigning.” As they say in TV, stay tuned.
KC, my best to Mr. C. The older I get the smaller the “not serious” universe becomes. I hope he’s fine.
And lest I forget, Vindman is the model of what a patriot looks like. I’d love to see him run for office. Although the political world might not be his forte, he would elevate the body in which he served.
“Texas school districts will not be required to conduct contact tracing this year if a student contracts COVID-19, according to new guidelines issued by the Texas Education Agency this week.”
“The agency said districts should notify parents if the district learns of a student who has been a close contact to someone with the virus. But with the relaxation of contact tracing, broad notifications will not be mandatory.“
“While districts must report positive cases to the local health department and the state, the TEA said contact tracing will not be required because of “the data from 2020-21 showing very low COVID-19 transmission rates in a classroom setting and data demonstrating lower transmission rates among children than adults.”
Hmmmm. Where’s SNL? Remember, “Delta, Delta, Delta. Can I help ‘ya, help ‘ya, help ya”?
Still trying to figure out why Greg Abbott thinks sick/dead kids will garner votes from their parents.
“An Arkansas judge temporarily blocked the enforcement of the state’s law banning mask mandates in schools in response Friday to two lawsuits — one from a school district, and one from parents — who want schools to be able to require masks if they so choose.“
A coworker told their unvaccinated son not to come visit. Stay in Florida.
Today, Holland Hospital sacked local hero Kirk Cousins due to his COVID-19 vaccine stance.
Corey!
Someone told me that Ford dealerships were forced to take delivery of new vehicles without computer chips. I thought chips were the brains of the car and nothing could work without them.
I make the under-seat storage for the Ford F 150-250 -350. Our numbers have been low all year. Cars just sitting in lots in Kentucky. Last count, awhile ago, was over 22,000.
Corey, what’s “sacked” mean re Cousins? was he a spokes guy or something?
…new F150s are sooo expensive (relatively) might be why
“sacked” is British English for “fired” or “terminated” fyi
“a gentle authenticity”
craig, good way to put it.
that gentleness really shows in how he talked about his dad, especially when talking about the politics of the paterfamilias.
bbronc, sorry i didn’t see your pending draft for a thread when i jumped the line and posted mine. maybe craig will publish it tomorrow. sometimes he doesn’t see the drafts but an email helps to alert him to it.
Opinion | Merrick Garland: It is time for Congress to act again to protect the right to vote – The Washington Post
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/02/greg-abbott-texas-special-legislative-session/
“…Abbott is following through on a statement he made toward the start of the quorum break, saying he would make sure the second special began the day after the first one ends.”
TX Dems are gonna have stay in DC forever, at this rate.
“He also wants legislation that ensures that masks and vaccinations are not mandatory in schools, which he has already ordered through executive action.”
Greg Abbott wants a law on the books that makes sure more TX kids get sick/die from covid; his EO wasn’t enough. What is wrong with him?
jamie, looks like chris is trying to out do randy
Belle ain’t out of the weeds yet–the variants are coming!
Good employment numbers from July – we’ll see how the building surge will affect the numbers in the fall.
Haven ‘t done a deep dive into the numbers, but Wapo notes that Dining, Leisure and Entertainment figured heavily into the picture.
And on the COVID front, case numbers and trajectory look like last November. that BTW is not good. We went from 11,414 per day on July 5 to 99,699 on August 5 (using 7 day rolling average). The last 80K jump in daily cases in a month or less was last October 31 to November 25, and the only other similar rise of that magnitude was December 1 – January 12 (a jump of 87 K over a 43 day period). In short, from simply a numbers perspective, the GROWTH of cases over the past month is as bad as its ever been – but the victims now are by and large the unvaccinated. Deaths, thankfully, are not following suit.
Here’s the buzz – of the top 25 states in per capita new cases 20 are Republican states, (14 of 15 for comparison with the lowest 15) two are republican states that voted for Biden and 3 are Dem states (those are at Nos. 23, 24 & 25. Similarly, 12 of the lowest 15 are Dem states (13 of 16 if you count DC) – not sure what’s going on with ND and OH, although DeWine doesn’t seem to be trying to compete with Abbott and DeInSanity in killing his state’s citizens.
i tried a few months ago, using “easily available (😉)” data, to try and draw a correction between covid deaths and Republican electoral losses, and while i couldn’t determine a direct link, it certainly didn’t help the GQP.
Rising crime rates are the Dem achilles’ heel, right now, so i’m hoping for some initiative from Biden on that ASAP
Agreed. The challenge is doing something, anything to address it and effective messaging. The numbers probably won’t do an abrupt about face, but they are as follow: the rise in crime rate was 25% in 2020, (BBC) but it was driven primarily by the rise in the murder rate (Guardian). The “crime rate” isn’t rising so much as the gun violence murder rate is.
We’ll see what happens in the last 5 months of this year, but the real challenge IMHO is messaging, and making sure that the message is that the rise in the murder rate was huge in the last year of Dumbass the Former’s reign of terror and that the Biden admin is working with the states and cities to address it.
Having read “1984” a little too early, i’ve historically been fearfully-opposed to the development of an American surveillance state, but if everyone is going to run around with their cellphone cameras voluntarily recording every waking second of their lives, anyway, maybe federal funding for more municipal security cameras is the easiest, most practical short-term solution, and would allow the opportunity to assert, “Hey, at least we’re doing something”.
If you could show Orwell cellphone cameras and facebook, i’d imagine he’d be like “Oooh… didn’t see that coming”
“What’s up, peeps, it’s your boy, Winston, comin’ at ya with another Victory Gin review video, smash that ‘like’ and ‘subscribe’ button if you love Big Brother!”
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/06/texas-greg-abbott-covid-restrictions/
“Going forward, in Texas, there will not be any government-imposed shutdowns or mask mandates,” Abbott said. “Everyone already knows what to do.”
Folks know they shouldn’t drink and drive, either, but they do. Does that mean we shouldn’t implement laws or lead on that issue, too? Lead, you weak idiot!
Abbott is afraid that if he caves and DeSantis doesn’t, he’ll lose popularity with the GQPers.
When the ICU at Cook Children’s gets overrun with 3rd-graders, there will be political hell to pay.
It’s piling up on Cuomo. Executive Assistant No. 1 (or is it 2?) filed a criminal complaint for groping her in selfies. At some point (before 8/13) I see this as reaching a critical mass and he steps down. Or not. That’ll be up to him.
I hope there are special measures in the infrastructure bill for the long term unemployed over the age of 50
How as is it? Mr C is in the hospital -not serious- overnight Kaiser closed the hospital to all visitors but didn’t bother to tell anyone
big covid problems apparently
KGC, even “not serious” a condition without your ability to visit him must be a concern for you. one good thing though is he’s at a kaiser facility if this applies to his: Kaiser Permanente Makes Vaccination Mandatory for All Employees – CBS San Francisco (cbslocal.com)
good depictions in today’s ‘toons of gov desanitizer
and
KGC… my very best to Mr. C!
I’ve been helping with setting up for my annual 9 day fair that starts tomorrow. I’ll be sparse here for awhile. All the craftsmen that do other fairs are reporting record sales. It seems people couldn’t wait to purchase American made crafts again.
I thought Vindman showed what grace under fire looks like when he testified in Congress last year.
BiD, they should check out the gov’s ofc. – best place in today’s TX to round up snakes
I’ve just been listening to Cuomo‘s lawyers give a statement, and my earlier assessment may change. I’m thinking the odds are trending toward Cuomo not resigning. It’s clear that they’ve got a fulsome defense in the works and that there are some questions regarding Ms. Boylen’s account of the event on November 13 and the AG investigation of it. I don’t know which version is true but I know that there are two sides to the story now and it’s gonna take time to get the facts out to find out where the truth seems to lie. I think as it stands right now I rate the odds are 50-50 at best he’ll resign by the 13th trending toward “I’m not resigning.” As they say in TV, stay tuned.
KC, my best to Mr. C. The older I get the smaller the “not serious” universe becomes. I hope he’s fine.
And lest I forget, Vindman is the model of what a patriot looks like. I’d love to see him run for office. Although the political world might not be his forte, he would elevate the body in which he served.
Crackers – All the best to the mister.
https://www.businessinsider.com/cuomo-charlotte-bennett-phone-call-sexual-harassment-report-james-listen-2021-8
Cuomo’s creepy serenade. Being a bad singer isn’t a crime, but this is odd behavior.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/06/texas-school-reopening-guidelines/
“Texas school districts will not be required to conduct contact tracing this year if a student contracts COVID-19, according to new guidelines issued by the Texas Education Agency this week.”
“The agency said districts should notify parents if the district learns of a student who has been a close contact to someone with the virus. But with the relaxation of contact tracing, broad notifications will not be mandatory.“
“While districts must report positive cases to the local health department and the state, the TEA said contact tracing will not be required because of “the data from 2020-21 showing very low COVID-19 transmission rates in a classroom setting and data demonstrating lower transmission rates among children than adults.”
Hmmmm. Where’s SNL? Remember, “Delta, Delta, Delta. Can I help ‘ya, help ‘ya, help ya”?
Still trying to figure out why Greg Abbott thinks sick/dead kids will garner votes from their parents.
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-08-06-21/index.html
“An Arkansas judge temporarily blocked the enforcement of the state’s law banning mask mandates in schools in response Friday to two lawsuits — one from a school district, and one from parents — who want schools to be able to require masks if they so choose.“
A coworker told their unvaccinated son not to come visit. Stay in Florida.
Today, Holland Hospital sacked local hero Kirk Cousins due to his COVID-19 vaccine stance.
Corey!
Someone told me that Ford dealerships were forced to take delivery of new vehicles without computer chips. I thought chips were the brains of the car and nothing could work without them.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/566824-thousands-of-bikers-descend-on-sturgis-amid-delta-spread-fears
Hmmm, how many in Sturgis have been vaccinated?
I make the under-seat storage for the Ford F 150-250 -350. Our numbers have been low all year. Cars just sitting in lots in Kentucky. Last count, awhile ago, was over 22,000.
Corey, what’s “sacked” mean re Cousins? was he a spokes guy or something?
…new F150s are sooo expensive (relatively) might be why
“sacked” is British English for “fired” or “terminated” fyi
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