Trail Mix

This Saturday at 5:51 a.m. PDT, (8:51 a.m. EDT, 12:51 UTC) NASA’s Juno spacecraft will get closer to the cloud tops of Jupiter than at any other time during its prime mission. At the moment of closest approach, Juno will be about 2,500 miles (4,200 kilometers) above Jupiter’s swirling clouds and traveling at 130,000 mph (208,000 kilometers per hour) with respect to the planet. There are 35 more close flybys of Jupiter scheduled during its prime mission (scheduled to end in February of 2018). The Aug. 27 flyby will be the first time Juno will have its entire suite of science instruments activated and looking at the giant planet as the spacecraft zooms past.

The Obama Administration has stepped up with nearly $40 million in grants to programs aimed at helping Appalachian communities devastated by the loss of about half of their coal mining jobs. Summary of the 29 grants.

Some particulars: A new school of Optometry in Kentucky (one of only two in the region), accelerated technology training, paid internships in the IT field, public water service construction, airport expansions, small business aid, and alternative energy jobs.

I asked Trail Mix supporters of Clinton for reasons to vote FOR Hillary:

• Flatus: Vote for this–vote for NATO–the alliance that has kept us out of the III-rd World War; that flew air defense missions over the United States and Canada immediately after 9/11, and continues to support the same mutual defense mission in Afghanistan. … I like to view Hillary through the lens that shows others whom I admire enjoying being in her company. I have no doubt that, had they been only a generation apart, that she and Eleanor Roosevelt would thrive in each others company. And our country would be better for it.
• Tony: Then we can vote for the Supreme Court. Women’s reproductive issues, Gay rights, Civil rights including voting rights and much more. All great things to vote for.. Oh and voting for the first woman to be President. A woman so qualified too. Not chump change
• Jamie44: I am voting for calm sanity from a probably moderate program with a woman already proven to work with both parties. If I could I would toss the extremes of both parties out on their ear so that we stood a chance of actually getting something done. … Whether she is your political cup of tea or not, she is at least sane, brilliant, hard working and seemingly decent and kind within at least normal human behavior. I want the woman to clean house. Hillary is liberal where I want her to be liberal: LBGQ rights, reproductive rights, education, health, and infrastructure.
• Jace: I’m voting for her because I want to see a couple of decent appointments to the court going forward. I would be perfectly satisfied to see Citizens United overturned and the voting rights act restored. Damned right I’m voting ‘for’ Hillary.
• Whyskyjack: I will vote for HRC because she is solidly based in the 21st century. She recognizes that we need to invest in our people to compete in the world, She will promote open trade even as she recognizes that the American people do not support the TPP. She doesn’t just advocate for gender rights but she changes the rules for them. She is a hand up liberal not a hand out liberal. Too many folks out there, are stuck in the last century. the world has moved on and if we don’t realize that then we will become the world’s greatest losers. I don’t want to be a loser and i don’t want the boys and girls that catch the bus on the corner to be in a world where the USA is a loser. It is a tough world and we have to get off our asses and compete. HRC has demonstrated that she understands this.



• Katherine Graham Cracker: Poor children’s health insurance. the rights of children with disabilities to be part of main stream schools. … I am voting for someone who for once will make issues of low income women as important as those of any industry.
• PatD: As for her positives how about the political courage displayed publically (when few did/do) of standing up to the nra, actually trying to achieve universal health care (and did achieve for children) and apologizing in person on camera over and over out right saying she was wrong about Iraq vote and about email server? how many other politicians have had the guts…
• Pogo: I’ll vote for Hillary if for no other reason because of SCOTUS appointments that would fall to the RW. However, in addition she supports the LGBT community and advocates for rights and protections for that community, she has been a strong advocate for women and children, and unlike drumpf, she has demonstrated the ability to acknowledge her mistakes. She may not have been able to help get healthcare reform passed as first lady, but she made the effort against incredibly strong odds. She may have voted for the Iraq authorization for use of military force, but she explained at the time why she was doing so and has acknowledged that it was a mistake. She voted against Bush’s tax reform package.
• Rebellious Renee: Clinton is the only person from all the candidates in both parties that ran for the nomination that mentioned the lost people of coal country in this election. She also supports an overturn of Citizen’s United.
• Solarcrete: the only reason that im voting for Hillary is b/c of the Supremes
• xrepublican: I’m voting for the village that raises children, and against the corporation that bleeds the village just to bloat the CEO’s ego.

Xrepublican: SEVEN REASONS TO VOTE FOR CLINTON

• 1. SCOTUS
• 2. Sympathetic to the wishes, wants, hopes, and aspirations of women and minorities
• 3. Solar power
• 4. Knowledge of how levers, dials, and buttons of government work
• 5. She approves of science and empirical research.
• 6. National parks, monuments, forests, etc.
• 7. I want to see the saudi tyrant kiss her (and his wahabbi morals police try to behead him for doing so)

 
OldSeaHag: Patsi was Trail Mix’s most fervent feminist, a devoted Hillary supporter and much like Hillary she didn’t back down in the face of a debate. It energized her.

By Whyskyjack, a Trail Mix Contributor

And  19 other questions about the future of human kind. Ask as only the folks from Scientific American can ask them.

Is the election driving you nuts?  Do you have most of your Facebook family on ignore. Are you thinking about getting a court order to keep your brother-in-law from setting foot in your house? Take a break, Pour a relaxing beverage and contemplate the big picture.

Nothing is going to change in the next three weeks anyway.

BTW the expert answer to the question is…

“No, but having sex to conceive babies is likely to become at least much less common. In 20 to 40 years we’ll be able to derive eggs and sperm from stem cells, probably the parents’ skin cells. This will allow easy preimplantation genetic diagnosis on a large number of embryos—or easy genome modification for those who want edited embryos instead of just selected ones.”
—Henry Greely, director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University

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By Dvitale300, a Trail Mix Contributor

We all need to take a deep breath about the Trump campaign. The average Trump voter tis not going to change their mind – even if there’s video of Trump shooting someone in Times Square.

What matters is not the 30% on the left (which I would surmise for many of us; a category we fall within), nor the 30% on the right; right-wing bible thumping hate mongering confederate flag waiving mysogonistic homophobes — but rather the 40% in the middle. These are the people that vote according to their pocketbooks, the possibility of a promotion, the status of their health care, whether or not they’re about to go in foreclosure — you know, the current conditions on the ground – the personality, tone and tenor of the candidate, etc.  

They are just waking up from their caves — knocking the boulders from the entrance.  Walking into the sunlight after 3 1/2 years, taking a deep breath – licking a finger and thrusting their digit firmly into the wind.

When Trump tells African Americans that if they elect him, 95% of them will support him in the future; skippity dippity do bop!  Nonsense. No one from the African American coalition will jump up screaming “Eureka”!  The press wants us to think so – they get paid according to how many people watch their blabbering.

Fodder from the far right will continue to drip, like a sickly bacteria infested honey, into the gears of this election. The Hindenburg will land successfully when Trump’s “I’m a goooooood boy now” routine falls with positive adorations on anyone who is seriously considering switching their vote.

Trump is merely trying to get back some of the Republicans who have defected from his feeble attempt to be a statesman. But more importantly, he’s trying to give them an excuse to support him.  That’s why he showed up uninvited in Louisiana, to spend a minute passing out toys to the flooded even when asked not to make the trip. He’ll get some of them back — but not merely enough to win this election.

More Posts by Dvitale300