FairAndUNbalanced.com

Burr has the day off after a tiring week of productivity, as he strives to become one of Mr. LaFerrara’s American heroes.

One notable exchange this week included an inspired bit of prose from Trey. We began with a quote from libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara about Veterans Day.

But America’s veterans are not the whole story. So, I’d like to use this Veterans Day post to acknowledge the unsung hero of America’s military prowess, the productive American citizen. No military as strong and as competent as America’s can exist in a vacuum. It requires something else – something indispensable – a great economy.

America’s economy, historically the most productive the world has ever seen, is the foundation that supports our military personnel.

Trey responded to a reminder that Mr. LaFerrara’s definition of “economically productive” is usually “economically successful” as measured by wealth. Trey expressed a bit of poetic irritation at the subordination of the bravery demonstrated, and sacrifices made, by those in military service:

Ah yes. Many a’war have been fought and won from an Executive Suite. Many a’revolutions and freedoms have been secured from the Stock Exchange.

Who could forget the Allied Victory at Midway or the Battle of the Bulge by these giants of industry when they achieved market capitalization by hedging their losses with short term cuts to their dividends? They realized, faster than America’s enemies did, through market analysis that their yields would experience an uptick when the moving average was adjusted following the capitulation of the Axis Powers in Europe and Asia.

The blue chip is mightier than the sword.

But, yeah, Happy Veterans Day. But also let’s not forget about the John Galts of the world you little toy soldiers.

Well done, Trey.

Burr expects to return in Thanksgiving next week.

• This week’s note in Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’ comes from Vox where a linguist first explains how my President uses blatant lies to divert attention from bigger truths, then recommends how the media should deal with lies.
   
• Is it always wrong to gloat? Frances Langum is gladdened by CNN’s legal success in the face of my President’s petty banning of reporter Jim Acosta for, you know, doing his job. Did I mention petty?
   
• Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit was unimpressed when the leader of our country ducked out from those killed braving hails of metal because he was frightened by drops of falling water. She bridges into a review of the rhythms of history and the patterns of recurring war.
   
• Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post watches, with some alarm, as my president and his administration melt into a shimmering puddle.
   
• Jonathan Bernstein helps us on with our hazmat suits and walks us through the toxic chaos that is rapidly engulfing this administration.
   
• Iron Knee at Political Irony notes the perils in politics of media sycophants. It seems Fox and Fox-like media have a strange unwitting talent for leading Trump and Trump-like conservatives to extraordinarily damaging admissions.
   
• driftglass feels less than humane toward those once misguided souls who have served the less than humane segments of the political universe, but are now firm opponents of President Trump and all his little Trumpers.
   
• Yeah, votes are still being counted. But Tommy Christopher has wisdom about all the ongoing analysis. The GOP tried to destroy health care. Voters punished them. He has put together a pile of impressive evidence, and a vision of what that means for the future of political America.
   
• Baraboo High School, a little less than an hour away from Madison, is now the very, very well known Baraboo High School. Nazi supporting students posted, and boasted about, a photo of students giving a Nazi salute. “We even got the black kid to throw it up.” The adult photographer eventually protested that the kids were just waving goodbye. A participating student went public, saying the photographer was less than truthful, making up excuses.
   
  Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson is angry on behalf of the students. Seems that much of the surrounding community is pretty liberal, so the students are unlikely to be guilty of what the photo seems to show, right? Besides the students are just kids. They were let down by the photographer. They were let down by their school. They were let down by the media. In fact, they were let down by grownups in general. The real lesson: “internet hysteria works to destroy people.”
   
• North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz gives wholesome advice to activists on how not to lose your mind in crazy times.
   
• One of the best writers online, Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged is at her thoughtful best as she defends Nancy Pelosi.
   
• Yellow Dog at Blue in the Bluegrass does not exhibit much affection for anti-abortion activists.
   
• At The Moderate Voice, Hart Williams battles hilariously against selectively applied Facebook censorship.
   
• The Journal of Improbable Research discovers scholarly research on whether celebrity opinions sway the opinions of followers. The primary case study seems to be Justin Bieber and his opinions about creationism. I suppose they had to start somewhere.
   
• Infidel753 provides better definitions of just about everything.
   
• “I’m not attempting a review here, just putting down my own thoughts on it to share with the few who read these pages.” Really? Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes goes on with an insightful book review, yes it is, of a novel about male friendship, big city life, and bad medical news: Who Sleeps with Katz by Todd McEwen.
   
  I struggle over pretty much every word I write. I try to forgive Vincent for so effortlessly producing a superior, thoughtful review. Even when he calls it something else. Who gets away with that? Not fair. It’s just not fair.
   

 
From PZ Myers:

That sounds like a good idea to me.

The plaintiffs, who include 21 people ranging in age from 11 to 22, allege that the government has violated their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property by failing to prevent dangerous climate change. They are asking the district court to order the federal government to prepare a plan that will ensure the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere falls below 350 parts per million by 2100, down from an average of 405 parts per million in 2017.

How can you argue against that? The Trump administration has a simple defense.

By contrast, the US Department of Justice argues that there is no right to ‘a climate system capable of sustaining human life’ — as the Juliana plaintiffs assert.

That is not the answer I expected.

– More –
 

 
From Stinque:

We’ve been wondering for awhile what the number, the minimum number, of deaths is required to make a mass shooting a national story, the kind everyone talks about, can’t help talking about.

We started wondering last year, when three or four people were shot and killed one evening in our Denver area, and nobody noticed. Those are common now — between Pittsburgh and Thousand Oaks, there were eleven mass shootings, four or more victims each, and we didn’t notice those. We figured it takes double-digit fatalities to get noticed these days.

But Thousand Oaks was twelve, one more than Pittsburgh. One of the victims had escaped the Las Vegas massacre. That was in the news, Thousand Oaks was in the news, it’s not like Thousand Oaks wasn’t in the news. But the details, they came and went. You may have heard some. Then again, you may have missed a few. Thousand Oaks hasn’t been commanding national attention.

You know what has instead. Tuesday we had a significant national election. Wednesday we had a live presidential meltdown, followed by an abrupt firing, followed by an abrupt appointment. That’s what everyone was noticing Thursday morning instead of the slaughter of twelve people in Thousand Oaks, and that’s what they’re still noticing now, as well as Arizona and Florida and fires again consuming California.

It’s just been one of those weeks where there’s too much to notice, and the mass murder of a dozen people that doesn’t involve race or religion or children isn’t going to get noticed, because we know that story, the story of thoughts and prayers and nothing getting done.

– More –
 

 
From The Baltimore Sun:

A man shouting a pro-Nazi and pro-Trump salute during a performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” in Baltimore has reignited discussions of anti-Semitism amid increases in hate crimes in Maryland and nationwide.

Audience member Rich Scherr said the outburst, during intermission at the Hippodrome Theatre on Wednesday, prompted fears that it was the beginning of a shooting. The man, who had been seated in the balcony, began shouting “Heil Hitler, Heil Trump.” Immediately after that, “People started running,” Scherr said. “I’ll be honest, I was waiting to hear a gunshot. I thought, ‘Here we go.’”

Samit Verma was seated in the balcony when he heard shouting and saw a man holding his hand straight up in a Nazi salute, he said in an email Thursday. Ushers rushed over to the man while audience members quickly made their way out of the theater and into the hall, Verma said.

– More –
 

 
From Bob Felton in The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser:

Sometime around 1800 B.C., an Akkadian stoneworker chiseled into rock a remarkable story.

It seems there were two ranks of gods, important gods who made all the decisions, and lesser gods who did all the work. One day, assigned to dig some canals, the hot and dirty and tired worker-gods decided to go on strike; “You are killing us,” they complained.

The impasse was broken by this proposal: the important gods would create a new creature to do the hard labor, man, but the leader of the strike had to be sacrificed. It was so agreed, and man was created from the dust, the water, and the blood of the sacrificed god.

But, as so often is the case, there was a fly in the ointment — the men were noisy at night, and the gods weren’t getting proper rest. After several warnings, the gods decided to get rid of men and sent a flood to drown them all. Only one man and his family survived, Atrahasis.

It’s easy to see in this tale the roots of two of the Old Testament’s best-known stories, the Creation and Fall, and Noah’s flood.

Now skip forward almost 4000 years to a story that is true, to the copper mines in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

– More –
 

 
From Green Eagle:

I would like to make a point about the Republican ploy of using signatures that don’t match to disqualify tens of thousands of Democratic votes. I don’t think this point has been made clearly enough:

Has anyone out there signed their name exactly the same twice? I mean, literally ever.

– More –
 

 
From Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger:

Nancy Pelosi has always been a good Democrat. She supports the liberal agenda. She is intelligent, knows the House rules better than anyone, and is not afraid to stand up to Donald Trump. She played a critical role in getting Obamacare passed. She is also the only woman in House Democratic leadership.

Those are facts.

I understand why the Republicans tried to demonize her in the 2018 election campaign. They didn’t have Hillary Clinton to attack anymore, and they needed a Democratic woman to attack to please their misogynistic base. Pelosi was the obvious choice.

But I do not understand why some Democrats (mostly my fellow progressives) want to also demonize her.

– More –
 

 
From tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors:

And now, for the inevitable non-apology:

“In a comment on Nov. 2, I referred to accepting an invitation to a speaking engagement. In referencing the one who invited me, I used an exaggerated expression of regard, and any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous,” Hyde-Smith said.

So you see, you haters are the REAL RACISTS for suggesting that the very white Republican from Mississippi, Cindy Hyde-Smith when joking about a lynching was being anything other than humorous.

– More –
 

 
From Andy Borowitz and the Borowitz Report:

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said that those in favor of the recount had a “sick obsession with finding out which candidate got the most votes.”

“Democrats are going on and on about counting every last vote until they find out who got the most,” Trump said. “Since when does getting the most votes mean you win?”

– More –