Idle Thoughts: Rare Sweltering Summer

Tweets from August, 2019:

• 2019-08-01: DMN headline: "Rare sweltering summer grips Alaska."
  "Rare." I guess when each summer is hotter than the last, you could say each one is technically "rare."
• 2019-08-01: @RepLanceGooden, how many heart-wrenching stories of children separated from their parents and put in cages have you heard and still stood by without doing anything?
• 2019-08-01: @JimSchutze, Silly Jim. The reason the News didn't first have that "basic, Journalism 101, garden variety conversation" you identified is because the News is not a product of the journalism school. It's a product of the business school.

After the jump, more idle thoughts.

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• 2019-08-01: @RepLanceGooden, you are wrong on so many levels. First, the House has passed 49 bills since January. Second, the House isn't paying *enough* attention to the President's unconstitutional actions. Meanwhile, you aren't helping on either front.
• 2019-08-02: The Farewell (2019): Family gathers in China when grandmother is diagnosed with cancer. A study in cultural differences dealing with universal feelings. Careful storytelling by Lulu Wang makes it heartfelt without being maudlin. Awkwafina handles a range of acting excellently. A-
• 2019-08-02: @RepLanceGooden Yes, liberalism is "about tolerance, understanding, and inclusion." I'm glad that much has gotten through to you. Explain why you would be against that.
• 2019-08-02: Greg Abbott: This is going to be the most challenging election we have faced in Texas since last century."
  This is also going to be the first election that the Texas GOP has faced with *President* Donald Trump at the head of the ticket. Coincidence? You decide. (Link)
• 2019-08-02: "Misstated."
  Umkay. (Link)
• 2019-08-02: @RepLanceGooden, Oil exports are up because Congress lifted a ban on exports. Oil companies are benefiting, but average American consumers? Not so much. The "impact on the average consumer is more muted because oil prices are traded on a global market and thus are fungible." So, yay for Big Oil.
• 2019-08-02: National security official to Jake Tapper: Everyone at this point ignores what the president says and just does their job. The American people should take some measure of confidence in that."
  Umkay. "Confidence" must have a double meaning. (Link)
• 2019-08-03: Today again...thoughts and prayers.
  Tomorrow...back to fighting for sensible gun regulations.
• 2019-08-04: Today again again...thoughts and prayers.
  Tomorrow...back to fighting for sensible gun regulations.
  Sadly, before tomorrow arrives, return to start. (Link)
• 2019-08-04: @JohnCornyn: "I stand ready to help."
  The most help you can give is to vote for a Senate candidate who will support sensible gun laws. That won't be you, but it would be help. (Link)
• 2019-08-04: The Last Czars (TV 2019): Odd mix of costume drama and mockumentary. Painless way to learn some history. Nicholas is an absolute ruler oblivious of how to run a government, run a war, or how to read the mood of his people. As drama, the characters are wooden and predictable. B-
• 2019-08-05: Elsewhere, in the trade wars that Trump assures us are "good, and easy to win", China has suspended purchases of U.S. agricultural products, which one analysts says is an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. US stock market crashed almost 3%. Trump is a disaster for US on so many fronts.
• 2019-08-05: On Saturday, at a restaurant with my wife, I said we needed something like a "safe word". If I see a man with a gun approach the door, I'd tell her, "Follow me, don't ask any questions" and we'd move to a safe location. I hate, hate, hate that it's come to this. #ThisIsAmerica
• 2019-08-06: "Democrats say Trump, condemning bigotry, should look in a mirror."
  "Democrats say"?!? Don't "he-said, she-said" this.
  Karen Tumulty put it much better. "Given what a narcissist our president is, you wouldn’t think he would find it so hard to look in a mirror." (Link)
• 2019-08-06: @RepLanceGooden, since we're citing news stories, how about this one: "The Labor Market's Weak Spot: Jobs Making Stuff."
  So much for your huge tax cut for the 1% leading to huge economic growth. Huge.
  And how about the news that China has ordered Chinese businesses to stop importing American agricultural products? It's time to stop our leader's self-defeating trade wars now.
• 2019-08-06: Just hoping I get to use the phrase "30 to 50 feral hogs" in a tweet before its 15 minutes of fame are up.
  Hmm...either "Just did!" or "Too late." I can't decide which.
• 2019-08-07: Not a Trump supporter here, but maybe we can come together. Maybe it's time for a corollary to the Trump Doctrine on terrorism. Trump should declare a "total and complete shutdown of the sale of guns until our country's legislators can figure out what's going on."
• 2019-08-07: @RepLanceGooden, the President's racism is what's disgusting and you are complicit. His behavior not only "doesn't contribute in any way to solving the problem," it encourages the problem.
• 2019-08-07: @RepLanceGooden, yes, the Democrats continue to campaign despite this tragedy, just as Republicans do (see your tweet). The difference is that Dems are also working to solve the problem. Tell #MassacreMitch to get back to Washington and pass the universal background check bill that's on his desk.
• 2019-08-07: @RepLanceGooden 1. There's nothing inconsistent with reasonable gun laws and the 2nd Amendment.
  2. After a mass killing you say you want to address the mental health crisis. But when it's out of the headlines, you want to repeal the ACA and its increase in mental health care.
• 2019-08-08: @LindaKoopTX, like it or not, the 2020 election is going to be all about Trump and his racist stands. What's your own stand on him?
• 2019-08-08: @RepLanceGooden, Democrats aren't all that happy with Trump's and McConnell's budget "deal" either, but that's what makes a deal. Both sides aren't completely happy. Your obstructionist approach. on the other hand, leaves the American people as the big losers.
• 2019-08-08: @leachfortexas, Texas does not have a income tax. Vote Yes and Texas won't have an income tax. Vote No and Texas still won't have an income tax. Pure political theatre.
• 2019-08-08: The Lion King (2019): Sure it's an unnecessary remake, but very well done if a little long. Stunning photorealistic animation. The uncanny valley is now forever bridged for nature documentaries. And I can't help but like the new "meaningless line of indifference" philosophy. B+
• 2019-08-09: Underland: A Deep Time Journey: An adventurer's journal of his visits to caves, mines, and vaults written by a naturalist with a love of language. The underland can be both mesmerizing and terrifying, but always interesting in Macfarlane's company. B-
• 2019-08-09: @RepLanceGooden, saber rattling is risky strategy. Bullets fly over walls. That undercuts your own push to build a wall. How about dialing it back a notch? That is, if you really want to address problems and not just fire up your racist base.
• 2019-08-10: Haiku @realDonaldTrump:
  See wacko Bill Maher.
  Said patients didn't want me.
  So many lies. Wrong!
• 2019-08-12: So much wrong here. The issue is Trump's thumbs-up, shit-eating grin like it's a campaign stop. FLOTUS, who won't let her own son be photographed, joins in taking advantage of orphan whose parents were just murdered by a Trump-supporting terrorist. Too bad the dead can't #getalife. (Link)
• 2019-08-12: @RepLanceGooden, Trump and his enablers like you are masters at stoking tensions. Ironically it only emboldens Iran.
• 2019-08-12: If you read just one story about the intra-party fight going on in the Texas GOP, read Jim Schutze's comprehensive summary: "Bonnen vs. Empower Texans Christians, Lies and Secret Tapes in Austin" (Link)
• 2019-08-13: After Life (TV 2019): Even if, like me, you don't care for Ricky Gervais, try this series. He's mean-spirited and rude as always, but with a reason. He's grieving the death of his wife. There is wisdom here. Supporting cast is strong. Story arc is predictable. B-
• 2019-08-13: Trump says he delayed tariffs because of concerns over Christmas shopping season.
  In Whoville they say that Trump's small heart grew three sizes that day.
• 2019-08-15: @RepLanceGooden, huge tax cuts for the 1% is not empowering entrepreneurs.
  Huge cuts to Medicare do not increase jobs.
• 2019-08-15: @JohnCornyn says voter IDs are available "for the asking." Would that it were that simple.
  Thousands of registered voters don’t have the forms of identification that the state now requires for voting. And they are already registered voters. Read their horror stories. (Link)
• 2019-08-15: @JohnCornyn, and voter suppression takes more forms that just requiring photo ID. Ham-handed voter roll purges in Texas just this year is a prominent example. Protecting the vote is not what the GOP wants. Suppressing the Democratic vote is the real aim.
• 2019-08-15: Whether you love him or hate him, you have to vote against him. It's that important.
• 2019-08-16: @RepLanceGooden, by not defending your fellow Congress persons who were denied entry to Israel, you are standing with a foreign power against the US and its duly elected representatives in Congress. Not a good look. There used to bipartisan agreement that politics stops at the water's edge.
• 2019-08-20: @RepLanceGooden, children who have been separated from their parents could tell you it's no joke.
• 2019-08-20: The Umbrella Academy (TV 2019): Childhood superheroes, now grown up, reunite to save the world. But first they have to deal with lots of old family issues. Goofy, quirky fun figuring out all that's going on, the central mystery of the apocalypse, and the interrelationships. B+
• 2019-08-23: The Great Hack (2019): How Cambridge Analytica, using Facebook data, profiled millions of voters and bombarded them with fake news propaganda to sway 2016 election. Title is misnomer. Facebook freely handed over data. Zuckerberg and Trump are still in charge. 2020 is coming. A-
• 2019-08-27: No Bedbugs at Doral. Trump 2020 (Link)
• 2019-08-28: "I’ve always been all for single-member council districts. It’s the only way to give neighborhoods power and prevent the city from being totally domineered by a deep-pockets business slate." -- Jim Schutze.
  Bad as single-member system can be, he's right.
• 2019-08-29: "Remember bitch, you clicked on my face." -- Dave Chappelle.
  And...that's the point I clicked away. Punching down, not up, is not funny. It's bullying.
• 2019-08-29: @leachfortexas, "Ted Cruz reads ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ in 21 hour marathon filibuster against Obamacare.
  TWENTY-ONE hours.
• 2019-08-29: Republicans' idea of a national healthcare system is GoFundMe.
  (h/t AOC)
• 2019-08-30: There's a sports journalism website called "The Athletic" that is selling online subscriptions. If you subscribe, I guess you could be called an Athletic supporter. Didn't anyone think before registering the trademark? (Link)
• 2019-08-30: @NateSilver538, "On, Wisconsin!" was regarded by John Philip Sousa as "the finest of college marching songs" -- Wikipedia.
  Who am I to argue with Sousa?
• 2019-08-30: @RepLanceGooden, Undocumented immigrants aren't "exploit[ing] taxpayer funded projects." They are contributing their own money to keep costs down for all.
• 2019-08-31: More good advice: if it's coming out of John Cornyn's mouth, it probably isn't right.