I was driven to create this poll by the seeming absence of DUers in the late-night hours, so I have my suspicion as to how it will turn out... hell, I would not be awake myself at this time, and lately am not-- except I woke up so early yesterday (5 am) that I fell asleep in the early evening for 5-6 hours, and am thus now awake in the middle of the night... lol


Love you all!

Edit: sorry, I forgot, I am 59 years old... but looking good for my age-- genes from my father. lol

(Originally posted as a response to https://democraticunderground.com/100216442875
but so long-winded I thought I may as well make an OP of it-- as I'd appreciate response that is unlikely in some other thread)

God Bless the patriots in Ukraine-- ( or whatever deity, or no deity that you choose to believe in..)


OK--- but 'how suicidal is he?'

It isn't his veiled or not so veiled threats of nuclear war that frighten me-- after all, he is 'smart' and 'savvy' enough to realize that what he threatens is 'mutually assured suicide'-- if not personal suicide (since he could hunker down and survive for a long while), then the mutual suicide of Russia and the United States as superpowers, and as nation-states---


It is the fact that he does not seem entirely rational, in combination with his nuclear threats, which frightens me.
I don't want to die, yet...

As such, I am counting on the courage of the people of Ukraine, as our own 'buffer zone'. I pray for them to inflict so much damage on the Russian armed forces, that Putin will be unable to subsequently mount military aggression against any NATO country afterwards. I realize that this is selfish....but I no longer enjoy 'the immortality of youth'.

The borders of NATO countries is where I draw the line-- where we have actual treaty commitments. If it comes to that, then that is where we must stand firm and ignore his nuclear threats. This gives me a little time to make my own personal arrangements, if I believe they are necessary...

I bought a house in 2020, on the northern edge of a 'tertiary target', my state capitol... I was a 'student' of nuclear bomb effects and a 'survival hobbyist' in the 1980s--- but I thought those days were over when I bought this property. Now I regret not making more of an effort to get well outside of this city....

Now whatever preparations I might make, the whole house would likely come down on me in a major exchange-- and I can't afford to bury a shelter in the backyard... and even if I did, what would I emerge for, afterward?

I hope Putin is "as sane" as the subject of the OP seems to believe.
( https://democraticunderground.com/100216442875 )

I re-watched "The Day After" a few days ago...

so to speak--- or whatever entity you believe in, or none at all...



MY President did as well as I hoped for tonight, and I have no criticisms.

(It was a long speech which he may have fumbled in a few instances--- but his delivery was better than mine would have been, and I am 20 years younger...)


I was pleasantly surprised, during the early part of the speech, to see so many Republican lawmakers on their feet-- trying to separate themselves from Trump and Tucker Carlson regarding the Russian offensive against Ukraine...


STILL MY CHOICE for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, if he presents himself.
THE MAN FOR THIS MOMENT !!!!

:::: flush ::::

::::flush::::

:::FLUSH!::::



TFG may have had a point, about the effectiveness of modern toilets to flush down Republican bullshit....

It's a morale boost.

"I was taught the ‘opposing perspective’ of the Holocaust in middle school. I’ll never forget it"

"In the fallout from NBC News’ revelations that teachers in Texas were told to teach “opposing perspectives” about the Holocaust, many people are asking what teaching “opposing perspectives” of the Holocaust looks like. I know from personal experience, since I attended a Holocaust class that invited us to consider the Nazi perspective class in middle school. The school was our local public school in Oxford, and the class in question occurred when I was in Year 6 (the equivalent of 5th grade) in the U.K.

The experience was enraging and humiliating.

The teacher started with raw video footage of the concentration camps. We sat on the floor cross-legged and watched a bulldozer shovel piles of naked, emaciated Jewish corpses into a pit, the way they dispose of trash at landfills.

The hopelessly age-inappropriate film without context was bad enough. But our teacher decided, for reasons I will never understand, to explore industrial genocide through the medium of interpretative dance.

We could play the role of either a Jew getting murdered or a Nazi guard doing the murdering. Our choice."


Worth a full read.
https://forward.com/opinion/476861/i-was-taught-opposing-perspectives-holocaust-never-forget/


Suffice to say. how can it be rational to require teachers to teach "opposing perspectives" to events which were entirely and incredibly evil? This country fought against the Nazis-- yet now those who would deem themselves 'more patriotic than the liberals' have made it law to require that we look at things from the Nazi's point of view, when it comes to exterminating Jews, liberals, socialists, handicapped people etc ?

So I guess when the cases of mass murderers are mentioned, the teachers are required to bring in the perspective point of view of the mass murderers? Ted Bundy? Jeffry Dahmer?

I presume that many of those in Texas who voted for these (anti-CRT) laws are churchgoing 'christians'. Children get taught things there in Sunday school... would it not be proper, that the Sunday school teachers be required to include the perspective of an opposing point of view? I could give them one: the christian church is responsible for thousands upon thousands of genocidal murders-- across the world, and in this our own country... not as much today, as in our past (although it continues 'small-scale')-- against native Americans and against African-Americans...

It is my considered opinion that states controlled by Democrats ought to require schools to teach that the Republican party is evil, that the Republican party has become out and out fascist, that the Republican party is no better than the German Nazi party of the 1930s-40s-- and I think that it would be MORE proper to require that, than what they are doing in Texas and elsewhere.

I was a Sanders supporter in 2016 (who of course turned out to vote for Hillary in the general election, being a loyal Democrat--even said "I'm with her!" at the time of her nomination). In 2020, while still sympathetic to Sanders and his positions on issues, I turned out in the Michigan Democratic primary to vote for Joe Biden— as I did feel that it was most important for a Democrat to kick ‘the former guy’ out of the White House, and that we nominate the strongest candidate possible (i.e. not someone who could be credibly flagged as an ‘extemist’— although the GQP did their best at it, and still attempt it...) I have been a Democrat all my life-- ever since my parents helped me aquire a McGovern button in 1972...

Since the election and Joe Biden’s victory, I have been very happy with my new President Joe Biden, and the progressive initiatives he has supported and defended. He is my fucking hero! Although there might be a few issues where I might wish for more-— it is early yet, and I cannot predict what might be possible for his ‘future transformation’— but I am more than satisfied with what I have gotten from my President so far!

(I supported Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, after Hart screwed himself out of it… always thought Joe got a raw deal over very little.)

“I’m with Joe”! BIDEN 24!!!!!


I strongly support President Biden's move towards covid vaccine mandates (my only problem is they might have been too slow-- but a short time ago things looked better than they do now, and the wheels of government turn slowly... he has now taken the absolutely correct position, and this is the kind of leadership for which I voted!!!)

I own a Biden flag and sundry Biden bumperstickers which I would like to display--- but I fear making myself vulnerable to slashed tires or random gunshots into my home! I would like to be more courageous and dismissive of the threats of the right, but in my older age I realize I am no longer 'immortal'. (when I was 18 years I had so many left-wing bumperstickers on my car that a cop commented on them, after pulling me over...derisively... but now I fear even posting a sticker that says "I'm with Joe"??!! WTF has happened to this country...? I did my best, anyway)

At least it is safe on this site to say, "I'm with Joe and Kamala!!!"
My Biden flag flies proudly in my basement, here with my computer station..

Love you all... even those with whom I sometimes do not agree!

Those of you who are young and energetic, and motivated and active and aggressive and activated and "activists"-- I love you especially! I wish I were out there with you! You do the work of my heart, and I THANK YOU for doing what I don't have the energy to do anymore... God bless you!!!! (or whatever entity you may or not believe in, lol)

According to a report from Florida Today, a Brevard County School Board member and her daughter were harassed in front of her home on Wednesday night by anti-mask protesters that ended with one protester coughing in her face at close range.

The report notes that Jennifer Jenkins has been under fire from local anti-vaxxers with calls for her to resign and some protesters calling her a "tyrant" for advocating pro-mask policies in schools.

Those attacks escalated on Wednesday when protesters showed up at her home.

Florida Today reports that Jenkins filed a report with Satellite Police Department after a protester coughed in her face. Jenkins also said a protester swung a flag at her.

Read more:
https://www.rawstory.com/jennifer-jenkins-school-board-mask-protest/


An anti-mask protester came to her home, and coughed in her face?!

That is arguably a threat to her very life. Nay, not just a threat, but a potentially deadly assault!

Florida has the "Stand your ground" law... It seems to me that someone attacked thusly would be legally justified, under that law, of defending themselves however they thought necessary. They would certainly be morally justified.

Threatening someone with exposure to COVID is a threat to their life. It's not "freedumb"...

In this case, it was clearly an assault.

I am OVER these people.

Yes, things looked better a few months ago, and everyone was looking forward to "getting back to normal"... but the situation has changed radically-- with the super-infectious Delta variant running wild, and the vaccination program stalled (due to the refuse-niks).


In many areas of the country, this would seem to call for a change in the plan... Of course, the worst of the worst are ruled by what can only be described as "pro-covid Republican" governors, who seem intent on getting as many children AND adults infected as possible, but what about the rest?

All we have going for us if that something more than 50% of us have been vaccinated, but that is no longer as effective against this Delta variant-- and the children under 12 are not vaccinated at all, yet we are forcing them to congregate in confined indoor spaces again, with or without masks, whose effectiveness has always been limited anyway...

Back when this started, most (if not all?) of the schools were closed down very quickly, when the virus had only just begun to spread. Yet now, when there are many more active cases, hospitalizations, and over 600k deaths and climbing--- NOW we are forcing the children back into in-person covid factories? And many who get infected will bring the virus home to infect their unvaccinated (and some who have been vaccinated) parents...

Personally, I think it ought to be clear to most that this rush to re-open all the schools was a mistake. I thought it was a bad idea as soon as the Delta variant surfaced, and had my doubts about it before that. The pandemic was clearly not "over", although the situation did appear more hopeful (briefly) than it does now...

When you think about it, it seems clear to me that the "majority" who believe in science and masks and social distancing and vaccinations, have been "pushed" by the mask protesters and the anti-vaxxers and the politicians who were more worried about profits for their business backers than they were about public health-- into a pre-mature relaxation of precautions and a pre-mature full re-opening of schools as well as everything else. Even my own Governor Whitmer of Michigan, who mandated such strict protocols in the beginning of the pandemic, has declined to mandate masks for schools this fall.

(We are in better shape in Michigan vs. covid than many areas of the country, and I give full credit for that to our governor... but the cases are beginning to rise again, and it seems only a matter of time before things get bad again, with Delta even infecting a good number of vaccinated people who can then pass it on to others...Schools operating in-person with students under 12 unable to be vaccinated thus far, will only make the situation worse.)


I think that many schools are going to be forced to close down again, whether they like it or not, before this is over... and it seems to be FAR from over.

Source: Huffington Post

All of New Orleans is without power amid the ongoing assault by Hurricane Ida, the local energy company said Sunday night.

Entergy Louisiana told The Times-Picayune that Ida had already caused “catastrophic transmission damage” affecting the entire city. The only power in New Orleans is now coming from generators.

Ida hit the Louisiana coastline as a Category 4 behemoth, lashing the state with 150-mph winds, tying as the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland U.S. It weakened to a Category 3 storm as it closed in on New Orleans, but the sheer size of Ida threatened the massive levee system that has been rebuilt and strengthen around the iconic city.

The National Weather Service’s New Orleans office said later Sunday that it expected strong winds and heavy rain throughout the night, urging residents to remain sheltered in place.

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hurricane-ida-new-orleans-no-power_n_612c279de4b02be25b5d5b49