14 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

1. Queen Bee speaks:

   HD: Beyoncé's heartfelt message on natural disasters, climate change & how we're all in this together. #HandInHand pic.twitter.com/7f0o6t8GpH

   — BEYONCÉ LEGION (@Bey_Legion) September 13, 2017

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2. While you weren't looking, Dems scored TWO more legislative special election pick-up bringing the total number of special election pick ups for Dems this year up to 6.  

   One district was in New Hampshire.  The other in Oklahoma.  These were Trump districts that swung hard towards the Dems.  The must have gotten V's memo.  Trump stinks.

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   1. Trump stinks is God's memo.  I'm just her messenger

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      1. This seems to relate well to your warning.

          

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3. Rest in peace, Edie Windsor…and thank you for standing up for all of us.  

    

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   1. Ditto, Arvadonian.

      If you've got the time, this was a nice piece written after the Windsor v. U.S. decision:https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/30/the-perfect-wife?mbid=social_twitter

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4. You may or may not recognize someone on this list…

   The Complete List of Racists

   “I believe in fairness. That’s why I would never stoop so low as to defame a member of the Ku Klux Klan or a Nazi. When I refer to Klansmen, I call them 'micropenis fuckwad cowards,' as opposed to neo-Nazis, who are correctly referred to as 'feebleminded gaping anuses.'

   “I also believe that instead of calling everyone a white supremacist, it is time we differentiated among the different kinds of douche nozzles that make up the community of racists in our great nation. Therefore, we offer you this handy guide so that you may become acquainted with the different sects of shit-for-brains that populate the American bigot landscape…”

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5. Hot off the Washington Post wire.This couldn't have happened to a more deserving jackass. Bail revoked.
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/09/13/martin-shkreli-apologizes-for-facebook-post-about-hillary-clinton/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_shkreli616pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.9e143d2d610c

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   1. White.  Trash.  

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      1. 

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         1. My son and I have been using "Shkreli" as a perjorative for some time now. As in…"Don't be such a Shkreli, ________."  (fill in the blank.)

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6. The opinions of our Great Colorado Climate Change Republican Thunk-Tank aside, science is now informing us of yet another casualty of climate change: food nutrients

   The Great Nutrient Collapse 

   IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH, it’s been understood for some time that many of our most important foods have been getting less nutritious. Measurements of fruits and vegetables show that their minerals, vitamin and protein content has measurably dropped over the past 50 to 70 years. Researchers have generally assumed the reason is fairly straightforward: We’ve been breeding and choosing crops for higher yields, rather than nutrition, and higher-yielding crops—whether broccoli, tomatoes, or wheat—tend to be less nutrient-packed.

   In 2004, a landmark study of fruits and vegetables found that everything from protein to calcium, iron and vitamin C had declined significantly across most garden crops since 1950. The researchers concluded this could mostly be explained by the varieties we were choosing to grow.

   Loladze and a handful of other scientists have come to suspect that’s not the whole story and that the atmosphere itself may be changing the food we eat. Plants need carbon dioxide to live the same way humans need oxygen. And in the increasingly polarized debate about climate science, one thing that isn’t up for debate is that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is rising. Before the industrial revolution, the earth’s atmosphere had about 280 parts per million of carbon dioxide. Last year, the planet crossed over the 400 parts per million threshold; scientists predict we will likely reach 550 parts per million within the next half-century—essentially twice the amount that was in the air when Americans started farming with tractors.

    

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7. Let's be blunt, Moddy.  When you've lost Orin….

   Hatch announces support for medical marijuana in pun-laden statement

   Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) announced Wednesday that he will introduce a bill to remove barriers blocking research into medical marijuana.

   In a pun-filled statement released on Twitter, Hatch said it was "high time" to address the issue.

   “It’s high time to address research into medical marijuana,” Hatch said Wednesday. “Our country has experimented with a variety of state solutions without properly delving into the weeds on the effectiveness, safety, dosing, administration, and quality of medical marijuana."

   "To be blunt," Hatch added, "we need to remove the administrative barriers preventing legitimate research into medical marijuana, which is why I’ve decided to roll out the MEDS Act.”

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   1. Someone had fun with that….I counted 5 puns.

      funny… 

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