Open Thread - Friday, November 5, 2015

Submitted by NCTim on Fri, 11/06/2015 - 6:54am

I have been absent this week. I keep my C99 buds in mind though.

The days are really busy and I spend my nights thinking.

The Internet just drags me down.

I sure would like to turn back the hands of time.

Back to when life was kinder.

When we were living our dreams.

That's my story.

I don't get to write the ending.

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Submitted by gulfgal98 on Fri, 11/06/2015 - 7:34am

:(

I am so sorry, Tim. Words cannot convey what I wish in my heart for you and your family. Damn, sometimes life sucks. Hang in there, my friend.

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by NCTim on Fri, 11/06/2015 - 8:48am

Thanks GG

I am just girding myself for the inevitable.

If you play the songs backwards, your lover somes back, the dog revives and the pickup truck starts.

—

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Fri, 11/06/2015 - 11:34am

Hiya Tim. Sorry about the way things are going and

what you're going through.

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by gjohnsit on Fri, 11/06/2015 - 11:45am

Russian/Iranian/Syrian offensive goes poorly

link

Islamist faction Jund al-Aqsa, backed by some of the more militant portions of the Free Syrian Army, today attacked and captured the town of Murak, in the northern part of Syria’s Hama Province. This was the last government-held town on the highway between Hama and Aleppo.

In another month or so it will become obvious that Russian intervention only bought the Assad regime some time.

Submitted by lotlizard on Sat, 11/07/2015 - 11:04pm

Juan Cole was reporting a success for the Syrian government

In Rare Victory, Syrian Army breaks ISIL siege of West Aleppo

Submitted by gjohnsit on Fri, 11/06/2015 - 12:22pm

About today's blow-out jobs report

- Workers aged 55 and over: +378,000
- Workers aged 25-54: -35,000

Education and Health: +57K
Professional Services: +54K
Retail Trade: +44K
Leisure and Hospitality: +41K
Temp Help: +25K

And Manufacturing workers: +0

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Fri, 11/06/2015 - 12:40pm

Both Pew and Gallup released Polls today.

Good day, everyone.

I'm a fan of these two polling companies. They ask interesting and highly nuanced questions and come up with the most penetrating results. For example, they both polled (by telephone) the people of Crimea some months after their Reunification vote to join Russia. They asked wide ranging questions about the outcome of their voting decision. Bottom line: Well above 85 percent expressed to the pollers a very high approval of their own decision to rejoin Russia. Thus, the human right to self-determination is alive and well in the world today — without a shot being fired.

Today, Gallup asked how the Republican debates, so far, have affected the opinions of Democrats and Independents in terms of recognition and approval. Their polling has revealed "not much."

The average change in candidate net favorable ratings among Republicans between the time period before the first debate and the time period after the second debate (but before the third debate on Oct. 28, whose impact it is still too early to measure) was 10.1 percentage points. I'm looking here at "pure" Republicans who initially identify as such in our partisanship question, different from other analyses in Gallup.com articles that includes Republicans who identify as independents but who, in a follow-up question, say they lean Republican.

By contrast, the average change in the net favorable ratings of the candidates among Democrats over this time period was 1.9 points, and among independents 3.6 points. In other words, as we would expect, the debates had a significantly greater impact on the ways in which Republicans viewed the candidates than on independents' and Democrats' perceptions of them. Democrats' views of the candidates in particular were essentially unchanged over the course of the first two debates.

http://www.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/186515/gauging-impact-gop-...

Pew's poll was far more complex as it looks at partisan divides over the issues of climate change — across several countries. As expected, the partisan divide was deepest in the US, but several countries (mostly Anglo colonies plus Germany) also had a higher than normal politicization of the scientific data. Here's the US breakout:

For more information on other national opinions about climate change, check out this poll at:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/06/the-u-s-isnt-the-only-na...

—

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

Submitted by mimi on Fri, 11/06/2015 - 1:19pm

... the internet just drags me down ...

...me too... let's cry together. And after that we can start laughing a bit about ourselves. Some of my in-laws in my past life a long time ago always said, heh, "la vie, c'est la lutte, c'est le renouveau constant". Hang in there, Tim.