chocolatpi
chocolatpi's JournalTook me all morning to complete my ballot.
That was with help on the Judges from ballotpedia.com and recommendations or articles from the Arizona Republic on the other non-partisan portion. As always, it was a struggle to decide who should stay on the judicial bench and who should go home.
I can not believe that people who work could or would spend this much time. It's a shame that many leave a good portion of options on the ballot blank. The language used to explain some of the propositions with those for and against arguments would be enough to make my head spin if I was not a political junkie.
Greg Stanton (D) AZ 9 for Congress
Greg Stanton AZ 9 Congress (D) shreds Republican in debate
I listened to a debate this morning on NPR. Let me tell you, our candidate just shredded the GOP candidate. Greg didn’t hesitate while articulating his accomplishments as Mayor of the 5th largest city in the US, Phoenix.
The moderator controlled the topics, all “bread and butter” AZ voter concerns, health care, taxes and the economy and immigration.
On health care, Greg voiced strong support for the ACA, the importance of covering pre-existing conditions and reducing drug costs. He promised to take action if elected. Mayor Stanton said he lead the charge in expanding Medicare for the City of Phoenix when our state legislature opposed it.
On taxes, job growth and the economy, he shared his successes as Mayor and his desire to introduce meaningful infrastructure projects when elected. He said his focus would be on the middle class, not a tax cut for the corporations and the wealthiest. He correctly stated that the Republican tax cut did not benefit middle class families.
Stanton wisely pointed to the efforts of Senators McCain and Flake who supported bi-partisan solutions for immigration and “dreamers”. He pointed out that a major portion of the Mexican border is on Tribal land and that ranchers on the boarder do not want their land confiscated.
He is the best candidate to represent the interests of Arizona be they Democrats, Republicans or Independents.
Greg Stanton debate on NPR this AM
Greg Stanton AZ 9 Congress (D) shreds Republican in debate
I listened to a debate this morning on NPR. Let me tell you, our candidate just shredded the GOP candidate. Greg didn’t hesitate while articulating his accomplishments as Mayor of the 5th largest city in the US, Phoenix.
The moderator controlled the topics, all “bread and butter” AZ voter concerns, health care, taxes and the economy and immigration.
On health care, Greg voiced strong support for the ACA, the importance of covering pre-existing conditions and reducing drug costs. He promised to take action if elected. Mayor Stanton said he lead the charge in expanding Medicare for the City of Phoenix when our state legislature opposed it.
On taxes, job growth and the economy, he shared his successes as Mayor and his desire to introduce meaningful infrastructure projects when elected. He said his focus would be on the middle class, not a tax cut for the corporations and the wealthiest. He correctly stated that the Republican tax cut did not benefit middle class families.
Stanton wisely pointed to the efforts of Senators McCain and Flake who supported bi-partisan solutions for immigration and “dreamers”. He pointed out that a major portion of the Mexican border is on Tribal land and that ranchers on the boarder do not want their land confiscated.
He is the best candidate to represent the interests of Arizona be they Democrats, Republicans or Independents.
Hundreds of wild horses in California set for round up, possible slaughter
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hundreds-of-wild-horses-in-california-set-for-round-up-possible-slaughter/ar-BBNZas9Hundreds of wild horses in California set for round up, possible slaughter
By Andrew Sheeler, The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif)
In a remote corner of California, the U.S. Forest Service is set to round up a thousand wild horses and acknowledges that many of them could be sold to distant slaughterhouses.
The first "horse gather" in Modoc National Forest, in northeast California, in more than a dozen years has alarmed activists. The government, says the American Wild Horse Campaign, is "exploiting a legal loophole" that will result in the slaughter of hundreds of animals.
The roundup is set to begin Oct. 9 and last through the month, and will target 1,000 horses from a herd in the Devils Garden Plateau Wild Horse Territory inside the national forest.
Thousands Protest Felling German Forest to Expand Coal Mine
For our German residents on DU, thank you for taking action.
https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2018-10-06/thousands-protest-felling-german-forest-to-expand-coal-mine
Thousands Protest Felling German Forest to Expand Coal Mine
Thousands of environmentalists are protesting the expansion of a coal mine in western Germany a day after a court blocked the felling of an endangered forest near the site.
Oct. 6, 2018
BERLIN (AP) — Thousands of environmentalists are protesting the expansion of a coal mine in western Germany a day after a court blocked the felling of an endangered forest near the site.
The mood Saturday at Hambacher Forest near Cologne was celebratory as thousands expressed relief over the court's temporary halt to the clearing of Hambach Forest.
The Muenster administrative court issued a temporary halt Friday after an environmental group argued the forest deserves protected status because of the bats that live there.
Energy company RWE wants to expand its adjacent lignite strip mine. The standoff between police and protesters — some of whom have camped for months in tree houses — has made the ancient woodland a cause celebre for environmentalists.
Thousands Protest Felling German Forest to Expand Coal Mine
https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2018-10-06/thousands-protest-felling-german-forest-to-expand-coal-mineThousands Protest Felling German Forest to Expand Coal Mine
Thousands of environmentalists are protesting the expansion of a coal mine in western Germany a day after a court blocked the felling of an endangered forest near the site.
Oct. 6, 2018
BERLIN (AP) — Thousands of environmentalists are protesting the expansion of a coal mine in western Germany a day after a court blocked the felling of an endangered forest near the site.
The mood Saturday at Hambacher Forest near Cologne was celebratory as thousands expressed relief over the court's temporary halt to the clearing of Hambach Forest.
The Muenster administrative court issued a temporary halt Friday after an environmental group argued the forest deserves protected status because of the bats that live there.
Energy company RWE wants to expand its adjacent lignite strip mine. The standoff between police and protesters — some of whom have camped for months in tree houses — has made the ancient woodland a cause celebre for environmentalists.
Thousands Protest Felling German Forest to Expand Coal Mine
https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2018-10-06/thousands-protest-felling-german-forest-to-expand-coal-mineThousands Protest Felling German Forest to Expand Coal Mine
Thousands of environmentalists are protesting the expansion of a coal mine in western Germany a day after a court blocked the felling of an endangered forest near the site.
Oct. 6, 2018
BERLIN (AP) — Thousands of environmentalists are protesting the expansion of a coal mine in western Germany a day after a court blocked the felling of an endangered forest near the site.
The mood Saturday at Hambacher Forest near Cologne was celebratory as thousands expressed relief over the court's temporary halt to the clearing of Hambach Forest.
The Muenster administrative court issued a temporary halt Friday after an environmental group argued the forest deserves protected status because of the bats that live there.
Energy company RWE wants to expand its adjacent lignite strip mine. The standoff between police and protesters — some of whom have camped for months in tree houses — has made the ancient woodland a cause celebre for environmentalists.
Ai Weiwei, artist, activist
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-ca-cm-ai-wei-wei-la-shows-20180927-story.htmlSep 27, 2018
Ai Weiwei is weary from travel.
The Chinese artist and human rights activist shuffles into the Marciano Art Foundation's cavernous Theater Gallery — he arrived in L.A. from Berlin just last night and has spent about half the year, he says, traversing the globe making films or exhibiting art. The Marciano space, a former Masonic temple theater, is dimly lighted and nearly empty, a box of cool, gray concrete. But at the far end of the room, light emanates from a new piece Ai has created – he's seeing it installed here for the first time.
Ai slowly makes his way across the room, soft spoken and a bit spacey, his loose cotton clothing fluttering ever so slightly from the AC — as if crossing a dark ocean toward the light. Finally, he peers over a railing into the glowing, sunken Black Box gallery housing his work. His cheeks lift and his eyes brighten.
..snip
Ai, an outspoken political dissident, has long been targeted by the Chinese Communist government for channeling his social justice activism into online projects and art that has resonated around the world. In 2011 he was arrested and detained, in a secret location, for 81 days after having been accused of vague economic crimes. Since getting his passport back in 2015, he's resided in Berlin but has kept an active studio in Beijing, his Zuoyou studio, where "Life Cycle" was assembled under his guidance.
Just days after the artwork was shipped to L.A., Ai's Beijing studio was demolished by the Chinese government. No one was hurt, but some artworks were damaged, others totally destroyed. He'd been alerted, months earlier, that he'd eventually have to vacate the space because it was being redeveloped – but the demolition began, as a surprise to him, before the mutually agreed upon evacuation date and without his consent.
"It was quite surreal, I was shocked," he says. "But in a state like China, you have no space to make any kind of argument or communication. You have to just stand there and watch."
Schrodinger's Cat Is Alive! (One-Twelfth of the Time)
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/09/schrodingers-cat-is-alive-one-twelfth-of-the-time/Schrödinger’s Cat Is Alive! (One-Twelfth of the Time)
KEVIN DRUMSEPTEMBER 21, 2018
Bear with me for a second while I check to see if there’s any obvious outrageousness this morning that I need to comment on right away. [checks LAT, NYT, WSJ, WaPo] Nah, not really. So let’s talk science.
You all know about Schrödinger’s cat, poor thing, don’t you? The basic idea behind the experiment is that in the quantum world of particles we don’t know if a particle changes state until we observe it. Before that, it’s in an indeterminate state doing nothing in particular. So Erwin Schrödinger proposed that we put a cat in a box along with a particle that has a 50 percent chance of turning radioactive and killing the cat. Eventually we open the box and find out what happened.
But what about the cat before we open the box? It’s one thing to say that the particle is all smushed out and we don’t really know what state it’s in. But a cat? Come on. The cat is either dead or alive. But no: Schrödinger says that the cat too remains in a mysterious smeared out state, neither dead nor alive, until we open the box. At that point “the wave equation collapses” and the cat’s fate is determined.
That sounds weird, but whatever. Not as weird as plenty of other stuff in quantum mechanics. The thing is that no one really, truly believes quantum mechanics. Even physicists. Oh, they’ll do the math and produce answers accurate to ten decimal points. And the math always produces correct answers. But the answers are weird, so there’s long been a cottage industry in trying to “break” quantum mechanics to figure out what’s really going on below all the weirdness. These attempts are often very clever (physicists, right?) but they always fail.
...snip
Meh. Someone made a mistake. Eventually someone else will figure it out. It’s quantum mechanics. It will never make sense to us meat machines.
¹Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. Get it? Physicists are hilarious.
Physicist Kevin Drum questions if Schrdinger's Cat Is Alive!
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/09/schrodingers-cat-is-alive-one-twelfth-of-the-time/
Schrödinger’s Cat Is Alive! (One-Twelfth of the Time)
KEVIN DRUMSEPTEMBER 21, 2018
Bear with me for a second while I check to see if there’s any obvious outrageousness this morning that I need to comment on right away. [checks LAT, NYT, WSJ, WaPo] Nah, not really. So let’s talk science.
You all know about Schrödinger’s cat, poor thing, don’t you? The basic idea behind the experiment is that in the quantum world of particles we don’t know if a particle changes state until we observe it. Before that, it’s in an indeterminate state doing nothing in particular. So Erwin Schrödinger proposed that we put a cat in a box along with a particle that has a 50 percent chance of turning radioactive and killing the cat. Eventually we open the box and find out what happened.
But what about the cat before we open the box? It’s one thing to say that the particle is all smushed out and we don’t really know what state it’s in. But a cat? Come on. The cat is either dead or alive. But no: Schrödinger says that the cat too remains in a mysterious smeared out state, neither dead nor alive, until we open the box. At that point “the wave equation collapses” and the cat’s fate is determined.
That sounds weird, but whatever. Not as weird as plenty of other stuff in quantum mechanics. The thing is that no one really, truly believes quantum mechanics. Even physicists. Oh, they’ll do the math and produce answers accurate to ten decimal points. And the math always produces correct answers. But the answers are weird, so there’s long been a cottage industry in trying to “break” quantum mechanics to figure out what’s really going on below all the weirdness. These attempts are often very clever (physicists, right?) but they always fail.
...snip
Meh. Someone made a mistake. Eventually someone else will figure it out. It’s quantum mechanics. It will never make sense to us meat machines.
¹Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. Get it? Physicists are hilarious.
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