Hal Brown blog October 2021 -

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Oct. 26, 2021

I happened to be seeing my doctor for something unrelated to Covid and he was able to give me a Moderna booster shot. Here's what you need to know about getting a booster if you are eligible.

Oct. 25, 2021

Oct. 22, 2021

1. (transitive) When you grate something, you turn it into little pieces by rubbing it against something sharp or rough.

   He grated an entire block of cheese for the nachos.

2. (transitive) When you grate something, you rub it against something in a way that makes a loud, annoying noise.

   During the math test, the student grated his pencil against the side of his desk so loudly that the teacher threatened to throw the pencil out the window.

3. (transitive) When a person grates, they say something in a loud, often annoying voice.

   "Silence during tests!" the teacher grated in a voice that was almost as loud as the pencil.

4. (intransitive) When someone or someone grates on you, it makes you annoyed. It is hard to deal with or listen to.

   She means well, but she has a loud, high, perky voice that just grates on me.

   The constant sound of construction outside my house grated on my nerves until I had to leave.

Oct. 19, 2021

Oct. 16, 2021

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Oct. 12, 2021

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Oct. 10, 2021

Oct. 9, 2021

Oct. 8, 2021

Eugene Robinson has been on MSNBC discussing this OpEd. 

He begins:

T.S. Eliot wrote that the world ends "not with a bang but a whimper,” but I fear our great nation is careening toward a third manner of demise: descent into lip-blubbering, self-destructive idiocy.

How did we become, in such alarming measure, so dumb? Why is the news dominated by ridiculous controversies that should not be controversial at all? When did so many of our fellow citizens become full-blown nihilists who deny even the concept of objective reality? And how must this look to the rest of the world?

Read the headlines and try not to weep... 

and then he goes on to list various things demonstrating this before he concludes:

I get it. The GOP has become the party of White racial grievance, and this battle against an imaginary enemy stirs the base. But the whole charade involves Republican officials — many of them educated at the nation’s top schools — betting that their constituents are too dumb to know they’re being lied to. So far, the bet is paying off.

And then, of course, there’s the whole “stolen election” farce, which led to the tragedy of Jan. 6. Every recount, every court case, every verifiable fact proves that Joe Biden fairly defeated Donald Trump. Yet a sizeable portion of the American electorate either can’t do basic arithmetic or doesn’t believe that one plus one always equals two.

How dumb can a nation get and still survive? Idiotically, we seem determined to find out.

No posts on Oct. 4 and 5

Oct. 3, 2021

Oct. 2, 2021

Quote of the Day, from 

Opinion: Don’t be afraid of the election audits — they may be our only ticket out of this mess, by Republican Ben Ginsburg, Wash. Post (subscription)

His conclusion:

If the audits that Trump himself has demanded keep coming up empty, maybe, just maybe, some true believers in Trump’s falsehood will recognize he’s been feeding them snake oil.

These proceedings run by Trump supporters at least present that opportunity. Reducing that 30 percent number will be good for everyone, Republicans included.

Challenging election outcomes when one party doesn’t like the results is a door Republicans need to realize swings both ways. Having two-thirds of your voters not trusting election results will over time injure Republicans more than Democrats. Why should Republican voters turn out? It’s a lethal path for a party that has already seen depressed turnout in some elections, such as the Georgia Senate runoffs and California governor’s recall.

Moreover, if a state’s elections are so flawed that Democratic victories should be reversed, that will also be fodder for Democrats to challenge the certifications of Republicans who ran on the same ballots.

Something has to change, and the key to that change is to convince some portion of the 30 percent that Trump has failed to deliver on his bombast. Trump is hoisting himself on his petard. Let him.

Oct. 1, 2021 

 My Kos story How to tell if and when Trump becomes psychotic

 These are a few other stories that piqued my interest today: 

Potato milk isn't available in the United States yet. The article provides a recipe for making your own, however it seems to me that if you like sweet potatoes better and because making the beverage is time consuming you might want to make sweet potato milk instead.

Also: A child pianist makes it to Carnegie Hall and a tree in Portland with house destroying roots. This (map below) effects me because I send and receive mail from Massachusetts, this map of how new post office slowdown will effect people in various states (Click image to enlarge):

I have been saving my bread bag clips for some time for no particular reason. I just found a graphic that shows ,any things they cane be used for (click image to enlarge)

Back to September with links to my Daily Kos stories, also here where the previous two stories I posted made their Trending list and each had over 1000 readers.