Category: Media and Culture,

New Zealand firefighters perform haka to honour 9/11 first responders – CNN

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Pacific Basin,Leave a comment

 

New Zealand firefighters perform haka to honour 9/11 first responders – CNN

There is something so incredibly moving about a haka.

Meghan McCain Lashes Trump: You’re OK With Inviting the Taliban but Not Hurricane Refugees

On By peanutgallerynhIn Caribbean,, Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Race,Leave a comment

McCain, meanwhile, said that “the humanity seems completely removed” from Trump, adding that the “best part of America” is that we’re supposed to be the “shining beacon on the hill” and yet the president is now refusing to help people devastated by a natural disaster.

This prompted co-host Whoopi Goldberg to openly wonder how anyone can look at this and say that this isn’t a racial problem, considering the vast majority of the Bahamian survivors are black.

Meghan McCain Lashes Trump: You’re OK With Inviting the Taliban but Not Hurricane Refugees

hmmm

South Dakota Democratic Party offices closing

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

According to the Federal Election Commission, the South Dakota Democratic Party started the most recent reporting period in July with $31,267 but ended the month with just $3,181; which is a trend the party has seen during the past year.

Additionally, the SDDP receives at least $10,000 per month from the Democratic National Party, according to FEC reports.

South Dakota Democrat Chair Paula Hawks said that the decreased funds are caused by “extreme mismanagement and lack of oversight.”

South Dakota Democratic Party offices closing

sigh…

The One-Two Punch That Second-Tier Democrats Are Counting On

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

The second-tier candidates are wary of trying to replicate the Hail Mary pass Ms. Harris heaved at the first debate in June. Her highly personal attack on Mr. Biden over busing won her a much-needed spike in donations and a lift in the polls, but her gains turned out to be fleeting and her broadside angered some voters uneasy with intraparty conflict.

…Senator Cory Booker also tangled with Mr. Biden in the second debate, but he has appeared to gain little from the encounter. Yet even as he continued to target the former vice president in New Hampshire — “We can’t make the mistake that says, ‘Oh, we got to play it safe,’” he warned Democrats — Mr. Booker also turned his attention to Ms. Warren.

“This election is not just about our plans, it’s about our heart and gut,” he said

The One-Two Punch That Second-Tier Democrats Are Counting On – The New York Times

Oh, Cory… Knock it off. you sound like a snipy little wannabe mean-girl.

History and Hoping for a New Hampshire Miracle

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Granite State,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Even though it flies in the face of all the glib certainties TV pundits are fond of proclaiming …[is that] it is too soon to be writing off anyone with a credible record and proven history of winning elections (with the strong exception of Bill de Blasio and Tulsi Gabbard).

…I recall pundits declaring with voice-of-God certainty in late summer of 2015 that the only Republicans who could plausibly win the 2016 nomination were Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio.

New Hampshire voters, in particular, are late deciders—and, even then, mercurial in their selections. 

“Most New Hampshire voters aren’t really paying attention yet,” said pollster Andy Smith, the director of the University of New Hampshire’s Survey Center. 

…TV [and] print [news] would rather ballyhoo the shallow preferences of voters who are, in truth, still undecided than admit how much of the 2020 campaign is still in flux.

…The secret of winning a presidential nomination—or coming tantalizingly close—lies in peaking at the right moment. …”t’s a lot better to pop in January than to pop in August.” 

The Also-Rans Hoping for a New Hampshire Miracle | The New Republic

hmmmm

The richest American family hired terrorists to shoot machine guns at sleeping women and children

On By peanutgallerynhIn Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

The company towns, writes historian Philip Foner, were “feudal domains with the company acting as lord and master. The ‘law’ consisted of company rules. Curfews were imposed, company guards — brutal thugs armed with machine guns and rifles loaded with soft-point bullets — would not admit any ‘suspicious stranger’ into the camp.” CF&I was the most restrictive of all, and its employees often lived 20 to a shack, in houses owned by the company itself.

…In September, after the company refused demands for an eight-hour workday and the elimination of company guards, the workers went on strike. The labor organizer Mother Jones gave a rousing speech in support of the strike, for which she was imprisoned for 20 days.

…When she was released, she saw that the miners had been evicted from their shacks for attempting to strike. They were now living in tent colonies outside the towns of boarded-up shanties they had once called home. Not only that, but the company guards were arresting the newly homeless miners for vagrancy and forcing them to work for no pay as punishment. The miners were regularly beaten by the guards.

…In response to the terrorism of the agents, the miners and their families dug pits in the earth under their tents, in which they hid at night to avoid being sprayed by bullets. They endured this violence, living in their tents with their pits, all through the winter and spring. The few occasions they fired back at agents were used as justification for calling in the Colorado National Guard.

…President Woodrow Wilson, having been informed that the situation in Colorado was out of control and the Colorado Guardsmen were defeated, dispatched federal troops to the region.

…More than 400 miners were arrested and charged on nearly as many counts of murder, but only one was convicted, and the verdict was eventually overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court. It turned out that the State of Colorado, while waging war with guerrilla fighters within its own borders, had never declared martial law.

The richest American family hired terrorists to shoot machine guns at sleeping women and children

sigh…

She fled North Korea for a better life. How her lonely, impoverished death became political

On By peanutgallerynhIn East Asia,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

But their demands run deeper than Han’s case. They say newly arriving refugees should receive better job training and more financial and other support.

The Unification Ministry has acknowledged there have been “blind spots” and said it was examining its policies and procedures. The ministry announced last week it would conduct a wholesale survey of vulnerable North Korean refugee households across the country.

City officials also came by the memorial saying they intended to clear it because the structure wasn’t properly permitted.

The city backed off after one of the refugees doused himself with gasoline and threatened to set himself on fire.

She fled North Korea for a better life. How her lonely, impoverished death became political – Los Angeles Times

sigh…

Vermont is not New Hampshire

On By peanutgallerynhIn Granite State,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Aesthetics, however, is where the similarities between Vermont and New Hampshire end. Though the physical landscapes of these two bucolic states share much in common, their political landscapes are quite different. In fact, from a policy and political standpoint, these two neighboring states are on opposite ends of the spectrum. 

With annual state spending equivalent to 17% of state GDP, Vermont has the seventh largest state government in the country relative to the size of its state economy. New Hampshire, meanwhile, with state spending equaling less than 8% of GDP, has the smallest state government in the country except for Texas. 

Vermont, New Hampshire, And Joe Biden’s Confusion

Bill O’Brien is a tool. If he “got” New Hampshire, he’d still be in control of the NH House.

Russia’s Putin Offered Trump Hypersonic Weapons: ‘I Told Donald, We Can Sell You Some’

On By peanutgallerynhIn Central Northern Asia and The Caucasus,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

“the issue was raised as to how and in what way it would be possible to count Russian modern weapons, including the hypersonic missile systems, into the common agreements, considering that so far not a single country in the world possesses these weapons, not even the U.S.,” as quoted by the state-run Tass Russian News Agency.

“I told Donald the following: ‘If you want, we can sell you some and this way we will balance everything out. But truth be told, they are saying that they will soon produce it themselves,” Putin remarked.

Russia’s Putin Offered Trump Hypersonic Weapons: ‘I Told Donald, We Can Sell You Some’

oy…

Outer Banks wild horses will ride out Hurricane Dorian as usual, with ‘butts to the wind’

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Local Interest,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

The hurricane with no name threshed across the Atlantic coast in mid-September 1713, ripping at tobacco crops and sending panicked colonists inland, where the storm’s destructive power found them. 

…By then, the Spanish mustangs already had made a home on North Carolina’s thin, boomerang-shaped Outer Banks for two centuries, passing down cyclone-survival skills to foals for generations.

…Around 200 horses will stay and ride it out, as they have since the 16th century — seeking refuge under towering live oak trees.

It’s not their first rodeo, said Meg Puckett, the nonprofit’s herd manager. The wild horses will instinctually seek cover in wooded high grounds, standing in tight circles with their butts out like a reverse phalanx.

“After all that time, the herd just knows,” Puckett told The Washington Post by phone on Thursday, as wind hummed in the background, announcing Dorian’s inevitable approach up the coast. “That information is passed down from generation to generation.”

…They are thought to be descendants of horses that swam ashore after the shipwrecks.

Others believe they were simply abandoned by the Spaniards after various violent clashes with Native Americans and English settlers.

The horses are remarkably resilient in the harsh conditions, where fresh water and vegetation often give way to sand and salt. And they don’t scare like domestic horses. Facing a hurricane or a threat, they endure. “It says a lot about their resourcefulness and hardiness,” Puckett said. “They have an incredible will to survive.”

…In 2010, the Spanish mustang became the state horse of North Carolina, even as their future remains far from certain. Conservationists have focused their efforts on genetic diversity to keep mares and foals healthy, Puckett said.

…She is not concerned over Dorian’s approach. Many hurricanes have come and gone for 500 years, and the horses remain.

If they ever disappear, it’s unlikely that a hurricane will be the culprit.

Outer Banks wild horses will ride out Hurricane Dorian as usual – The Washington Post

huh