All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Tami]

Water goes from the oceans to the rivers to the aquifiers and then after filtration into use.

Did this guy even attend 8th grade?

I need to correct that. Water from the ocean evaporates into the air, then moves over land to become rain. As the rain falls, it either runs along the surface as surface water, or sinks into the ground as underground aquifers or groundwater, what you see when you look down into an old fashioned well. Water on the surface becomes rivers, lakes, and streams. Streams flow into rivers. Lake water can flow into rivers, or sometimes rivers flow into lakes depending on the topography and stratigraphy.

Rivers that are damned up become man-made reservoirs which is usually where most water that is used by people comes from.

All other water, water in rivers, flow down and out back into the Ocean.

I have a degree in Geology.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Minnesota's 6th Congressional District, Tom Emmer, a man who looked to be on the fast track into Congress with a record as a state legislator where he attempted to nullify federal law, abolish the minimum wage, and drug test people on government assistance. He also tried to have a bill passed that explicitly had language written into it that “Minnesotans have no constitutional right to an abortion” which sort of contradicts a pretty important Supreme Court ruling you may have heard about, and actually tried to pass legislation to allow pharmacists to deny to sell people contraceptives based on their religious beliefs. Emmer denies evolution and climate change and once froze up during a debate when asked how old he thought the Earth was. Emmer is also vehemently in the anti-gay category, as he once sponsored a ban same sex marriage in Minnesota, chastised colleagues for discussing an AIDS outreach program by calling it “disgusting discourse”, and has frequently been seen in the company of Bradlee Dean, the head of the “You Can Run But You Can’t Hide” Ministry, which has been classified as an anti-gay hate group for its stance that murdering gay people is “moral”. He also took time in 2015 to call for the repeal of Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, because apparently he'd like another chance to drive the American economy into a ditch, only eight years after the last time.

Rep. Emmer was surprised when he held a town hall back in February 2017, and hundreds of people showed up to fill a 150 seat venue, dwarfing the attendance from any previous town all in recent years. After it was over, he responded that if people have the nerve to show up and don’t like how he’s doing his job, he’ll just cancel the town hall altogether.

In June of 2018, as the Trump administration’s “family separation” policy was being executed, and migrant children were being torn away from their parents and kept locked in cages by immigration services… Tom Emmer defended that strategy on immigration, claiming that it was up to Congress to stop a policy that Trump could started, and could stop at any time with a stroke of his pen. Also, if Congress was supposed to do something about it, Emmer might want to inform members of his own party, since at the time they controlled the House and the Senate.

Tom Emmer was re-elected in the 2018 elections with 61% of the vote Thus, he headed back to the capitol for a second term in office where he has continued being a partisan shill, including his attempts at weakening the Endangered Species Act in July of 2018.

As for the rest of his heinous voting record:

• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Emmer voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: Tom Emmer votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Emmer votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• April 4th, 2019: Tom Emmer is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• May 17th, 2019: Emmer votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Emmer votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Tom Emmer votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
• December 18th, 2019: Emmer ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.
• May 15th, 2020: Emmer votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

While Minnesota’s 6th was once the district of Michelle Bachamann, and has a reported +10 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, and with Emmer’s current role as the head of the NRCC would normally make that seem like a formula for him survive what looks to be a woeful blood bath at the polls for Republicans. What’s not helping? Tom Emmer facing scrutiny for writing an anti-Semitic e-mail to donors complaining about “Bloomberg and Soros have bought control of Congress”, because why not just cement the GOP’s current devolution into anti-Semitism? After all, under his leadership, the National Republican Congressional Committee has begun embracing candidates who believe the Qanon conspiracy theory.

Emmer’s opponent in a few weeks is Tawnja Zahradka, a former Miss Minnesota and local television host. She will have a tough challenge ahead of her, as Emmer has put his own re-election fortunes at the forefront of his interests (of course), and this is easily the most conservative district in the state. We wish her the best in the endeavor, because Tom Emmer is a sack of hot garbage.

[BeastieRunner]

Did they give 45 PCP instead of a PCR test?

The shit he spewed tonight was worse than normal.

[JCAll]

...I...what...?

Okay, so apparently Trump is talking about some conservation issue in California about the government letting rivers continue into the ocean while farmers are wanting to divert rivers to use in irrigation. A move that would cause at least one species of fish to go extinct. Or something like that.

It's just that Trump is an idiot and also high off his ass on medication, so it comes out a mind bending mess.

[Tendrin]

Okay, so apparently Trump is talking about some conservation issue in California about the government letting rivers continue into the ocean while farmers are wanting to divert rivers to use in irrigation. A move that would cause at least one species of fish to go extinct. Or something like that.

It's just that Trump is an idiot and also high off his ass on medication, so it comes out a mind bending mess.

He only pays a quarter of attention to anything so he never has any idea what he's actually talking about.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5...use-goes-viral

So apparently the WH is so abandoned that maintenance staff isn't there and racoons have started settling in.

Nature is starting to reclaiming it.

This is phenomenally humiliating in terms of the world. The symbol of American power has become a Southern Gothic mansion.

[BeastieRunner]

SCOTUS ruled tonight 6-2 to not reimpose FDA regulations that require women seeking medication abortion to pick up the prescribed pills in person at a clinic instead of by mail.

Alito and Thomas were the dissenting votes.

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/08/92192...abortion-pills

[JCAll]

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5...use-goes-viral

So apparently the WH is so abandoned that maintenance staff isn't there and racoons have started settling in.

Nature is starting to reclaiming it.

This is phenomenally humiliating in terms of the world. The symbol of American power has become a Southern Gothic mansion.

Make the raccoon president. He'd do a better job.

[Iron Maiden]

I need to correct that. Water from the ocean evaporates into the air, then moves over land to become rain. As the rain falls, it either runs along the surface as surface water, or sinks into the ground as underground aquifers or groundwater, what you see when you look down into an old fashioned well. Water on the surface becomes rivers, lakes, and streams. Streams flow into rivers. Lake water can flow into rivers, or sometimes rivers flow into lakes depending on the topography and stratigraphy.

Rivers that are damned up become man-made reservoirs which is usually where most water that is used by people comes from.

All other water, water in rivers, flow down and out back into the Ocean.

I have a degree in Geology.

What about the Great Lakes here in the Midwest? IIRC they were created as the glaciers melted/receded about a zillion years ago.

[Joker]

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5...use-goes-viral

So apparently the WH is so abandoned that maintenance staff isn't there and racoons have started settling in.

Nature is starting to reclaiming it.

This is phenomenally humiliating in terms of the world. The symbol of American power has become a Southern Gothic mansion.

I mean, the article doesn’t say any of that. Or imply it.

Encountering a raccoon at night outside isn’t exactly rare.

[Mister Mets]

Folks on the right don't seem to have any issues with trump's constant attacks on American citizens.

That's a fairer criticism. But it is flatout wrong to say that the government isn't doing anything about the militia idiots in Michigan when the FBI arrested them.

Thank you I will do both of these. And just to be fair I am going to report it to the Trump campaign as well. it will be fun to see what their reaction will be anyway.

If you're still interested in blogging, this could be an interesting story, and one that you're in the best position to write about.

[InformationGeek]

Oh WBE! Get a load of this ad.



(Remember, this is the guy who refused to condemn QANON in the House during a resolution vote)

[Tami]

What about the Great Lakes here in the Midwest? IIRC they were created as the glaciers melted/receded about a zillion years ago.

Bodies of water near glaciers do get fed through run off from melting glaciers. Glaciers, as they retreated, were one of the ways in which the land was shaped, scoured out, into larger basins or channels that became many of the larger Lakes and rivers. Erosion is another way in which certain features are created. The original source of water for these features was glaciers, but unless there is currently a glacier nearby, the system is probably now fed through more traditional water cycles. Established bodies of water of that size are unlikely to run dry, but they still get fed by a combination of rainwater and inflow from streams and rivers. Large bodies of water like the Great Lakes also contribute to the water cycle when the air is warm enough and dry enough to allow for evaporation into the air. You can almost compare them to mini-oceans in the way they contribute to the water cycle. Though their contribution is small by comparison to actual oceans.

Ground water can also manifest on the surface if the water table is high enough due to excessive rain. Flood events are caused by rainfall that happens so fast and at such a high rate that the water that falls onto he ground doesn't have enough time to drain away, either by being absorbed by the ground and moving through it or by runoff to streams, rivers, and other bodies of water. If there is too much water, the water table can rise high enough so that water appears on the surface. You see that in wetland areas that go through cycles of dry to wet to dry.

[babyblob]

If you're still interested in blogging, this could be an interesting story, and one that you're in the best position to write about.

Sadly I had to shut that blog down when I was having issues with my laptop.

But as an update.

When I called the Dem party Hq in my county they said they were were upset about this and were trying to do something about it. While the Republican chairman went into a huge speech about how Trump was right about mail in voting being a fraud and this was an attempt by the Dems to steal votes. I asked if he or anyone on his staff were trying to do anything about this He said it will work it self out and in the end it will hurt the Dems as it will drive more people to vote in person.

[worstblogever]

Make the raccoon president. He'd do a better job.

I agree, I think President Trash Panda would do a better job of leading this country until Biden takes over in January.