Join us here tonight at 9 PM ET for live coverage of the first debate. We’re sorry, but you will have to bring your own popcorn. And, please, do not engage in any drinking games that urge you to down a shot every time Donald Trump tells a lie. We don’t want a bunch of you raced to the emergency room in the first five minutes of the debate. |
Today’s comic by Tom Tomorrow is The unpersuadable:
What you may have missed on Sunday Kos …
- I am incredibly enthusiastic about voting for Hillary Clinton. Here’s why, by Ian Reifowitz
- Scott Walker sold Wisconsin out to the highest bidders, by Mark E Andersen
- Why corporate special interests created modern libertarianism, by David Akadjian
- Five questions for Adanjesús Marín of Make the Road PA, a leading Latino group in the Keystone State, by Kerry Eleveld
- Who will make Big Pharma pay the EpiPenalty, by Jon Perr
- Trump wants to destroy democracy by dismantling the Bill of Rights, by Denise Oliver Velez
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- Becoming Propane Jane, by Propane Jane
- We must inflict economic pain on those in power in order to usher in a new civil rights movement, by Egberto Willies
- Chicago adds police to cut gun violence. But can drill rap be policed, by Sher Watts Spooner
- Artificial autonomy: Termination or salvation, by DarkSyde
• Monsanto gets okay to use CRISPR/Cas9 “responsibly”:
The license was approved by the Broad Institute, a genomic research center maintained by MIT and Harvard, and will be used by Monsanto to create genetically modified plants that are tailored to its needs. The “wide array of crop improvements” that Monsanto sees as enabled by CRISPR/Cas9 could mean anything from drought resistant crops to agricultural products that are designed to taste and look more appealing to the consumer. [...]
Yet the ease with which researchers and companies like Monsanto could use gene-editing technology to irreversibly fuck with living things like people and plants has also raised concern that the technology might become widely deployed without understanding the consequences. This is why the “responsible use” of CRISPR/Cas9 cited by Rozen is a key stipulation in Monsanto’s latest move to corner the GMO industry (as the most recent acquisition of the chemical company Bayer, Monsanto and its affiliates now control a full 25 percent of the world’s seeds and pesticides).
• Debate moderators say climate questions don’t make good TV. Well, then, ask better questions.
• Kirk Douglas, who will a century old December 9, writes about Hitler and Trump:
I was 16 when that man came to power in 1933. For almost a decade before his rise he was laughed at ― not taken seriously. He was seen as a buffoon who couldn’t possibly deceive an educated, civilized population with his nationalistic, hateful rhetoric.
The “experts” dismissed him as a joke. They were wrong.
A few weeks ago we heard words spoken in Arizona that my wife, Anne, who grew up in Germany, said chilled her to the bone. They could also have been spoken in 1933:
“We also have to be honest about the fact that not everyone who seeks to join our country will be able to successfully assimilate. It is our right as a sovereign nation to choose immigrants that we think are the likeliest to thrive and flourish here…[including] new screening tests for all applicants that include an ideological certification to make sure that those we are admitting to our country share our values…”
• Campaigns shift focus to the moderator:
Rick Klein: “The public’s expectations are clear: 47 percent of Americans expect Hillary Clinton to win Monday’s first presidential debate, compared to only 33 percent for Donald Trump. As for the campaigns’ expectations, they’re focused on the moderator. Critical to both sides is the role of Lester Holt. Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said on ‘This Week’ that it’s ‘unfair’ to expect Clinton to fact-check Trump… Mook’s counterpart on the Trump campaign, Kellyanne Conway, is working the refs from the opposite direction. ‘I really don’t appreciate campaigns thinking it’s the job of the media to go and be the virtual fact-checkers, and that debate moderators should somehow do their bidding,’ Conway said.”
• Arnold Palmer dies at 87.
• Well, shit. Heavy rains cause sewage overflows in U.S. cities:
Combined sewage systems are most common in older U.S. cities, including parts of Philadelphia and New York City. These systems route both stormwater runoff and sewage toward water treatment plants. But when rainfall and its runoff are too much for the system to handle, the excess wastewater is discharged into nearby bodies of water to avoid backing up into homes and businesses.
In some instances, overflow is dumped into locations which are also sources of drinking water. For those using the water, the increase in contaminants can result in stomach and intestinal illnesses if the treatment process is not thorough enough.
• On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Greg Dworkin’s pre-debate polling update. NJ legislators consider impeaching Christie. Law profs dream of impeaching Trump. Oh, BTW, he lied again. Canadians learn aboot US federal supremacy, eh? Sandy, UT just can’t quit gun show #GunFAIL.
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