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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Saturday, June 17, 2017

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of
Carolina Naturally
Hey, wingnuts, listen up ...!
 
Carolina Naturally is read in 210 countries around the world daily. 
  
Brain Exercise ... !
Today is - World Juggling Day 

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Today in History

362
Emperor Julian issues an edict banning christians from teaching in Syria.
1579
Sir Francis Drake claims San Francisco Bay for England.
1775
The British take Bunker Hill outside of Boston, after a costly battle.
1799
Napoleon Bonaparte incorporates Italy into his empire.
1848
Austrian General Alfred Windisch-Gratz crushes a Czech uprising in Prague.
1854
The Red Turban revolt breaks out in Guangdong, China.
1856
The Republican Party opens its first national convention in Philadelphia.
1861
Lincoln witnesses Dr. Thaddeus Lowe demonstrate the use of a hot-air balloon.
1863
On the way to Gettysburg, Union and Confederate forces skirmish at Point of Rocks, Maryland.
1872
George M. Hoover begins selling whiskey in Dodge City, Kansas–a town which had previously been “dry.”
1876
General George Crook‘s command is attacked and bested on the Rosebud River by 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne under the leadership of Crazy Horse.
1912
The German Zeppelin SZ 111 burns in its hangar in Friedrichshafen.
1913
U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American interests in Mexico.
1917
The Russian Duma meets in secret session in Petrograd and votes for an immediate Russian offensive against the German Army.
1924
The Fascist militia marches into Rome.
1926
Spain threatens to quit the League of Nations if Germany is allowed to join.
1930
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill becomes law, placing the highest tariff on imports to the United States.
1931
British authorities in China arrest Indochinese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
1932
The U.S. Senate defeats the Bonus Bill as 10,000 veterans mass around the Capitol.
1940
The Soviet Union occupies Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
1942
Yank a weekly magazine for the U.S. armed services, begins publication.
1944
French troops land on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
1950
Surgeon Richard Lawler performs the first kidney transplant operation in Chicago.
1953
Soviet tanks fight thousands of Berlin workers rioting against the East German government.
1963
The U.S. Supreme Court bans the required reading of the Lord’s prayer and Bible in public schools.
1965
27 B-52s hit Viet Cong outposts, but lose two planes in South Vietnam.
1970
North Vietnamese troops cut the last operating rail line in Cambodia.
1972
Five men are arrested for burglarizing Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.
1994
Millions of Americans watch former football player O.J. Simpson–facing murder charges–drive his Ford Bronco through Los Angeles, followed by police.

Portrait of an American Hero

The Lesbian Minority Woman Who Saved Wingnut Lives
Crystal Griner is a female minority, who just so happens to be married to a woman. In 2015, Griner married Tiffany Dyar in Baltimore.… 
Both Griner and Bailey are minorities. Crystal Griner is a female minority, who just so happens to be married to a woman. In 2015, Griner married Tiffany Dyar in Baltimore.
It’s not that people should be defined by their skin color, gender, or who they love. But in this case, these details are important enough to focus on for a moment.
Capitol Police special agents Crystal Griner and David Bailey are widely credited with saving wingnuts and staff during the horrific shooting in Alexandria, Virginia that left  Scalise in the hospital in critical condition.
Speaker Ryan (r-WI) said of them during a House floor speech, “We are, as ever, awed by the tremendous bravery of the Capitol Police.”
Both Griner and Bailey were wounded.
Both Griner and Bailey are minorities.
Crystal Griner is a female minority, who just so happens to be married to a woman. Griner married Tiffany Dyar in 2015.
As ESPN’s LZ Granderson pointed out, Griner saved the life of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), who is opposed to same-sex marriage:
Wednesday night, Dumbass Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visited Griner and her wife in the hospital, bringing a bouquet of flowers in thanks, according to a Pool report sent out..
Griner played college basketball for Maryland’s Hood College.
Griner and Bailey are heroes who rushed to save lawmakers even though they were injured themselves. Griner was shot in the ankle but is expected to recover.
Too often, all of the minority categories that Griner falls into are demonized by Republicans and this is a chance to emphasize the importance of humanity, of seeing people as whole beings with a history, with dreams of their own, with loves of their own.
Too many of our leaders, particularly Dumbass Trump but he’s not alone in this, are trying to divide us, to dehumanize the “other.” Wednesday, during moments of exceptional horror, these two Capitol Police special agents stepped up to do their jobs with incredible bravery and effectiveness.
In honoring these heroes, people should also take a moment to consider their humanity. Consider how the laws dealt with in Congress would impact these folks who just saved their lives or the lives of their colleagues.
The folks being hurt by laws bandied about in Congress aren’t nameless, bad “others.” They are sometimes people of stunning courage like Crystal Griner.
Humanity matters. It’s all we have, when all else is stolen and stripped away.
Instead of focusing on delegitimizing Crystal’s marriage, wingnuts should take this opportunity to look into the eyes and heart of a patriot who just so happens to love someone of her own gender and do the right thing.

Crossing the English Channel in a Flying Car

Entrepreneur Jerome Dauffy wanted to build a flying machine that could travel around the world in 80 days. He might not be there just yet, but he designed a flying car he calls Pegasus that resembles a dune buggy crossed with a paraglider.
On Wednesday, pilot Bruno Vezzoli took off from Calais, France, and flew it to Dover, England, across the English Channel. The 36-mile flight came off without a hitch! Read more about the stunt here.

Broccoli extract lowers blood sugar in type 2 Diabetes

A chemical called sulforaphane could be a new option for people with type 2 diabetes who need help managing their blood sugar.
In a study just published in Science Translational Medicine, researchers randomized 97 people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes to take a concentrated broccoli sprout extract containing sulforaphane once a day for 12 weeks or a placebo with the same regimen. All but three of the participants were taking metformin, a standard treatment for controlling blood sugar.

US breaks record in wind and solar power energy

The U.S. has broken its own energy record: 10 percent of all electricity generated in the country in March came from wind and solar power, according to a recent report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The number is up from last year, in which wind and solar power generated an annual average of seven percent of the country's electricity, the report from Electric Power Monthly shows based upon March.

San Andreas earthquakes triggered by rain and snow

Earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault in California are being triggered by winter rain and snowfall, scientists have discovered.
The finding is important as it helps us understand what triggers earthquakes—and when they are more likely to strike.

The Louisiana coast is sinking rapidly

From Antarctica, where a research expedition was canceled due to rising temperatures, to the Arctic Sea, where ice continues to melt, the effects of climate change are being felt around the globe. In the United States, temperatures are rising and coastlines are disappearing. One of the areas that has been affected the most is Louisiana, the coastline of which has been in danger for years. According to a new study reported on by the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the danger is greater than anyone realized.
The Geological Society of America on Wednesday published a study by a team of Tulane University geologists that found Louisana's coastline is sinking 50 percent faster than was estimated two years ago. They discovered the coast is sinking at an average rate of 9 millimeters per year (with a margin of error of 1 millimeter). In some areas—including along the Mississippi River south of New Orleans—the rate is 12 millimeters per year.

The American Dream Is Fading Everywhere

McConnell’s Big Secret Is Out

McConnell’s Big Secret Is Out As Dumbass Trumpcare Will Hurt People Who Get Insurance At Work
If you thought being in an employer plan would protect you from the evils of Dumbass Trumpcare, you are sadly mistaken. Dumbass Trumpcare V2.1 will impose annual limits on as many as 27 million Americans and lifetime limits on as many as 20 million. And it's not just in states with waivers, which is to say your Democratic governor can't protect you.…

Dumbass Trumpcare Will Lead To Single Payer?

Forgive Me If I'm Skeptical
Trumpcare Will Lead To Single Payer? Forgive Me If I'm Skeptical

Border Control Agents Raid Humanitarian Aid Camps on Arizona Border

Dumbass Trump Junta Quietly Rolls Back Civil Rights Efforts Across Federal Government

Trump Administration Quietly Rolls Back Civil Rights Efforts Across Federal Government
Civil rights enforcement dies under Dumbass Trump not with a bang, but a whimper.

Verdict Rendering

A Massachusetts judge on Friday was set to render a verdict on whether a teenager’s text messages to her boyfriend urging his 2014 suicide amounted to manslaughter, a court official said.
Michelle Carter, now 20, is accused of involuntary manslaughter for sending a series of texts to her 18-year-old boyfriend, Conrad Roy, urging him to kill himself, which he did by running a generator in his truck as he sat in a parking lot in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, about 60 miles (96 km) south of Boston.
Update:
A judge found a Massachusetts woman guilty Friday of involuntary manslaughter in the suicide of her boyfriend.
Michelle Carter, now 20, sent 18-year-old Conrad Roy III hundreds of text messages before he killed himself in July 2014 by inhaling carbon monoxide in his pickup truck, reported CNN.
Many of those messages encouraged Roy to take his own life, and prosecutors argued that she berated the vulnerable young man after he developed second thoughts about suicide.
She encouraged Roy to get back into his truck at one point, and she listened by phone to his last breaths.
Prosecutors argued that Carter used her boyfriend’s suicide to get the attention from her friends.

‘No one is safe’

The St. Anthony police officer who fatally shot Philando Castile in an event broadcast live on Facebook, escaped all criminal charges resulting from the death.

‘I will make you disappear’

A Washington man was arrested on hate crime charges after allegedly threatening three men he assumed were Muslims during a gas station encounter.

Domestic Terrorism in the Age of Dumbass Trump

Russia claims they have killed ISIL leader Baghdadi

Russia's defense ministry says Baghdadi was present at an ISIL meeting in Syria that was struck by Russian air force. 

Mammoth Tusk Hunt in Siberia

Photographer Amos Chapple works for Radio Free Europe. He went on an illegal tusk hunt in Siberia with the agreement to not share any names. See, the idea is that ivory from mammoth tusks are "ethical" in that no animals are killed to obtain it. That does not make the plundering of mammoth remains legal. But the market for such ivory in China is too much to resist. In posting the album of images to reddit, Chapple said, "Every summer, men head into the Siberian wilderness to hunt for mammoth tusks, I joined one expedition & watched tuskers get rich, get drunk & nearly die." When someone remarked on the photo of the mosquitoes biting bare feet, he said,
That's me :). I needed to show how big a deal the mozzies were, that was the most effective way I could do it in a photo.
I fell in the river. When I took one shoe off to squeegee my sock the mozzies descended - then I realized it was a good photo so I took the other shoe off, waited for 40 hellish seconds & took this pic.
The things a photographer will go through for the right image! You can read the extensive story of the expedition here, or a shorter form in an imgur album

Animal Pictures