The visit to the doctor was good . . . I don't have bronchitis . . . yet! But I am on the verge so I do have to rest, not go out and take Tylenol and cough syrup. The doctor also nailed me for my flu shot. There was a new patient in the waiting room, an elderly lady in a wheelchair, with whom I struck up a conversation and reassured her that the doctor was very nice. Just before I was called in, I leaned over and told her the doctor was real eye candy. At 93 years, she was giggling like a school girl. Then she said her eyes were not good. When I told the doctor about this, he started laughing. I might have felt crappy, but at least I was able to make 2 people laugh. Interesting though, 2 other patients joined in with positive opinions of the doctor. I think he's a keeper!
Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:01 (average 4:23). To do it, click here. How did you do? For those that don't know, we always do the 48 piece classic.
Short Takes
Alternet — "So this is weird for me," Noah said. "The media is saying 'those rumors about you haveing a clean record and being an upstanding member of society are true', and Ben Carson is like 'Bullshit! I'm dangerous and I try to kill people and I'm a bad person who should be President."
The Daily Show host would save the worst bonehead moment for last: Carson's belief that the Egyptian pyramids were used to score grain and were not a tomb.
Click through for the rest. Unfortunately, I could not embed the video, partly because I am Canadian and partly because there is no embeding url. Also, I could not find it on YouTube. For Canadians click here for the Canadian version. Noah's monologue on Carson starts at the 1:48 mark.
Mother Jones — … the conservative American Action Network will run an ad opposing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the consumer watchdog agency that Warren created following the financial crash. Per Everett, the group is spending half a million dollars to run the ad during the debate and later this week.
The commercial paints the CFPB as a Kremlin-like bureaucratic nightmare, with Warren as the Stalinesque figure barring regular Americans from collecting loans. Warren's face is plastered on a giant red banner in the background, alongside that of CFPB director Richard Cordray. The Soviet imagery is not subtle.
Related to this is Warren's tweetstorm following the airing of the ad. I can just hear Elizabeth Warren following up with "And that's a promise! Make my day, punk!"
Think Progress — Three white supremacists plotting to bomb and shoot up black churches and synagogues were charged Monday with a felony after allegedly attempting to buy guns and explosives from an undercover FBI agent. The two men, based in Virginia, were preparing for a “race war,” according to the FBI, by buying up land and weapons.
This is domestic terrorism at its worst . . . preying on innocent people because of the colour of their skin. The Southern Poverty Law Centre says there are more deaths of Americans from domestic terrorism than from jihadi attacks. Shameful!
The New Yorker — Arguing that the voters have tired of “gotcha questions,” the Republican Presidential candidate Ben Carson said that he hoped Tuesday night’s debate would “focus on the real issues facing this country, like finding the lost city of Atlantis.”
“The American people don’t want to hear personal attacks,” Carson told reporters. “They want to know which candidate has the best plan for locating Atlantis and recovering its storied treasures.”
Carson said that finding Atlantis was central to his plan for reviving the U.S. economy. “We could start paying down the national debt with one jewel-encrusted trident,” he said.
Oh Andy that does so sound like Carson insanity. Click through for the rest.
My Universe —
12 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 11/11/2015”
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Life is always brighter when you make someone smile.
The Amerivan Action Network should be renamed Reich Ripoff Network.
Great minds still fall in the same ditch.
I'll try to away from Andy's posts as that is where we seem to clash!
3:21 But I was starving. Also that was the second score. Computer issues forced me to do it twice.
AlterNet – Well, sure, doesn't everyone store grains and decomposing bodies together? So sanitary!
Mother Jones – Actually the phrase she used in her email was "Bring it on!" but the meaning is the same.
Think Progress – I am shocked – SHOCKED! that the FBI actually took this seriously enough to even set up a sting. The FBI is usually on the opposite side. I sure hope they didn't make any accidental-on-purpose fatal errors.
New Yorker – I would say he hasn't read the original by Plato. Sure, a flourishing society has wealth, but theu were using so much of it in building empire and enslaving other nations that they probably had a national debt that was also a lot like ours. I wouldn't count any jewel-encrusted tridents before they are hatched.
Universe – Oh, poor white singing kitty! What have they done to your TEETH?!??
Notice, kitty even has some fillings? I wonder how they arranged to have kitty sit still for those?
AlterNet: Yeah….Carson has 'street creds' all right. Not! He went out for lunch and forgot to come back. imo. lol.
MJ: I can't fathom how the Repug liars stoop so darn low, imo. They will do anything to make themselves look good. ugh.!! Keep up the good work, Ms. Warren!
TP: Yes, this is terrorism at it's worse. Bigotry, hatred, discrimination at it's worse, at the cost of lives lost. Sickening.
NYer: Funny, Andy, if he wasn't so lost.
My Universe: Cats. What's not to love about them all? The one on top of the piano looked like TomCat!
Aww….nothing like spreading happiness and laughter in the Dr's waiting room, where most folks, (me included), have high levels of anxiety waiting. Hope that you get some much needed rest. Take care, Lynn and Thanks.
Street creds? IMO, he has no creds whatsoever! Anyone who votes for him, Trump and Fiorini too, should have theit sanity questioned.
That was nice of you, to make the lady laugh.
Alternet: How weird is it for a candidate for President of the USA to try to give himself street creds? Even weirder is the fact that he has made up almost all of it.
Mother Jones: The sad part is that those who see the commercial will believe it.
Think Progress: The amount of racial prejudice in this country still amazes me.
The New Yorker: Andy is great.
My Universe: I felt sorry for the first two cats in Funny Animals, otherwise, of course I loved it.
A doctor who is very nice, eye candy and a keeper, you're in luck, Lynn. But it also may have his waiting room filled to the overflowing when you need an appointment 😉 But seriously, the good doctor diagnosed you as on the brink of bronchitis and told you to rest and the next thing I see is you've put up three articles. You're getting to be as bad as TomCat.
Alternet: Trevor Noah just couldn't believe his ears and neither could anyone not Republican: Carson doesn't want to be accused of being a good guy. The whole point of course that Carson fell in the trap that all pathological liars fall into, it's much easier to remember the truth and what really happened than all those lies you've been telling to make yourself more interesting, so at one point or another you're going to slip up. Add to this that he seems to be half asleep most of the time – again, what substance is Carson prescribing himself? – and the trap is only harder to get out of. Soon he'll be so deep in, he'll be forced to leave the Clown's Car.
Mother Jones: The AAN ad may look ridiculous and pathetic to us, but Republicans will lap it up and believe it, because it appeals to the fears and prejudices they've been instilled with for decades now. Fear is what they run on and fear is what this ad so cleverly induces. It was to be expected, Warren's CFPB is doing too good a job and is a menace to Wall Street so of course this attack was in the making, but Warren is ready for them and Democrats would do wise to back her.
The New Yorker: Andy, that's so mean. Now you've given away Carson's next media-attracting and poll-enhancing item on his agenda.
My Universe: Some of the animals were really funny, that is those who exhibited their behavior on their own accord. But I didn't think the two cats with cerebral palsy were to laugh at, nor the terrified rabbit dragged across the floor by its tail by a dog nor any of those videos where the animal's owner didn't have a clue about how to interpret the signals of fear or discomfort their pet was giving off. The compilation of funny animals could have been more selective, putting many in a special category called "Stupid humans". I would have enjoyed the first one more then, I think.
Yeah, but you didn't see the severe cat napping that happened!
I agree about the cats. I didn't like that the one ginger tabby was being scared so badly, and I did not find the cats with cerebral palsy funny, but most of the rest were amusing. I particularly liked the 3 cats pulling at a raw steak . . . the one in the middle was especially smart because he let the other two pull while he chewed off some steak. I also thought that TC teaching a dog to roll over was funny.. But I did not see a dog and rabbit.
3:07 Lynn grabbed the cookies away from my outstreached hands.
😥 longer fingers required next time!
Thanks everyone!