This morning, when I awakened, I found that the elevator is now working, so the dreaded task is now done, and I’m pooped. Unfortunately, now I’m too sore and tired to make half a dozen meals, which was today’s chore. My helper friend has disappeared again as she sometimes does. She was supposed to be here Tuesday and did not show up, and I have been unable to reach her since. That’s frustrating!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 5:19 (average 7:00). To do it click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: Millions of Americans are expressing their resentment and outrage at being put in the appalling position of siding with the Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, a state of affairs that many are calling “intolerable.”
“Never in a million years did I envision a situation where I would be on the same side as Megyn Kelly,” Tracy Klugian, of Butte, Montana, said. “Now that I find myself in just such a situation, let me say this: it’s horrible. Truly horrible.”
“Putting people through the ordeal of siding with Megyn Kelly could be the worst thing Donald Trump has done in this campaign,” Jervis Kentwell, of Norwalk, Connecticut, said. “I know he thinks he’s invulnerable or whatever, but it’s hard to see him recovering from this.”
Andy is so right! I may sue Hateful Hairball over the pain and suffering it has caused me.
From Daily Kos: The latest massive offense the Obama administration has done to Wall Street is to come up with a rule telling financial services companies that their first duty is to their clients. That’s such an offensive requirement, Republicans in Congress have even been trying to derail it. Because nothing should stand in the way of profits for Wall Street, including the nest eggs of senior citizens. To prove how awful the whole idea is, American International Group Inc. (AIG) decided they had to sell off, admitting that if they can’t screw old people out of money, then why bother?
"It’s a business we are not the best owner of, particularly in the light of potential Department of Labor rules," [CEO Peter] Hancock said Tuesday in a conference call updating investors on AIG’s strategy. "With the new DOL rules, that was a big factor in thinking whether this was better owned by somebody independent of us." […]
Hancock said the broker-dealer network earned about $40 million in 2014, yet consumed a "disproportionate amount" of AIG’s compliance cost.
Considering that the taxpayers of America loaned AIG over $67 billion in TARP funds to keep them out of bankruptcy, their attitude that they don’t want to play, unless they are allowed to rip-off seniors can best be described as Republican.
From Alternet: A series of exposés released this week shed further light on an often-overlooked form of war profiteering: charity organizations that raise millions of dollars under the auspices of serving wounded military veterans, only to inappropriately spend those funds.
Specifically, the Wounded Warrior Project is under the microscope, with a New York Times investigation finding that the well-heeled organization has spent “millions a year on travel, dinners, hotels and conferences that often seemed more lavish than appropriate.”
Such spending is no small matter, notes journalist David Philipps, as the charity “has evolved into a fund-raising giant, taking in more than $372 million in 2015 alone—largely through small donations from people over 65.” In fact, according to Philipps, the group is the largest and most rapidly-expanding organization in the country.
I’ve been emotionally tempted to give to them on a couple of occasions. I’m glad that I didn’t. Isn’t it a shame that Republicans have infested secular charities and are just as corrupt as they have been for ages in pseudo-Christian charities?
Cartoon:
18 Responses to “Open Thread–1/28/2016”
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8:40 Well, THAT was interesting. And nothing to eat.
New Yorker – I think it is Megyn's contract that once every two months or so she has to say some very minor thing that is correct. Just because Donald Trump is a major catastrophe doesn't mean we have NEVER had to side with her on ANYTHING. Tracy and Jervis are being drama queens (better than welfare queens, though).
DKos – Now this is why Andy has such difficulty staying on target with satire. How could you satirize this? It is already over the top! Not what they are doing so much, that's business as usual, but that they are admitting it.
AlterNet – I've never given to the Wounded Warrior Project. I have given to Vote Vets and will do so again when and as I can. You know what, though, WWP did send me a stamp this week (which I cheerfully took). Unless I have other evidence, my BS detector goes up when charities do that. It's not a smart use of money. Charities which send freebies but are serious get things made up with their name and some halfway decent art so that even if you don't give money, you'll be giving publicity when you use them. Not that that is a guarantee of honesty, but the DAV and the Lakotas, for instance, have sounder reputations than the Wounded Warrior Project.
Cartoon – The lengths to which Republicans will go to kill a teacher. (Full disclosure: that is not meant to be a conspiracy theory.)
4:03 No wonder I was a career banker . . . numbers are my game!
Numbers are not edible!
They are if they are made of food, or attached to food.
My bank statement has a load of numbers, but it tastes awful!!
AlterNet: I knew about the Wounded Warrior project, way back early 2005 or so, and how it started out helping those coming back from war, and their families. I donated several times to this cause. The WWP is a Congressionally chartered Veterans Service Organization (VSO) btw. This news is very sad indeed.
Cartoon: We saw the crash, and the plumes in the sky when it happened. We lived in Tallahasse, FL at the time. It broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members, which included five NASA astronauts and two Payload Specialists. STS-51-L crew: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair; Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik. Just horrible. May they Rest in Peace.
As I've gotten older, I find myself feeling irked with those who are late, and/or don't even show up at a designated time for a luncheon, dinner date, or a meeting, and don't even call to let me know. I feel your frustration with your friend not showing up when needed. It's a courtesy thing, imho. Glad you got your 'task' done, and that's out of the way. Enjoy the rest of your day/evening, take care, rest, and Thanks, Tom.
She lost her phone. She found it again, and she called and showed up yesterday.
Puzzle — 4:03 No wonder I was a career banker . . . numbers are my game! The New Yorker — "I may sue Hateful Hairball over the pain and suffering it has caused me." You could hire Megyn Kelly as your lawyer. She would love to be able to get a little legal payback from Trump I'm sure. I hread recently that she was a lawyer. Daily Kos — "Considering that the taxpayers of America loaned AIG over $67 billion in TARP funds to keep them out of bankruptcy, their attitude that they don’t want to play, unless they are allowed to rip-off seniors can best be described as Republican." . . . and now illegal. Alternet — Sounds like the Wounded Warrior Project is trying to compete with the the Susan G Komen Foundation. Cartoon — May the 7 astronauts rest in peace. And the teacher kept teaching (Christa McAuliffe, the first civilian astronaut) through Richard P Feynman, a famous physicist and Nobel Prize laureate, one of those charged with investigating the tragedy.
Unreliability is a factor balanced against other skills provided and, for the compassionate, depends on the causes.
Love AB and the story I read about how Trump ranted about candidate no shows when he was the host of a debate…seems all those words should be directed at him now.
AIG needs to return to being just life and health insurance again and to be broken up to restore market competition–they were the big winner of the 1980's merger mania the first Bush set loose.
Our vets do need our help, but not that way.
Someone from my childhood was almost on board…
Phew!!
Gotta agree with Andy today! I'm gonna go look for a lawyer, lol!!!
AIG IS RepukkklicanT!!!! I could put another "u" in there to describe them, easily!
Wounded Warrior Project is a money-grubbing faux charity!!! That hurts me to the bone. For all the celebrities that they have on commercials, kinda figured they were getting too big to be honest. Sad, sad, sad!
I have very little awareness of who Megan Kelly is, as I do not want to get that close to the enemy, do not watch anything on Fox except a rare sports event. But, I do know, from C2 that she called the Hary rump out, and for this I am amazed, and thankful. Of course, Rumpy knows that his refusal to participate in the next debate will bring him a huge amount of the publicity he craves, without bothering to lift a hair!
AIG needs to be history, along with the perspetive it so blatantly lives. Conrtary to the comment reently made by a Bloomberg staffer, Bernie is not against capitalism, but THIS sort of capitalism!
I do not give to the Salvtion Army, with their multimillion dollar CEO, and I have not given to WWP. I do donate clothing to the "Red, White and Blue," a thrift shop that suports Viet. Vets,, in N.J.
Challenger…so sad; and some utter fool of a pseudo-Christian said, publicly, at the time, that he KNEW that his god had not wanted an Israeli in space! Does delusional sickness know no bounds?
Nationally, I give to Planned Parenthood, HRC, and Bernie. At home, I gove to whichever Democrats who represent me need it most.
I' m glad your elevator is working again but sorry you had to to do the dreaded task. Have you seen the apartment sized washer and dryer that stack on top of each other? That might cut down on some labor if you had them available every day.
The New Yorker: Putting us on Megan Kelly's side is almost as bad as McCain foisting Palin on us.
Daily Kos: Firms like AIG are excellent examples of why Wall Street needs to be reined in, and made to serve their customers instead of their executives. No more bail outs for Wall Street!
Alternet: The Wounded Warriors commercials are heart wrenching and make you want to donate. I have not. Three years ago after an expose' of several charities I started making any donations that I can to local groups where I know what is being done with the money. Too many of these charities are using the money for high style living for their top employees and not giving it to the cause they represent.
Cartoon: That was a sad day in American lives.
If I got even a little one, there would ne no room left for one thing. Me.
Don't get frustrated if you can't get planned chores done due to circumstances beyond your influence, TomCat. Home Care should be able to plan flexible, that's part of their job. Unless you won't have anything to eat or have to eat the same meal for another week, that is; then you should get your meals done tomorrow. But first have a well deserved catnap after the unmentionable task.
The New Yorker: I can only guess what Megan Kelly said about Trumps refusal to take part in the Faux News debate and go and rant in front of some veterans instead, but undoubtedly those that didn't like Trump or Faux News before this might now have to agree with her. Shudder. But cheer up, it could have been worse, it could have been O’Reilly or Annuity. Could it? Nah.
Daily Kos: Really? And AIG and others are allowed to get away with it? Move over Terry, it's time again for some serious head banging.
Alternet: It seems almost unavoidable that many charities, when they are growing, come away from their original founder(s) and their often truly charitable ideas and start being run like any other company/organization, intent on making as much money as possible of which a large amount flows into the pockets of the CEO's who now run it. As soon as a charity just becomes another business, the target group of charity shifts from the needy to the need-more in their own management.
Thanks! I'm caught up now.
Thanks all!! Hugs!!