It took me a lot of time to do my research, because the news fixated on whether Roy Moore will pay more attention to the election or the erection. Keep your fingers, toes, and whatever else will cross (eyes for me) crossed.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:37 (average 7:51): To do it click here. How did you do?
Fantasy Football Report:
Here’s the latest from our own fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends.
Scores:
Woooo Hoooo!!
Standings:
Congrats to Vivian for winning the regular season.
Playoff Schedule:
Good luck to all!
Short Takes:
From NPR: President Trump has formally told NASA to send U.S. astronauts back to the moon.
"The directive I’m signing today will refocus America’s space program on human exploration and discovery," he said.
Standing at the president’s side as he signed "Space Policy Directive 1" on Monday was Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, one of the last two humans to ever walk on the moon, in a mission that took place 45 years ago this week.
Since that time, no human has ventured out beyond low-Earth orbit. NASA doesn’t even have its own space vehicle, having retired the space shuttles in 2011. Americans currently ride up to the International Space Station in Russian capsules, though private space taxis are expected to start ferrying them up as soon as next year.
I’d bet a buck that Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten intends to use the moon as a weapons platform. Fortunately, whoever he puts in charge will be too incompetent to launch a fart, let alone a space mission. RESIST!!
From Daily Kos: It’s getting worse.
Before Trump decided to enflame the Middle East, just this past week he tweeted violent, fake, racist videos and said the Access Hollywood tape was faked.
Yale psychiatrist Dr. Bandy Lee:
What we’re seeing is someone mentally falling apart. This is what we mean when someone is coming unglued or unhinged. With stress, they will be less able to tell apart what is real from what is unreal, become more bizarre and, in the case of Mr. Trump, will likely become violent. He will have thoughts and reasoning that will be hard for us to follow because he is pulled more by his internal processes, what’s going on in his head, be they fantasies, conspiracy theories or imaginary threats than what is going on in the real world.
At no other time in U.S. history has a group of mental health professionals been so collectively concerned about a sitting president.
If a regular person was acting as delusional as this president—making repeated calls for violence, denying reality, saying he never said or did things we all saw him do—we’d be compelled to take action.
Throw a net over him, give him a nice padded cell, and treat internally with a cattle prod. RESIST!!
From Alternet: The Alabama Supreme Court stepped into Tuesday’s U.S. Senate race between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones on Monday night by blocking a lower state court’s ruling earlier in the day that ordered election officials to take steps to preserve digital images of every ballot cast Tuesday.
In effect, the Alabama Supreme Court’s stay—or freezing—of an earlier court order to preserve the digital ballot images undermines the best-case scenario for ensuring that an accurate vote count can be verified in the controversial Senate race.
You know what they are up to. Republican courts prevented a recount 17 years ago today. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
21 Responses to “Open Thread – 12/12/2017”
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6:25 (7:51) Kind of a low bar to be able to catch a snail.
Oh, my. Isn’t this a scream.
If you look at all the groups sponsoring this, I don’t think it is a NEW petition for net neutrality – but it is one – and people are asking for all of them.
npr – For a minute I thought I was reading Andy.
DKos – 25th Amendment solution? Not bloody likely, I fear.
AlterNet – Everything crossable crossed.
Cartoon – Yup.
Update – This net neutrality petition does seem to be new, and has a very modest goal.
I’ve heard that before about mental health pros being concerned about our so-called leader’s psychology. Every day, it seems, he gives evidence that he’s not all there. He gives no indication that he has any sense of responsibility. How in hot pink hell did this beef brain ever become our Prez?
Not only that, he’s hurling rocks at the hornet nests known as terrorism. Guess who will get stung – innocent bystanders.
Have you noticed that, every time a Presidential candidate wins the popular vote but loses the electoral college, the winner is a Republican and the loser is a Democrat? The electoral college, so I have heard, is a relic left over from the dark days of slavery. That dinosaur definitely needs to go!
The electoral college goes all the way back to the 18th century. It is out of date, but it gives low population states an advantage that they refuse to give up.
NPR: I nominate the orange one to go first. See how that goes. For at least a few years……..pleeze!!
DK: Oh, how I wish he’d go. Right now! Sad!!!
AN: Eyes, fingers and toes :-0 crossed! Check!!!
Cartoon: Yep.
Hope Moore rides out into the sunset on the horse he rode in on. (no offense to Sassy). Hope that you have a good evening, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
From what I see in the bracket, I have a bye for this weekend and then I play the week after? Is that the way it goes? I’m mixed up, I guess. Anyway, let me know.
Ugh. The election in Alabama will be hacked and Moore will win. Just like tRump won. There are not enough voting machines and a higher than expected turnout. Yep! Just the prescription for hacking an election! This Senate race is gonna be longer than the election last year! We will be fighting it in court till this time next year!
UGH. I am SICK of elections that are cloudy, hacked, stolen and just flat UNFAIR! I want to see the country be able to do ONE without the machinations of PUTIN and his minions in it!!!
Right
HOUSEKEEPING UPDATE
There’ll be no Friday Fun, probably for the next two Fridays.
WRT this Friday, my Mom was admitted to the hospital today with congestive heart failure and at least intermittent atrial fib.
She actually hadn’t notice any significant changes, but when the aide came to give Mom her shower this morning she noticed she was short of breath and a bit wheezy. So they took her to the ER and BNP was elevated showing she had CHF.
She’s been weaning down on her O2 requirements, and I’ve talked to her nurse, who is “Quite pleased w/ her progress”. And I’ve also talked to Mom a couple of times and she seems in good spirits.
I’ll be heading up to IL tomorrow, w/ an open-ended timeframe. Will just have to see how she progresses.
I was planning on taking my Aunt back up to IL for Christmas, as Mom has an eye appointment scheduled for the 21st, and a cardiology appointment for 26th. Obviously those plans are on hold.
So no Friday Fun for a bit.
Goes w/out saying that keeping my Mom in your thoughts and prayers are appreciated. I’ll likely stop by again before I head out tomorrow morning, but it depends on developments.
Absolutely prayers heading your way and your Mom’s way. I’m kind of holding my own breath.
Sorry to hear about your Mother’s situation, my best wishes!
So sorry about your Mom’s condition. I’m hoping for the best, she’s in my thoughts and so are you, Nameless.
Nameless, I’m so sorry. She, your family, and you are in my prayers.
Nameless, I am so sorry to hear about your mother’s travails. She is in my thoughts and prayers as are you and the family. I am heartened however that she is responding to treatment, and very appreciative of skills and actions of her nurse.
God bless you all!
NPR: Maybe we can send tDump to the moon, a la Jackie Gleason style?
DK: From this mental health professional’s point of view tDump needs to be sent to a padded cell…on the moon. Unless that would infuriate the rest of the universe!
Alternet: Hey, this IS Alabama, after all. The spirit of Scalia lives there, very comfortably. Check out this book:
“Democracy in Chains-the Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America,” by Nancy MacClean, is a frightening picture about how Charles Koch found, adopted, and adapted, an antebellum Southern strategy for protecting the “rights” of the wealthy slave-holding class against the force of “Demon Democracy,” to quietly, and incrementally, enable the current ultra-wealthy folks to run the country for their own ends. I have a longer intro to the book, if anyone is interested.
HOLY MERDE!
I just got back to the computer after watching “Finding Your Roots,” and I have more than two dozen new emails, all saying
DOUG JONES WON!
I was watching for that yesterday and so pleased to see it. Finally, some Alabamans show that they have good common sense and morals. Certainly Moore has neither!
First of all:
The elation is justified. Alabama has chosen decency and common sense above Roy Moore, who is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the GOP and the Drumpf administration. It is more than a rejection of Moore, it is a kick in the genitals of the GOP and that plus a spit in the eye of Drumpf.
Congratulations America!
NPR: Do not for one moment think Drumpf is spending so much money (this government hasn’t got) to advance science in any way. Realizing what he and his fellow oligarchs are doing to the world, and having heard that Mars is too far away, Drumpf may want to build their Elysium a little closer to home to have it ready for them when this globe has become completely uninhabitable. And if he starts pushing for it really hard, we can be sure he’s contemplating pushing the red button for an attack on North Korea.
DK: Of course it is getting worse. And Doug Jones’s victory in Alabama may well send him over the edge as soon as Mueller has one of his sons or son-in-law up for charges. Let’s hope Kim Jong Un keeps his head down for a while.
Alternet: Haven’t heard of challenges thus far, Jones seemed to have a margin big enough and brought on by 1.7% of the votes being write-ins.
Cartoon: Ah, yes. Lest we forget.
At 11:45 pm Eastern (9:45 here) I got an email from the Washington Post that Moore was not conceding. and then I got one from Raw Story including an article about how even Fox was telling him, “Dude, it’s over, go home.” And I haven’t seen any more on that yet. The law is to recount if the margin is less than a half percent, and Jones was showing about a 3% lead, so even without the write-ins, if he wants one that badly, he will be paying for it. And he won’t get any help on that from the RNC – they know he’s toast.
Thanks all. Tired busy hugs!
Puzzle — 5:27 All the escargot soaked in garlic butter that you can eat Puddy Tat! Although this one is a bit small to satiate your appetite.
Fantasy Football — I’m no teabag but I expect to be thrashed by the TomCat in this week’s game. I guess I’ll be eating Puddy Tat toe jam instead of Jack eating mine. On the positive side, I am no longer in last place, or even in 7th place. I finally moved up the rankings to 6th place!!! Woo Hoo!!!
NPR — I’m with Mitch. KAPOWWWW to the moon Donnie boy!!!! It is a shame though . . . to pollute such a beautiful place like Luna . . . (sigh)
Daily Kos — “Throw a net over him, give him a nice padded cell, and treat internally with a cattle prod.” — Isn’t that being excessive? Throw a net over him — yes!!! But a nice padded cell? Make that a hard, dark, cold cell — just like the conditions that he and Republicans are imposing on decent Americans!!! Treat internally with a cattle prod — Absolutely!!! Too bad that some of his supporters can’t see what he is doing to them, or maybe they are just too proud to see the error of their ways.
AlterNet — “In effect, the Alabama Supreme Court’s stay—or freezing—of an earlier court order to preserve the digital ballot images undermines the best-case scenario for ensuring that an accurate vote count can be verified in the controversial Senate race.” — In light of Moore not yet conceding the by-election, I wonder what this will do to hinder an accurate recount. CNN has a clip of Moore saying after his defeat ” … we know God is always in control.” His claim to being such a God fearing person is in doubt — he didn’t even to listen to his Maker! God to Moore: “It’s over dude! Ride your horse back home. There is no sunset today! It’s all black night for you today!”
Cartoon — Yup!!! Ain’t that the truth!!!