It’s a dead news day, so this is my only article, and I won’t be sending links messages on Care2. I have a busy night, because I’ll be doing my grocery shopping at Amazon Prime Now. I hope your Christmas, or _______, was whatever you hoped it would be.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:33 (average 5:53). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Fantasy Football Update:
Here’s the latest from our own fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends.
Playoffs:
Congrats to Patty Monster and Seth for beating Vivian and I in the semis. Next weekend, they play in the finals, Vivian plays me in the third place game, and Wendy plays the Squatch in the fifth place game. Good luck to all!
Short Takes:
From Newsweek: The U.S. will cut its 2018 contribution to the United Nations by $285 million—nearly 25 percent—an announcement that comes days after more than 120 nations criticized the United States for its decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Ambassador Nikki Haley made the announcement Sunday, but specifically blamed the world body for its budgetary excesses without making a specific reference to last week’s vote on President Donald Trump’s controversial Jerusalem decision.
This is the act of a deplorable bully! RESIST!!
From Salon.com: In a scathing editorial, The Salt Lake Tribune is calling on on Orrin Hatch — the longest serving Republican senator in history, to retire upon the completion of his seventh term, and also sharply criticized his staunch support for President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Hatch was named The Salt Lake Tribune’s 2017 Utahn of the Year, and while "the criteria are not set in stone," the award is bestowed upon a Utahn who has "made the most news" or has "had the biggest impact" either "for good or for ill."
Hatch’s can proudly wear his new title for his "part in the dramatic dismantling of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments," the editorial board wrote. Other reasons included the role Hatch played "as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee in passing a major overhaul of the nation’s tax code," and "his utter lack of integrity that rises from his unquenchable thirst for power." [emphasis added]
The SLT is spot-on in their description of Hatch, but the last statement applies equally to every Republican in office. RESIST!!
From Washington Post: Grit your teeth. Persevere. Just a few more days and this awful, rotten, no-good, ridiculous, rancorous, sordid, disgraceful year in the civic life of our nation will be over. Here’s hoping that we all — particularly special counsel Robert S. Mueller III — have a better 2018.
Many of us began 2017 with the consoling thought that the Donald Trump presidency couldn’t possibly be as bad as we feared. It turned out to be worse.
Did you ever think you would hear a president use the words “very fine people” to describe participants in a torch-lit rally organized by white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan? Did you ever think you would hear a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations thuggishly threaten that she would be “taking names” of countries that did not vote on a General Assembly resolution the way she wanted? Did you ever think the government of the world’s biggest military and economic power would reject not just science but also empiricism itself, preferring to use made-up “alternative facts” as the basis for major decisions?
We knew that Trump was narcissistic and shallow, but on Inauguration Day it was possible to at least hope he was self-aware enough to understand the weight that now rested on his shoulders, and perhaps grow into the job. He did not. If anything, he has gotten worse.
And he has not hit bottom yet! RESIST!!
Cartoon:
9 Responses to “Open Thread – 12/26/2017”
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4:46 I can hardly believe that. The last piece alone took 3 seconds to snap into place, and the others weren’t much better. And that doesn’t include the time it took to determine where each went, which is the biggest chunk.
Newsweek – Humph. Surprised we are still paying 75%. That won’t last, at least not if Dolt45 does.
Salon – Oh, yes. I had two questions: 1) How respected is the Salt Lake Tribune by Utahns? 2) In view of the fact he’s been in office so long and this criticism seems to be coming out of the blue, how much of the concern is because Hatch is the third in the Presidential Succession?
WaPo – I have to admit that my fears were actually worse in some ways than the actuality. We haven’t been nuked yet, and Obamacare seems to be still in place (weakened by losses to MedicAid, but that was already true in many states.) The place I wasn’t fearful enough was with regard to the federal judiciary OUTSIDE the SCROTUS. But, as you say, he has not yet hit bottom.
Cartoon – No.
1) Highly respected.
2) Hatch had promised he would retire at the end of this term, but he’s already gearing up to run in 2018. The Tribune is boucoup pissed at Hatch’s support for trashing Bears Ears ans Grand Staircase-Escalaqnte national monuments.
Newsweek: By slashing contributions to the UN, tRump is demonstrating the behavior of a spoiled brat.
Salon: Good riddance, Hatch – and don’t let the front door hit you where I hope the dog bit you.
WP: 2017 is one year I am not sad to see depart. However, it did have some bright spots, such as the Women’s March, progressives getting off their a**es, election upsets, the Houston Astros finally winning a World Series, Da’esh getting its butt kicked. If I did my homework, I could dig up a few more.
Cartoon: You’re spot on, Joanne.
NW: All bullies! Lady Liberty is hiding….sad!!
Salon: Time to go down the hatch, Hatch.
WP: Word. Can’t add anything except to say that I’ll start grinding my teeth for 2018 re: Mr. Dumpty.
Cartoon: If you lived at my house, you’d be okay. However, it would probably be safer for you to stay within the branches for now. Tell your buddies to hide too.
My guys were blown away with the Steelers, final: 34-6. Did you hear me yelling?? What a bummer. Hope that you have a good evening, stay warm, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
NW: We can expect even more cuts as long as Drumpf and the GOP are pulling America’s strings. They are isolating the US from the rest of the world even further when doing so. Drumpf doesn’t seem to understand that if he keeps this up there will be nobody left to follow him into the next war which he needs to start to keep Mueller and his prosecutors from his door.
BTW: Yesterday they had the first overview of 2017 on TV and they had an Republican spokesman telling the Australian public Drumpf hadn’t done so bad after all and then started a long list of things promised to do but didn’t or was prevented from making worse than he already got it, for example no trade war with China, no war with North Korea, not building The Wall…He couldn’t name one positive thing Drumpf did for the American people; he didn’t dare to put the Tax Scam as positiveness: too soon to tell. It was laughable, but in essence it was really sad. So sad.
Salon: Kudos to The Salt Lake Tribune for calling Orrin Hatch their Man of the Year in the most negative and scalding way possible. It would be great if there was a newspaper in every state who did that to their worst Republican Congressman or Congresswoman. It’s about time to nail individual Republicans with their ear to the post for what they have done this past year to their constituents and to their country. Name and shame, but be careful not to make any mistakes and not to let fake news slip in. Then the whole thing is counter-productive.
WP: Wow, such bitterness and that in the Washington Post. It would be glorious to leave all that negative baggage behind at the start of 2018, but I fear it will only get worse unless special council Mueller can relieve the world from these pox and American voters do their bit after that and take back Congress. It really needs to happen soon, before this bitterness overtakes us all.
Cartoon: No, not until Mueller pulls out the stops and so do American voters in the 2018 elections.
Puzzle — 3:52 I saw the point and did not want to get them caught in my sasquatch hair so I backed off a bit!
Fantasy Football — I expect to be looking up to Wendy and the rest of you by next Tuesday and straight through until next season. The only two teams that finished the regular season behind me were AWOL much of the season.
Newsweek — With Drumpf as POTUS, it is very noticeable that the US does not play well with others. Once a bully, always a bully! . . . and Nicki Haley is no better trying to curry favour with the Dumpster.
Salon.com — In March 2018, Hatch will be 84 years old. If he runs and wins another term, he’ll be 90 years old at the end. There should be a mandatory retirement age for legislators and federal judges, no matter the level. I agree, “…utter lack of integrity that rises from his [their] unquenchable thirst for power.” is a perfect descriptor for Republicans.
Washington Post — “… Democrats, independents, patriotic Republicans — should work toward the November election. Our duty is to elect a Congress that will bring this runaway train under control.” — Is there such an animal as a “patriotic Republican”? I don’t think I know of one currently. I do however agree with Robinson that the runaway train that is the Drumpf administration and Republican dominated Congress needs to be brought under control before irreparable damage is done to the US and the world.
Cartoon — No! Republicans are still in control of the Congress, and Drumpf is still the Liar-in-Chief.
Not currently in office as far as I know (I don’t know every legislator in every state, county, and town though.) But we can’t categorically rule out the possibility that there might be one or two not in office but still registered to vote.
Thanks and stinky Republicosis hugs to all.
Newsweek: Being a bully is how he has gotten where he is; deplorable is who he is!
Salon: Hatch (I’m sorry) really needs the hatchet!
WaPo: There has never been a moment in his fake life in which he has been self-aware. His rejection of evidence based reality is virtually diagnostic of his sickness, of the deluded world in which he exists.
“Delusion has the characteristic of blindness, of not penetrating reality, of covering the true nature of experience, of fostering unwise attention, of causing deluded action.” -Visuddhimagga, the Theravada Buddhist Path of Purification.
Pharaoh Akhenaten, or archeologist Barry Kemp, has said: “The danger of being an absolute ruler is that no one dares tell you that what you have just decreed not a good idea.” This Orange Emptiness would not have any idea about how those who are using him just LOVE his imbecilic ideas!