Wendy will be here in about 90 minutes to de-stink the sticky TomCat, help with chores, and celebrate New Years Eve with steak and taters Later, Wendy is going out for an evening of ribald debauchery, and I’m splitting my time between Ellipsoid Orb meditations and ZZZZZzzzzz.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:04 (average 5:59). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Lawrence O’Donnell on Donald Trump’s Very Bad Year
We are proud to wish a Crappy New Year to Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten and every Republican in the Reich! RESIST!!
From Huffington Post: 2017 was a huge year in news: The United States got a new president. North Korea made major advances in its nuclear program. Women around the world toppled their sexual abusers with the #MeToo movement. And everyone is suddenly talking about bitcoin again.
It was also a bizarre time ― a lot of weird stuff went down in the U.S. and beyond. Here are six of the strangest news stories from the past year.
Comey In The Curtains
*sigh* Where to begin with this one?
James Comey was the director of the FBI until May, when President Donald Trump fired him in a stunning and highly controversial move. Under Comey, the bureau had launched an investigation into possible collusion between the Kremlin and Trump’s campaign. Comey later testified that the president pressured him not to investigate certain members of his team, which Trump denies.
Unsurprisingly, it turns out they didn’t have the greatest relationship during their few months together.
According to a later New York Times interview with Benjamin Wittes, a friend of Comey’s and the editor-in-chief of the Lawfare blog, the FBI director went to notable lengths to avoid interactions with his boss. Comey, who is 6 feet 8 inches tall, reportedly told Wittes that in January 2017 he attempted to blend into the curtains at a White House gathering so that Trump wouldn’t notice him. Apparently his dark blue suit matched the fabric.
“He thought he had gotten through and not been noticed or singled out and that he was going to get away without an individual interaction,” Wittes told the Times.
But Trump not only spotted him; the president gave him a pat on the back.
I shared one of the six. Click through for the other five. RESIST!!
From NY Times: Republicans’ 2018 Resolution: Bipartisanship. Will It Last?
Senator Mitch McConnell sounded downright magnanimous in anticipation of 2018, eager to work closely with Democrats even though he had cut them out of virtually every big-ticket deliberation during 2017.
“We’re going to be looking for areas of bipartisan agreement because that’s the way the Senate is,” Mr. McConnell, the majority leader, said this month as Congress fled town for the holidays.
The truth, as Mr. McConnell well knows, is that he has little choice. The certification of Doug Jones’s victory as the new Democratic senator from Alabama and his imminent arrival in Washington mean Mr. McConnell will be presiding over a Senate split 51 to 49 between Republicans and Democrats, a margin providing him scant room to maneuver. It will be almost impossible for congressional Republicans to do anything meaningful without at least modest support from the Democratic side.
Need I say more? RESIST!!
Cartoon:
14 Responses to “Open Thread – 12/31/2017”
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Ah, what an extraordinary thing tRump has accomplished: an approval rating in the 30’s after not even a year in office. If memory serves, low approval ratings of a POTUS are a bellwether for his party losing a lot of seats in Congress during the midterms. I certainly hope that We The People can effect a political bloodbath in November because it may be our last chance to set this country right via legal, peaceful means.
MSNBC: Yea, Happy Crappy New Year, re: Mr. Dumpty. Not surprised at the polls, I voted on some of them, and gave him the lowest of ratings. He deserves it.
HP: “You can’t make this stuff up. 2018 has some seriously strange shoes to fill.” Oh, rest assured, HuffPo, it’ll get weirder and crazy, probably a couple weeks/months in…..
NYT: McTurtle needs to go! Come to think of it, ALL of them need to GO!! out the door! gif says it all.
Cartoon: Ahhh…..I remember those days, paying homage to the porcelain queen. Too old now, to party like an animal. lol
Happy New Year to you, and WWW!! Best to all who grace these pages, and a Happy New Year!! and Good Health to you and your families. Enjoy your day/evening, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
I can only hope that 2018 will see the change in Washington that will bring about a BETTER government than we have now. Hope that will go unfulfilled, but hope, none the less.
Hope you don’t venture to the porcelain throne like the cat up there. I am trying to keep myself upright, also. Some kind of bug going around here.
HAPPIEST of New Year’s to you and yours, TC! I was trying to switch players and got stuck with what I got. Not what I wanted. But, it’s been FUN! Take care, my friend!
You kicked my ass anyway!
6:00 Let’s not get hooked.
I really can’t improve on any of these. Dave Barry did a retrospective for the Washingtin Post which appears to have something to offend everyone (but funny).
Sorry, I don’t feel comfortable letting the day go by without a reference to the death of Erica Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner, who died of a heart attack apparently triggered by an asthma attack (emphasis mine). In other words, she couldn’t breathe. She lingered for several days during which the mainstream media did not see fit to mention it. I am not sure whether I feel more rage, or more grief.
Cartoon – Maybe if he had ORGANIC catnip it wouldn’t disagree with his tummy quite so badly.
Incidentally, Carl Bernstein just went on record with a theory I have been suspecting, but have not mentioned because no proof and after all who am I anyway. Bernstein suggests that Agent Orange’s statements about being sure he will be treated fairly and be exonerated are things he truly believes, BECAUSE HIS OWN LAWYERS ARE LYING TO HIM, since they know, what he doesn’t, that firing Mueller would be a disaster.
One does not tell an absolute ruler something he will not be glad to hear,people have been known to loose their heads doing so!
*Joanne: Yes, such a tragedy about Ms. Garner.Nothing mentioned about this happening either, how awfully sad.
Lawrence O’Donnel: There seems to be a political spring in the air at the turn of 2017. This year has been so bad that many Americans are very hopeful that 2018 is going to be a much better year for them. Not for Drumpf, although it is hard to see how 2018 could possibly go any worse for him than 2017. There was a certain glee detectable in the way O’Donnell and his guests spoke of Drumpf’s biggest mistakes which seems to stem from this shared optimism that things will get better. And they will!
HuPo: The past year certainly has been one of the strangest, but we so easily forget the year before, don’t we. Remember how we believed 2017 couldn’t possibly as strange as 2016, the year Drumpf won the election with the minority number of votes, Britain voted itself out of the EU in a Brexit referendum, and there were signs that Russia interfered in both of them, at least with fake news if not more? How weird was that? With overheated global media attention for the tiniest fart of a global leader or the much larger ones of climate change we better get used “huge years in news”.
NYT: Democrats should have only one thing to say to Mitch McConnell and his Republican minions:
And Democrats should stop trying to be the “good guys” and working with Republicans on some “bi-partisan” deal whenever it suits Republicans. Democrats have burnt themselves so often in the past compromising there can hardly be a piece of skin left that hasn’t burned some time or another. Working with the GOP will lose them votes. In fact anyone in the Democratic party working with the GOP should be voted out of office along with all of the GOP. Time for a good clean-out. In other words: stop being the donkey in TomCat’s Bi-Partisan Unity sticker.
Cartoon: I can think of better ways to prepare for NYE. But there’s no need to, not even afterwards as it is January 1, 12:42 PM here already.
Happy New Year to all!
I agree with the monkey!
Just a few minutes after 12 Midnight in the Pacific Time Zone. Sonoma, California.
Wishing all you well for the Year 2018.
And the extinction of the GOP/Republican Party. And to the impeachment of Drumpf or his forced resignation.
This is the year 2018 that we take back our country with the upcoming mid-term elections to secure Congress for the Democratic Party and the people.
.
Backatcha!
Thanks and Holiday Hugs!
Puzzle — 4:19 I was hooked!
MSNBC — As long as Drumpf is POTUS, his 01/01 greeting will be ‘Happy Screw U Year’. Right from the very beginning of the campaign and then through this past year, Drumpf has done anything and everything to screw the nation (and the world really), aided and abetted by congressional Republicans. The best thing that could happen in 2018 is for Drumpf to resign or be turfed as a result of the scandals, and for the midterm elections to throw every running Republican to the curb like trash. Until that happens, 2018 will a redux of 2017.
Huff Post — “You can’t make this stuff up. 2018 has some seriously strange shoes to fill.” — May 2018 be saner, less conflicted, and better for people everywhere. Unfortunately, I am not holding out a lot of hope, but I stand with UN Secretary General António Guterres when he said, as noted by CNN:
NY Times — McTurtle is so full of crap!
The definition of bipartisanship for McTurtle and all Republicans is ‘my way or the highway’.
Reasonable? Responsible? Those two qualities are anathema to Republicans.
Now, ain’t that the truth! Don’t hold your breath Chuck! Leopards don’t change their spots!
I am with Lona’s graphic but with one change . . . Democrats need to give a whole bouquet of these to the Republicans! Love your graphic definition of bipartisanship TC!
Cartoon — Not in my house!
Happy New Year Everyone!
I hope it was/is safe and enjoyable!
In the tDump response, I am, and was, most taken by his insistence “…and you don’t have any doubt about it either,” literally telling those there what they think!!
MNSBC: “Communications genius!” His only genius is in manipulating, like any successful narcissist!
HP: tDump patting Comey on the back can be liked to G.W.Bush doing the same thing, only days before firing whomever it was, numerous times.
NYT: Excellent cartoon! NEVER believe McConnell, unless you have a burning urge to be used!
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL, INDEED!