I slept poorly last night, so I feel very sleepy today. Lona has affected me with her keyboard gymnastics. TGIF!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:09 (average 4:57). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Democrats Announce Plans For Early Debates In 2020 Campaign
After watching the ridiculous sham of the Republican debates in Campaign 2016, I wondered how Democrats would handle an even larger field. I like this plan. Being far more fair well help us RESIST!!
From NY Times: President Trump declared a national emergency at the border on Friday to access billions of dollars to build a border wall that Congress refused to give him, transforming a highly charged policy dispute into a fundamental confrontation over separation of powers.
In a televised announcement in the Rose Garden, Mr. Trump said he would sign the declaration to protect the country from the flow of drugs, criminals and illegal immigrants coming across the border from Mexico, which he characterized as a profound threat to national security.
“We’re going to confront the national security crisis on our southern border and we’re going to do it one way or the other,” he said. “It’s an invasion,” he added. “We have an invasion of drugs and criminals coming into our country.”
The declaration will enable Mr. Trump to divert $3.6 billion budgeted for military construction projects to the border wall, White House officials said. Mr. Trump will also use more traditional presidential budgetary discretion to tap $2.5 billion from counternarcotics programs and $600 million from a Treasury Department asset forfeiture fund.
That’s a fake national emergency declared by a real national pariah. RESIST!!
From The New Yorker: Stating that he expected the property to be “bankrupt and vacant within the next two years,” Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, announced on Thursday that the Mar-a-Lago club, in Palm Beach, Florida, would be the site of Amazon’s second headquarters.
Bezos said that Mar-a-Lago was chosen from a list of soon-to-be-bankrupt properties, including the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, Trump Turnberry, and the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The Amazon C.E.O. said that, after Amazon acquires Mar-a-Lago, the company will start working around the clock to remove the property’s hideous décor, which he fears could prove distracting to warehouse employees.
Wow Andy! What a great idea! RESIST!!
Cartoon:
11 Responses to “Open Thread – 2/15/2019”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
MSNBC: “Fair” sounds like a good start. It will be interesting.
NYT: “Walls Won’t Help, When the Enemy is within!”
New Yorker: Excellent, dude!
‘Toon: The thoughts that flood my mind in response to this image are not ready for prime time!
MSNBC: Great news!! Glad to hear how it’s going and looking forward to the debates.
NYT: I see that he was concerned about the trump induced national emergency so much that he headed to Mar-A-Lago immediately afterwards. What a cad. (all the time).
NYer: Brilliant idea, Andy!! Can it happen sooner though? lol
Cartoon: I like bananas, but not this kind…..
Hope that you catch up on your nap time too. Enjoy your evening, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
*This just in: “The only real emergency is in his (dt’s) amygdala. ~ Tony S. ~
MSNBC: This sounds like a great idea. I can’t wait for the debates.
NYT: National emergency my arse!
NYer: I like that idea Andy.
Thank you TomCat. Try and rest up.
Banana Republicans – ain’t that the truth! Any of them who support the Mango Madman are completely bananas!
RESIST THE FAUX NATIONAL EMERGENCY!!!
4:27 Not subtle.
MSNBC – Certainly no point in holding Democratic debates anywhere that Democrats don’t watch – And thank God we won’t need to listen to Faux “analysis.” It does seem to sound as fair as it can possibly be. And I like having it early – if people get – how do I say this – irrationally attached to a candidates that turns out not to be viable, we could be in trouble.
NYT – “The declaration will enable Mr. Trump to divert $3.6 billion budgeted for military construction projects to the border wall” – IF it survives the courts. I would not wager any significant body part on that.
TNY – Priceless! I’d love to set that up like a MasterCard commercial, but I’m too tired to think right now.
Cartoon – Keep the Republican. I’ll be happy to take the banana.
RESIST AND PERSIST !!!
i have posted a stack of petitions (3) regarding the ‘fake national emergency declared by the real national pariah’!
https://www.care2.com/news/member?sort=submitted830217428
MSNBC: Sounds good to me. The earlier they start the more information will be out there for us to review. Not rushed and a crammed in a short matter.
NYT: Don’t you love the way the bas*ard did his senseless maneuver on Friday?? He loves destroying our weekends.. How he thinks that he can even do what he did blows me away.Saying he’s going to take money from here, there, he’s totally insane. This stinking wall isn’t a national emergency, it’s a total flipping farce.
TNY: Way to go…I like that idea too Andy.
Cartoon: Not my favorite type of bananas either.
3:26 Many butterflies lately, is spring already in the air?
MSNBC: The idea is great, especially the grass-root criteria, but the fact that it really is a very large field remains. It reminds me of the European Song Festival which over the year kept growing in competitors as Europe grew, but also because they inexplicably added Israel and Australia. Now they have half finals over two days followed by a final, which they never had before, and that is just too much. It already had lost a lot of interest because of the atrocious music countries came up wit, but having to watch that for three nights was just to much for its audience. I do hope the caps that are set on some issues do help to keep the field limited. Political fatigue is just around the corner.
NYT: Drumpf himself has already undermined his own declaration of a national crisis by saying he didn’t really have to do it, but wanted to have the wall built more quickly. He’s of course counting on the courts, which he stuffed to the gills with ultra-conservative judges to let it pass in his favour, but even some Republicans can see that this would open up the can of worms you so clearly labelled in your cartoon: banana republic. Not all judges have left their integrity in the locker room, and it’ll take a long time before he’s gone through all the circuits. Let’s hope Mueller’s courts arein full swing by then too.
TNY: Very close to reality, Andy. Bezos is just a tat spiteful himself, so I really think he’d buy Mar-a-lago if it came up for sale – at the lowest possible price, of course – and then bulldozer the whole club out of existence.
Puzzle — 3:47 No butterfly fricassée tonight Puddy Tat!
MSNBC — Sounds equitable. Declared candidates will have to “belly up to the bar” to ensure only the best are included.
NY Times — There is no doubt that Trump has foisted the US into a constitutional crisis as the separation of powers are a fundamental tenet of the US constitution. He has already shot himself in the foot by declaring that this national emergency was not really necessary but only desirous by him to move things along at a quicker pace.
Some officials here north of the 49th and in the US are suggesting that the wall, even though it has been shown to be ineffective, will force some illicit drug traffickers to head to Canada and go through the northern border to the US. After all, the big market is in the US. Perhaps the US should treat drug addiction as a disease to reduce the size of the market. Next, if left unchecked, Trump will be proposing a northern border wall. Try building a wall there, the longest undefended border in the world. Oh and Trump, Canada will NOT PAY FOR THE WALL.
Trump’s wall is nothing more than a racist trope!
The New Yorker — Mar-a-Lago as a warehouse? Works for me! Wouldn’t that just kill Trump! No more gaudiness!
Cartoon — Under Trump and the Republican Reich, the US is already a banana republic.
It rain all day yesterday but we still have lots of snow on the ground and lots of ice since the temperatures remain low for here. I understand that this week we are scheduled for more snow. Because it was raining so hard, I did not get out to make snow angels yesterday. It would not have been a good idea considering I now have a cold.
Oh and the NarcissistéRacist-in-Chief claimed on Friday that Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, had nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the situation with North Korea. If it is true, Abe is simply trying to curry favour with Trump. He is definitely not deserving of the peace prize. All he has done is make the world less safe! I hope the Nobel committee has the sense to drive any and all nomintions into the ground.
Thanks and Hugs!