It was a pleasure to work with Dr. King on Vietnam Summer. Of all the people I have met in my life, he stands head and shoulders above the rest. This is last year’s article. It is even more applicable today.
Normally, I would wish you a Happy Martin Luther King Day, but my conscience will not allow it at a time when Donald Trump and the Republican Party have trashed so much of what he accomplished, and today, Dr. King would grieve. But he would also…
It’s yet another muggy day here, and I’d like to catch a holiday nap, but I want to post for MLK Day. To do otherwise would be… Republican. Since the situation this year is the same but worse, I’m recycling last year’s lead article, because I don’t know how to improve it. Have a safe holiday.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:25 (average 8:29). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): "— — —," a parody inspired by "The Thing."
Thanks to JD for introducing me to their work. I hope I live to see the — — — join Sturmbannführer Scalia and ol’ Split-foot. RESIST!!
From Media Matters: National Review’s Rich Lowry defends Trump’s racist comments as "common sense on immigration"
Lowry: "These countries he was referring to, they are basket cases. They are disaster areas"
Click through for video, if you dare. National Review is a standard Republican site. They aren’t even openly alt-right. Racism is just a Republican norm. RESIST!!
From NY Times: The bipartisan group of senators, including Mr. Durbin and Mr. Graham, reached an agreement last week that would provide a path to citizenship for DACA recipients while also providing money for border security and making other changes to immigration policy.
But Mr. Trump dismissed the proposal, calling it a “big step backwards.” And on Sunday, he offered a pessimistic take on Twitter, writing that DACA was “probably dead” and blaming Democrats. He kept up the finger-pointing when he spoke to reporters on Sunday night.
“We’re ready, willing and able to make a deal on DACA, but I don’t think the Democrats want to make a deal,” Mr. Trump said. “And the folks from DACA should know the Democrats are the ones that aren’t going to make a deal.”
When the Fuhrer says Democrats don’t want to make a deal, after they already made one in which they were giving up too much, he is lying. Trump is the one who refused that deal. He wants to blame Democrats unless we cave-in. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
Yesterday the world may have come closer than any of us want to admit to nuclear war. While Hawaii Emergency Management Agency was trying out a new system for the very first time, an employee pressed the wrong button. Thinking he was turning over control to the next shift, he sent out a nuclear alert instead, causing widespread panic in Hawaii.
For 38 terrifying minutes, many Hawaiians spent Saturday morning hunkered in bathtubs and basements waiting for a ballistic missile strike that never came.
911 networks were overwhelmed and some fired off frantic messages to loved ones on the mainland.
Hawaiian public officials called it a day they would never forget.
The panic ensued after the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency mistakenly sent out an alert that warned residents of an imminent ballistic missile strike and urged them to "seek immediate shelter."
"This is not a drill," the ominous, all-caps push alert blared on people’s phones.
The notice turned out to be a false alarm, but the ensuing panic quickly turned to anger and a demand for answers by Hawaiians, their politicians and even the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission about what happened. Why was the alert sent, and why did it take 38 minutes for the Hawaiian government to correct it?
Facing the outcry, Gov. David Ige and Hi-EMA Administrator Vern Miyagi first offered an apology and then some answers during an afternoon press conference.
"I deeply apologize for the trouble and heartbreak we caused today," Miyagi said. "This is my team. We made a mistake. We are going to process this and study this to make sure this doesn’t happen again."… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <NBC News>
Mistakes happen. What concerns me most is not that it happened, but what happened next: nothing. Authorities knew almost instantly that it was a false alarm. The truth should have gone put on all the same networks immediately. A 38 minute delay is not just unconscionable. It could have been catastrophic.
What may have saved the world is that the alert went out just after 1:00 PM EST, and Donald "Button Go Boom-Boom" Trump has just teed off at Trump International Golf Course in FL. Now a mere nuclear alert just isn’t important enough to him to justify interrupting a golf game. By the time he was free to attend to the matter, it was already well known that it had been a mistake.
Now imagine Trump getting original alert in the White House from the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise. During that 38 minute delay, Trump could easily have launched nuclear strikes on North Korea, all the Muslim countries, all the "shithole" countries, and damn near everyone else, except Normay, Nambia, Binomo, and, of course, Russia. That was too close for comfort.
It was another sticky night. When I arose this morning at 4:30 AM, with no heat on and an open window, the inside temperature was 78° because of heat rising in the building, so I slept fitfully. Wendy is due in fifteen minutes to destink the TomCat, who NEEDS that service big time.
I have been destinked, and I hope it lasts the day. Wendy is filling in as a bartender for two weekends, so we finished over an hour early.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:18 (average 5:28). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (SNL Channel): Morning Joe Michael Wolff Cold Open
Picture Kate McKinnon doing her kinky Mika routine in her KKK Beauregard outfit. RESIST!!
From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): How to Talk About the Muslim Ban
She makes valid points. Nobody should be banned for religious beliefs, not even the evil belief with the most terrorists of all: Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity (the exact opposite of real Christianity). RESIST!!
From Think Progress: Trump’s description of large swaths of the globe, including the entire continent of Africa, as “shithole nations” whose citizens should be excluded from the United States has triggered international condemnation.
The latest response comes in the form of an extraordinary statement issue by the African Union, a group of 55 African countries.
The African Union called Trump’s comments “outrageous, racist and xenophobic” and demanded a “retraction and apology.” The group also said it was “concerned at the continuing and growing trend from the US administration towards Africa and people of African descent to denigrate the continent and people of color.”
I stand with them 100%. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
This is my only article today, because I got almost no sleep last night. The low was over 50°, and the rain stopped, so the street people, who would normally be huddled under tarps and blankets to stay warm and dry came out to play. They partied all night in the street below me, yelling and making sleep impossible. Tomorrow may also be a one-article day, as Wendy needs to come an hour early.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 6:04 (average 6:36). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): How The World Covered President Trump’s ‘Shithole Countries’ Slur
Trump has made the US an international pariah. RESIST!!
From Washington Post: An adult-film star was paid $130,000 by a lawyer for Donald Trump in the weeks before the 2016 election to not talk publicly about a sexual relationship with the then-Republican candidate, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The lawyer, Michael Cohen, allegedly paid Stephanie Clifford [aka Stormy Daniels] to remain silent about an encounter at Lake Tahoe in 2006, a year after Trump married his third wife, Melania, according to the Journal. The Journal said the payment was made to a client-trust account at City National Bank in Los Angeles.
I understand the Stormy is offering the Republican Reich $260,000 to deny the story out of fear that it will make her the laughingstock of the porn industry. RESIST!!
From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump demanded on Thursday that the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty be revised immediately to exclude nations he considered “shithole countries.”
Speaking to reporters, Trump said that the poem as it currently stands “is basically an open invitation that says, like, if you come from a shithole country, welcome aboard.”
“I don’t know the entire poem, but it’s something like ‘Give us your tired, your poor, your yadda yadda yadda,’ ” he said. “We could keep all that but then put in, right at the end, in big letters, maybe, ‘except if you’re from a shithole country.’ ”
“I think if a boat from a shithole country came and saw that poem with those words at the end, they would turn around and go right back to wherever they came from,” he said.
Dang Andy! Would Republicans love that or what? RESIST!!
Cartoon:
Donald Trump, Fuhrer of the Republican Reich is a racist. Duh, you say! I know. I might as well say that the Pope is Catholic or that bears shit in the woods. However, this time Trump went off the deep end, triggering outrage from around the world. Needless to say, even the best responses from Republicans have been muted, for reasons I’ll address later.
President Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they discussed protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to several people briefed on the meeting.
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump said, according to these people, referring to countries mentioned by the lawmakers.
Trump then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway, whose prime minister he met with Wednesday. The president, according to a White House official, also suggested he would be open to more immigrants from Asian countries because he felt that they help the United States economically.
In addition, the president singled out Haiti, telling lawmakers that immigrants from that country must be left out of any deal, these people said.
“Why do we need more Haitians?” Trump said, according to people familiar with the meeting. “Take them out.” [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Washington Post>
Rachel Maddow covered this story in depth. Be warned. The video is altogether superior, but you’ll need to budget 24 minutes to listen to it.
Since then The Fuhrer has called it fake news. Lindsey Poo Graham has the most positive response from a Republican in the room. He said that he had said his piece directly to Trump, while still there, but refuses to say what he said to Trump. Cotton and one other Republican Senator in the room said they "do not recall" what he said.
Republicans are complicit through their silence on the matter. Why? It’s really quite simple. They put Trump in the White House, notwithstanding help from Russia, because what he does represents who they are. That’s why every Republican in office anywhere is one Republican too many!
It’s another day with record high temperatures and 90%+ humidity. It looks like I’ll have to wait a week for seasonable weather to return and I slept poorly. Tomorrow and Sunday are High Holy days in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. May the Orb shine its holy light on your team, if they have survived. TGIF!!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:02 (average 5:38). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Fox News urges war with North Korea
Barf Bag Alert!!
This is where Trump forms his policy. Take away his TV! RESIST!!
From YouTube (Late Show Channel): Stephen Colbert’s Midnight Confessions, Vol. XXXVI
Trump tried that elevator trick, but his is too short to reach any buttons. RESIST!!
From Time: U.S. President Donald Trump’s readiness to threaten the use of America’s nuclear arsenal has unnerved diplomats and academics and inflamed tensions with North Korea over the first year of his presidency. Now former nuclear missile launch operators are adding themselves to the list of concerned observers.
In an open letter to Congress on Thursday, a group of 17 former nuclear launch officers argued that President Trump “poses a clear and present danger to the country and the world” and warned that “there are no reliable safeguards” to prevent Trump from deciding to launch a nuclear missile on his own.
The letter was published by international nuclear disarmament advocacy group Global Zero, and follows a similar letter written at the close of the 2016 presidential election.
I could not agree more! RESIST!!
Cartoon:
Republicans refer to this as the good old days.
After a three week absence, it’s that time of week again, so here are four excellent video clips from Sam’s show last night. Enjoy!!
This Is (Still) Our Fight Song
I like the song.
She has caught up an many of the issues we have discussed, usually coming to the same conclusions.
From a Republican perspective, women are the same as any other renewable property: easily replaceable.
She sounds quite qualified. I favor and have absolutely no problem with putting black women in office.
It’s good to have Sam back!
