I need to take another day off, because my COPD has flared up so severely that I strained chest muscles coughing. I’m current with replies. Hopefully, I shall return tomorrow.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:13 (average 5:07). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: Dear Democrats, Please Stick To These 8 Principles From Robert Reich
He makes me feel wise, because I have previously endorsed and supported every one of the eight, but then it’s really not rocket science. Even a Republican could understand, if only they were not so determined to choose ignorance.
From NY Times: Instead of smallpox, plagues, drought and Conquistadors, the Republican decline will be traced to a stubborn refusal to adapt to a world where poor people and sick people and black people and brown people and female people and gay people count.
As the historian Will Durant observed, “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”
This is a snippet from the middle of an excellent editorial by Maureen Dowd. I encourage you to click through for the rest of it.
From NBC News: The U.S. economy generated a stronger-than-expected 146,000 jobs in November, helping to trim the jobless rate to 7.7 percent, a four year low, the government reported Friday.
“It looks like the job market is holding firm,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “That’s encouraging in light of the fiscal uncertainties.”
What’s most amazing is that this happened, despite Republicans’ best efforts to prevent it by sabotaging the economy.
Cartoon:
And it has drawn in idiots ever since.
16 Responses to “Open Thread–12/9/2012”
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3:46 I am precariously balanced so as not to fall into the drink while getting a drink. Will anyone push me in or will I stay on dry ground?
3:16 Life is just ducky! Patty, swim baby, swim!
4:04 The ladies win…AGAIN! Lynn had an advantage. She probably part duck with webs between her toes because it is so wet where she lives.
Jerry, I am quackers! Quack! Quack!
Last again!
Take good care of yourself, Tom. Try to keep your COPD under control. No colds or flu for you this season!
MoveOn ~ The RepublicanTs have their ears stuffed with Koch money. They can'T hear common sense.
NY Times ~ I really hope everyone clicks through to the article and reads it. It is an apt requiem for a dead party. Great find, TC! Thank you.
NBC News ~ I am having a hard time following all the economists double-talk on this. It looks to me as though we are making a slow recovery which is good. But, the RepublicanTs can make all of our recovery disappear is they hold the economy hostage again next year when the debt ceiling needs to be raised again.
Cartoon ~ Too bad they didn't go the way of other cults such as Jim Jones' followers.
Is that bad for me to wish ill on these type of people?
Probably not considered acceptable to overtly wish disaster on them. I do it all the time, and in far more colorful (and politically UNcorrect) terms than you have expressed. Only difference is, I don't say it out loud, which probably make you braver than me. Not to worry though, I'll contribute to your bail.
Thank you, John. Start collecting those pennies.
Thanks Patty. I'm trying.
Their ears are not the only orafices.
YVW! 🙂
The US cannot default on our debts without causing an international economic crisis. Because our credit rating dropped after the last time Republicans caused the debt limit crisis, we have had to pay $18 billion extra, because of higher interest rates.
I try to hope that the people will give up the bad ideas and be rehabilitated, but If I said I have not felt anger or even outrage toward them, it would be a lie. I'll chip in with John.
December 9, 1958 – John Birch Society founded…
Robert Reich is the man… 🙂
Amen, Richard!
From NBC News:
"What’s most amazing is that this happened, despite Republicans’ best efforts to prevent it by sabotaging the economy.
Just imagine where the economy would be if the republicans had helped with the recovery instead of trying to sabotage it. But then, republicans always think of themselves first, not the nation first.
I agree, but that quote is not from NBC. It's from me.
Puzzle — 3:16 Life is just ducky! Patty, swim baby, swim! Now, what will Jerry do? Previously he said he only swims a bit, so he will have to beat me if he wants to stay dry!
MoveOn — I've heard it said that all men are born with selective hearing! Well I know some that hear just fine. It must be that all Republican/Teabagger men, especially politicians, are born with selective hearing! Part of the problem is that their heads are so far up their asses, all sound is muffled. The other part of the problem is not just ignorance, but their blind obedience to their idiotology.
NY Times — Dowd's article is very good and filled with humour.
Like I have often done, I look at declines in society in comparison to the fall of the Rome Empire. And today is no different. Where the decline, and eventual fall of Rome took centuries (let's hope the same will not be said of the Republican/Teabaggers!), three of the many reasons were state mandated religion, Nicean Christianity; internal political intrigues and excesses; and the mistreatment of people within the Empire, specifically the Visigoths who had fled the advancing Huns and settled in Roman territory in the 4th century. After the declining fortunes within the Empire, there were attacks by the Visigoths, the Vandals, and the Huns to name a few from outside the Empire. This sounds a lot like Will Durant's observation.
One can see these 3 reasons within the Republican/Teabagger party — trying to mandate fanatical evangelical pseudo Christianity as the guiding principles (they would love to change the constitution and laws to fit their religion); internal political intrigues (think for example Jim DeMint being the maker of far right wingnut legislators, not legislation, or Karl Rove and Grover Norquist, non elected pseudo kings of the party); and the treatment of the ordinary American with the portended cuts to the social safety net.
NBC News — "…despite Republicans’ best efforts to prevent it by sabotaging the economy." — AMEN!!!!!
Cartoon — Another date that will live in infamy! Crackpots and lunatics, dangerous to a balanced and just society.
Extra! Extra!! — 09 Dec 2004 the Supreme Court of Canada declared that marriage equality was constitutional.
It was all you!
True. Some people are just more inclined ti acquiesce to authority than to think.
Thanks! They cannot be compared to Rome, because they are just a faction, not an empire.
Thanks.
Amen!
Kudos to Canada!