I’m writing for tomorrow, day 55. We have more bad weather coming in, the kind that sets off my COPD. In addition to a high wind warning, it may be a couple days before we see the warm side of 32°. That may not seem bad, but here, temperatures below 32° are unusual. Not getting above it is extreme. It’s also such a dead news day that MSNBC has “Lockup” on in prime time. This is today’s only article.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:09 (average 5:07). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Fantasy Football Report:
Here is the final report of the season for our own fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends.
What can I say? CAT is where it’s AT!! :-) We had a fun season and will be back next year. We’ll have room for a couple more players, so, if you’d like to play next season, please let me know. Congrats to all who played!
Short Takes:
From NY Times: Suppose that for some reason you decided to start hitting yourself in the head, repeatedly, with a baseball bat. You’d feel pretty bad. Correspondingly, you’d probably feel a lot better if and when you finally stopped. What would that improvement in your condition tell you?
It certainly wouldn’t imply that hitting yourself in the head was a good idea. It would, however, be an indication that the pain you were experiencing wasn’t a reflection of anything fundamentally wrong with your health. Your head wasn’t hurting because you were sick; it was hurting because you kept hitting it with that baseball bat.
And now you understand the basics of what has been happening to several major economies, including the United States, over the past few years. In fact, you understand these basics better than many politicians and commentators.
This another excellent Paul Krugman editorial. Click through fpr an explanation of his economic optimism.
From Daily Kos: The U.S. Senate has courageously just stood up to the Christian-supremacist bullies in the House of Representatives. Oh yes, the Senate has just completely ripped away from their religiously bigoted, House counterparts a would-be treasured bible-thumping bonanza of immeasurable, unconstitutional proselytization. This erstwhile prize of legislative plunder had been specifically designed by these Congressmen and Congresswomen from the House, in nefarious collaboration with their legions of fundamentalist Christian parachurch allies, to be embedded deep within the confines of the 2015 Pentagon authorization/funding act.
Fortunately, the plan by these Christian crusader Members of the House failed. Please let me briefly explain, my friends.
Click through to learn how the Senate stripped provisions from the NDAA that would guarantee forced attempts to convert our troops to Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity. In the past, Republican strength has come from the different wings of the Reich being ready to goose-step behind each others’ insane positions. You can be sure that the Theocons will have their revenge against the Corporacons, Neocons, Plutocons, and the InsaniTEA wing.
From Huffington Post: Bracing to do business with a Congress run solely by Republicans, President Barack Obama is serving notice he has no qualms about vetoing legislation he dislikes.
This would be a significant change in style for Obama, come January when the new Congress will be seated with the GOP not only in command in the House but also the Senate as well.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Cartoon:
32 Responses to “Open Thread–12/30/2014”
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Why do I keep having "nightmares" about a GOP/TP controlled Congress…
Sadly, they are not nightmares, but reality.
What she said!
Sigh
3:37 I was enjoying the scenery.
3:14 I stumbled a little on the steep hillside.
3:31 I'm at the library on a strange machine and people knocking the table so I might be a touch slow. On one hand, annoying; on the other, I'm thankful to be able to keep my Care2 and PP going. Maybe tomorrow I'll have my machine back.
Maybe there's something in the pantry, or a mouse in the cellar.
My comments have disappeared while I was on another tab reading an article that you referenced. I have had to re-type my comments yesterday and today. What's up with PP?
Stay inside out of the cold wind while that cold front pushes through your neck of the woods.
NY Times ~ Lock up that baseball bat and throw away the damned key!
Daily Kos ~ What happened to carrying a copy of the Constitution in your pocket Mr. speaker of the House? Duh! We have the Seperation of Church and State guaranteed by said Constitution. Or did you forget about that? I believe it applies to the Military because they ar an arm of our Government. I know it applied to the IRS when I worked there. No proseletyzing is in the employee handbook.
HuffPo ~ I have nightmares just like Jim.
Cartoon ~ They do hate those stinking facts!
The disappearing Comments has happened to me several times. So, if I'm doing a long or involced Comment I copy it [Ctrl+A then Ctrl+C] before I hit ANY other key, just to be sure I don't have to do a "do-over".
I tryed to duplicate the error and could not, but Nameless has the best workaround.
I think it my be my provider because it's happening on other sites too. It even happens when I'm just reading something or playing a game. The page just disappears.
Thank you, Time Warner Cable for excellent high speed internet. LOL
Yeah, well trying putting up w/ Comcast …
I HATE COMCAST!
Hooray ~ Grimm is stepping down from his House seat!
That IS good news. Thanks!
I hear a choir singing the Hallelujah chorus!
Now may he step straight into a prison cell for a long time!
Wooo Hooo!
TC –
I'm hoping you'll do a piece on the soon-to-be Majority Whip, Rep. Scalise (R-[Like there was any doubt] LA) – the third most powerful person in the House – speaking to a White Supremacist group founded by a past Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
Oh, I'll look forward to that!
But I think we all need to cut Scalise a little slack …
It's just damn hard to tell a KKK Rally from a GOP one.
Snicker, snicker!!! That is so true. But only enough slack for him to get his neck in his own noose!
The CBS news tonight said the House is standing behind him, he won't lose his job. He is claiming he did not know what the group represented. That would make me want to get rid of him by itself, if he spoke before a group he knew nothing about.
Great minds do fall in the same ditch, my friend. He's in my Andy short tahe and he's getting a parade.
4:16 average up to 5:17. I almost said, "No mushrooms?" but realized I had the wrong Porto in mind.
Congrats on the FF championship, TC. Regards to all who participated.
NY Times – Great analogy nationally. Alas, it hasn't been oridinary Americans swinging that bat, but Tea Party legislators, and not we have a Congress where the swingers are in the majority in both houses. I'm still keeping stocked up on aspirin. Just not Bayer.
Daily Kos – I am not sure why the Air Force Academy should be worse in this regard than West Point and Annapolis, but it certainly is a little hell-hole of prosetylization. I hope this helps some.
HuffPo – A significant change in the makeup of Congress certainly deserves and demands a significant change in executive policy. I am keeping my fingers crossed also.
Cartoon – Well, that's the attitude in a nutshell. I'm not sure they'd say it that way. They don't believe in facts but make up their own, so they call actual facts "liberal conspiracies."
P.S. A Care2 friend of mine works this site and sent me this link in a card – at the bottom there is a button to sign a petition. It is not new, but it is still open and quite poignant.
http://stopabusecampaign.com/erie-county
Signed the petition.
Signed.
Richard –
Thanks for signing Stop Abuse Campaign’s petition.
I'm a lifelong Packer fan
GO PACK GO!
Well Obama will keep his word if "veto" is the new way govern so be it. I think Obama ( his brother back in Kenya was asked back in 2008 if Obama will be our President and his answer was "If he (Obama) wants to be he will".
I hope you get to stay inside during this bad weather. It is 25 degrees here right now and expected to get colder tonight, high today was only 35. The weather in Mississippi was much better.
NY Times: I shared this on Facebook, doubt my red friends will read it, but some might. Fox news and the Koch's have hammered that Obama is destroying the economy for so long, too many people believe it.
Daily Kos: I am so happy that our lame duck Senate acted as they did. If the religious right had its way, we would live in conditions similar to Shariah law, if we don't do what they thing we SHOUD do, we are punished in some way. Glad the constitution was upheld.
Huffington Post: I hope he uses his veto powers freely. I have been disappointed in him on several occasions when I felt he could have stepped up and demanded more, he compromised too often to suit my ideas. He can use these last two years to accomplish some of his goals if he will.
Cartoon: The Republicans never let facts get in their way!
Thanks all. Running way late, because I overslept!!