October 2015 – Page 2 – Politics Plus

Friday Fun – A Spooktacular Boonanza of Fun

Posted by SoINeedAName at 5:54 am Politics

Oct 302015

OK, so we’re jumping the gun by a day – but I want to give a YUUUGGGEEE H/T to Joanne, Judi and Lynn who came up with the idea of a Halloween themed “Friday Fun”. They shared tons of pictures to inspire me, some of which you’ll enjoy below. Thanks!

To set the proper Halloween mood, you’d naturally expect to start out with something like a spooky old house, and throw in some lightning …

But how’s this for something truly scary?

(Didn't really even need the skeletal animation to be scary, did it?)

Now that we got you in the proper frightened frame of focus, we’ll begin with some Halloween puns – because what better way to get the GROANS going than a pun?

What’s a haunted chicken?

A poultry-geist

How did the Great Pumpkin fix the hole in his pants?

With a pumpkin patch

What does a ghost eat for lunch?

A BOO-logna sandwich

What do you get when you drop a pumpkin?

Squash

Why wasn’t there any food left after the monster party?

Because everyone was a goblin!

What kind of monster is safe to put in the washing machine?

A wash-and-wear wolf

What kind of protozoa likes Halloween?

An amoeboo

And my favorite …

What do you get when you divide the diameter of a jack-o-lantern by its circumference?

Pumpkin Pi

Get it? Pie … pi …

*sigh* Geez … Do I have to draw a picture for you guys?

Now let’s enjoy some costumed cats …

Well, of course dogs can be cute in Halloween costumes, too. (Just not AS cute as cats)

(These dogs must be from Minnesota or Wisconsin – given that it’s apparently snowing.)

If you want to see how the super-rich “One Percenters” of New York decorate their manses for the holiday …

“The New York Times” put together a slideshow of some of the better ones – from the most expensive zip codes in the city. (Don't know if slideshows embed – so just click the URL)

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2015/10/29/fashion/halloween-in-manhattans-most-expensive-zip-codes/s/29UESHALLOWEEN-slide-WSJI.html

To put a smile on your face, I think you’ll be “sucked up” by this “dirty” parody of “The Exorcist”. (It’s a minute and a half long, but I certainly didn’t see the punchline coming – and well worth it! Give it a click …)

So when you get ready for some Trick or Treaters …

And whether you dress your kids up cute …

(Ahhhhh ….)

Or dress your critters up scary …

Take extra care of yourselves, be safe and do NOT party too much or you might just not be able to navigate properly …

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Squatch’s Open Thread 29/10/2015

Posted by Lynn Squance at 12:40 pm Open Thread, Politics

Oct 292015

I was so tired last night that I left this part of the Open Thread until today, Thursday morning. It is great to see TC back producing his On the Edge–10/29/2015 which includes short takes today. And Nameless produced the GOP Debate – Others Watched So You Didn’t Have To with his usual flair for humour which I am both appreciative of and in awe. I still have my cold but hopefully yesterday's nap and a long sleep last night will boost me forward. So here we go friends!

Puzzle — Today’s took me 2:49 (average 5:04). To do it, click here. How did you do? For those that don't know, we always do the 48 piece classic.

Short Takes

The Nation — But if Kasich were to call Carson, Trump, Bush and, yes, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and former CEO Carly Fiorina and the rest, out for their extreme stances, if he were to say bluntly and without apology that what the other contenders propose is bad craziness, he would not just help his own candidacy.

He would restore a measure of common sense to a race for the Republican nomination that does indeed raise the questions: “What has happened to our party? What has happened to the conservative movement?”

I remember reading a short time ago that Rachel Maddow commented that of all the Republicans, she was leaning towards John Kasich in the Republican residential primary. I was surprised. John Nichols seems to paint Kasich as "the reasonable one". Scary, when an avowed conservative like Kasich seems to be "the reasonable one".

MSNBC — Carson also gave an odd response when asked about his reported involvement with a company called Mannatech that made fantastical claims that its nutritional products could cure cancer, autism and other diseases.

The former neurosurgeon said he “didn’t have an involvement with them” and it was “total propaganda” to suggest so. Bizarrely, he then went on to say he gave paid speeches for them and that he supported their business. “Do I take the product? Yes. I think it’s a good product,” Carson said. Clear as mud.

Who knows if it will matter to Carson’s current supporters when the next polls come out. But if his goal was to prove he can appeal beyond a hardcore conservative base and convince other voting blocs to take him seriously, his answers did not help.

The third Republican presidential debate in Colorado last night, a slugfest over the media, specifically the debate moderators.. Here Chris Matthews goes over three takeaways. Click through for a video and the remainder of the takeaways.

Huffington Post — In his parting gift to the House, outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) hammered out the deal with his fellow leaders in Congress and the White House, enraging the very members of his conference who edged him out.

The two-year deal, unveiled at midnight Monday, lifts the caps on sequestration — automatic budget cuts first put in place in 2011 — evenly across defense and nondefense accounts by a total of $80 billion. That money will be divided with $50 billion budgeted for the first year and $30 billion for the second. In addition, the bill also increases defense spending through the overseas contingency fund, a side piggybank that helps the White House pay for war operations, adding $32 billion to it over the two years.

In a 266-167 vote, the House passed the deal, which will keep the government from a default on Nov. 3, and increase the debt ceiling into March 2017. All Democrats and 79 Republicans voted in favor of it.

There is a Telus commercial from a number of years ago in which a teenager is complaining to her grandfather about her mother. After the conversation ends, the grandfather says "It's payback time!". I somehow think that John Boehner must feel like that. I thought that the agreement would never pass the House, and certainly the very conservative Freedom Caucus is wanting to rip Boehner a new pair. The vote for the new Speaker is today, so will the Freedom Caucus repudiate Ryan as a tit-for-tat response to the budget decision? Get your mittens out. It is getting frosty. Update: Ryan is the new Speaker

My Universe — It has rained heavily here last night and much of today, stopping briefly around 4 pm. It is back to raining cats and dogs which more than pisses off the cats. So this picture is for all the cat parents that forgot to ensure that Puddy was warm AND dry.

On the Edge–10/29/2015

Posted by TomCat at 11:44 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 292015

Today I have Short Takes for you. I’m busy preparing for surgery. Please keep me in your prayers.

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: There were fireworks at Wednesday night’s Republican Presidential debate as the retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Texas Senator Ted Cruz sparred over their differing timetables for hastening the end of the world.

While both Carson and Cruz stressed their commitment to accelerating the end times as described in the Book of Revelation, they offered starkly different visions of how they would bring them about.

When Carson said he hoped to bring the world to an end during his first term in office, he received a mocking rebuke from Cruz.

“That’s not soon enough,” the Texas senator said. “When I am President, I will start working to make the Rapture happen on day one.”

Sorry Andy. This is way too close to true to be funny.

From NY Times: Hillary Rodham Clinton had planned to focus her remarks Wednesday at a Politics and Eggs breakfast in Manchester, N.H., in support of the politically fraught, if somewhat arcane, issue of the Export-Import Bank and how it helps small businesses in the United States.

But a voter’s question about the death penalty pushed Mrs. Clinton to confront the heated issue for the first time in the Democratic nominating contest.

Asked her position on capital punishment, Mrs. Clinton said she did not support abolishing the death penalty, but she did encourage the federal government to rethink it.

In my opinion, that’s double-talk. We need to hit her on this, until she changes her mind.

From Daily Kos: It’s not hard to admire and respect Anonymous when they seek to destroy the scum of the earth. In a non-violent way, they often target those who are rarely challenged, due to others fearing retaliation. In this case, Anonymous has set its sites on shutting down the KKK/Ku Klux Klan. In the past year, Anonymous has become more aggressive and attacked KKK’s main Twitter account, publishing personal information of members from TALKKK, causing some members to leave. Bye, Felicia.

In a statement released last week, Anonymous said they respect the First Amendment. The attack is for different reason:

"We are not attacking you because of what you believe in, as we fight for freedom of speech. We are attacking you because of what you do to our brothers and sisters.

In Anonymous’s "Operation KKK," they now plan to release 1,000 identities from the hate group. It would seem exposing members of this malicious, racist, and sometimes murderous gang would have taken place decades ago. But then, we didn’t have the same internet/social media tools we have today. KKK is one of the most vicious groups in America…

Click through. I look forward to the list, which could be called Who’s Who in the Republican Party.

Cartoon: not homemade

GOP Debate – Others Watched So You Didn’t Have To

Posted by SoINeedAName at 7:10 am Politics

Oct 292015

This will be an easy-peasy – and very SHORT – post. (So if one of you other guys did an in-depth one, my apologies.)

Borrowing from the bigger story going on of World Series baseball, with my Kansas City Royals being in the processing of winning the World Series, let’s start with “You can’t know the players without a scorecard …”

So, Who WERE the Winners and Losers?

WINNERS

You … if you missed watching the thing and tuned into the World Series game instead!

LOSERS

America – if this is the best the GOP can muster

One of the few important things coming out of the debate is the fact that Donald Trump has decided to get even edgier than he has been, and changed his logo …

As for me? I was a WINNER! I spent my time watching the KC Royals notch another win!

On the Edge–10/28/2015

Posted by TomCat at 12:15 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 282015

Hi gang. Here’s the latest. I’m in a wheelchair and have taken my first spin around the hallways to chase nurses. I am amazed that using one is so much more difficult than it was the last time I was in a wheelchair. It was 63 years ago. My surgery is scheduled for 9:00 AM Monday at the burn unit at Legacy Emmanuel Burn Center on N. Gantbein. They do not know whether I will stay there, return here or go somewhere else. That’s very frustrating.

Short Take:

From Daily Kos:

"As a teenager, I would go after people with rocks, and bricks, and baseball bats, and hammers. And, of course, many people know the story when I was 14 and I tried to stab someone."

Wait… What?!?!?!

Lest you think I am quoting him out of context, behold:

We already had a president with a history of torturing animals and attacking people. That didn't end well. Now we are supposed to believe a guy who went after people with rocks, bricks, baseball bats and hammers… is who we want to put in a position where they control real deadly force?

The video in the original is different from this. to suc

The only reason I would hold Uncle Token to account for teenage behavior is that he still exhibits, daily, the absolute, concrete thinking that leads to such behavior.

Cartoon:

1029Vibra

Squatch’s Open Thread 28/10/2015

Posted by Lynn Squance at 1:17 am Open Thread, Politics

Oct 282015

Well I think I have turned the corner with this flu/cold. I have done more sleeping today which has put me behind, but that is better than feeling crappy. I may go to physiotherapy tomorrow but it will only be for traction, no exercise as such as I still feel weak. As I sit here, I can hear two of my cats snoring . . . damn it sounds like a freight train rattling through the house. Thanks to Nameless for doing yesterday's Open Thread, and to Judi and Joanne for their maiden voyages.

Puzzle — Today’s took me 2:54 (average 4:42). To do it, click here . How did you do?

Fantasy Football

Boy, did my balls (footballs, guys, footballs!) ever get deflated last week by TC's Teabag Trashers . . . 29.88 more points! Arrggghhhh!!!!! He must be feeling better!

TomCat ready for football action!

						Points
Rank	Team	W-L-T	Pct	Stk	Waiver	For	Against
1	Monster Mashers	5-2-0	.714	L1	10	666.38	520.24
2+2	Playing without a helmet	4-3-0	.571	W3	9	631.04	679.24
3-1	MittsMagicJock	4-3-0	.571	L3	8	675.92	615.10
4+3	Progressive Underdogs	4-3-0	.571	W1	7	658.80	589.98
5	Lefty Hillbillies	4-3-0	.571	W2	6	607.18	557.70
6-3	Size 9 Stompers	4-3-0	.571	L1	5	606.72	582.20
7-1	BALCO Bombers	4-3-0	.571	W1	4	630.06	547.58
8+1	TomCat Teabag Trashers	3-4-0	.429	W1	3	618.74	683.76
9-1	Purple Demon	2-5-0	.286	L1	2	613.82	710.78
10	endthegop	1-6-0	.143	L6	1	499.24	721.32

* Rank change shown is from week 6 – 7

Short Takes

Washington Post — Congressional Republicans shooting themselves in the foot isn’t new. What’s tragic about the Benghazi hearings is that they displace the serious inquiries that we desperately need about the direction of our foreign policy.

The United States invaded Iraq more than a decade ago. The assault — with costs including nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers killed and more than $2 trillion and counting — destabilized the entire region. The Islamic State grew in the ruins. No viable government has been created, and U.S. troops are going back in.

With all the US action in the Middle East, the saber rattling in Ukraine, indeed the rhetoric around the Iran nuclear deal, what country is considered to be the greatest threat to world peace?

The real scandal is not the partisan witch hunt now known as Benghazi in the US Capitol. The real scandal that Republicans won't investigate because it would also mean investigating and admitting their own complicity, as well as Democrats doing the same, is the role of the US in international affairs . . . the role of the US as the seeming policeman to the world. Have a look at another article in Salon which notes

Nowhere is this more evident than in the American Right’s bewilderingly impassioned obsession with the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi — a fanatic fixation that verges on the unhinged.

Unhinged indeed, and totally misguided.

From the House needs a Speaker file . . .h/t Joanne Dixon

A little levity from Senator Cory Booker

The Speaker's name is Bose, well known, and I understand non-partisan!

Slate — h/t Nameless — During her shift at Portland, Oregon’s Purringtons Cat Lounge on Sunday, Mary Numair looked out the street-facing windows and saw a woman carrying a sign that read “Abortion Kills Children.” Numair had noticed a group of protesters about a block away, gathered outside one of Portland’s Planned Parenthood health care centers. “I thought [the woman] might be lost. I said, ‘Hey, you’re gonna feel real silly. The protest is down that way,’ ” Numair, 29, told me. “She said ‘No, I need to stand here.’ I said, ‘Fuck this shit,’ went back inside, and started making my sign.”

I hope you'll read the rest of this short article. Hats off to Mary Numair! Personally, I don't know why people are so hush hush about yeast infections, but then I have caught myself speaking of them in hushed tones. As I understand, yeast and thrush are the same infection — fungal candida — (only thrush is more common in men according to a male diabetic friend of mine), just in different parts of the body. As a diabetic, I get them when I take anti-biotics which is why I dose up on acidophilus when taking anti-biotics. Everyone's body has some candida but it is kept in check by the good bacteria within the body. Unfortunately, broad spectrim anti-biotics kill the good bacteria leading to yeast or thrush infections. Why should anyone be denied care for such a problem? Planned Parenthood rocks!

My Universe —

Dad . . . I want to tell you a secret!

SoINeedAName’s Open Thread for 10/27/15

Posted by SoINeedAName at 1:05 pm Politics

Oct 272015

My hat is definitely off to all the work TomCat (and recently, Lynn) do in putting together the “Open Thread” post. It definitely has a learning curve to it – and unfortunately mine is not a steep line up. In fact mine barely rises above the x-axis.

Lynn and I decided we should post a Poll for Halloween (more on that below) – and TC gave us the powers to do it … sort of.

“It’s easy,” he says. “It’ll be fun,” he says. “A piece of cake,” he says. All you do is go to the separate plugin website to create the Poll – and don’t forget to copy the HTML Code. (Not too bad) Then head over to WordPress and simply plop that old HTML Code in the Widget in the right Sidebar.

Yeah, well GOOD LUCK trying to find where the damn Widgets are hidden so they can even be accessed. And even better luck in finding which Widget is the one you’re supposed to use – because NONE of them are labeled “Poll”. And after you do finally find it, then try re-positioning the thing so it actually appears somewhere visible … and without accidentally deleting any of the ones that are already there. ARRRGGGHHH!!!

[Note to Lynn: If you think I’m going to deprive you of the joy of mastering THAT learning curve, you got another think coming! ;-)]

At any rate, that’s why the “Open Thread” is up later and lighter than I had planned.

PUZZLE

Since I don’t do the puzzles, Lynn is kindly sending me her times with the Link.

Today’s Puzzle took Lynn 3:28 (average 5:36). To do it, click here. How did you do? Looks like someone lost their balls!

[NOTE: She actually emailed me that phrase: “Looks like someone lost their balls!”

~~I want~~ … ~~I think I deserve~~ … I DEMAND some extra credit for heroic discretion by NOT adding any double entendre comments to a setup line like THAT. I mean my tongue is practically bitten off from passing up that teaser!]

SHORT TAKES

POLL

Now that I have your attention, please gaze to the right to find a new Poll. (At least I hope I finally got it positioned to the right.)

To help get us in the mood for Halloween, we want you to select the best “Horror Movie” of all time.

Please note that this is a broad category – and not just limited to “slasher movies”. Two additional notes:

[1] You can vote for MORE than one movie (I think, assuming I got the HTML coded correctly)

[2] And of course you can vote for “You Name It …” – and please voice your opinion in the comments.

Trump Whines about His “Hard Life” & Dad’s Measly MILLION DOLLAR LOAN

You just can’t learn this kind of ability to bond with the common man that The Donald displayed during an interview on the Today Show with Matt Lauer yesterday:

“My whole life really has been a ‘no’ and I fought through it. It has not been easy for me … it has not been easy for me. I started off in Brooklyn, my father gave me a small loan of a million dollars.”

Well, one does have to admire his fortitude. After all, to start out in life as a humble millionaire with all the other silver spoon disadvantages he had to face, courtesy of his Poppy … I mean it’s a miracle he’s still alive today.

Oh, BTW – that $1,000,000.00 he got back in 1970 or so … it’d be worth over SIX MILLION in today’s dollars.

And since it was Daddy’s money, it was probably the last (and only) loan Trump ever repaid.

Amtrak Renews Chris Christie “Loud-Mouth Credentials” When Booted Off the Quiet Car

Well, it’s not the first time Christie’s mouth has gotten him to trouble – and probably won’t be the last.

While slurping down a strawberry smoothie, Christie boarded the Acela train from Washington to New York while loudly berating his henchmen when he landed in the notorious (and “we-ain’t-kidding”) Quiet Car. He continued in his boisterous manner while also making phone calls – a big no-no.

Finally the conductor told him he was violently the Quiet Car’s cardinal rule, and he’d either have to cut it out or move to another car. And to his credit, he realized his error and headed to (where else?) … the Café Car!

http://nypost.com/2015/10/25/chris-christie-kicked-out-of-amtrak-quiet-car/

In his defense, it’s clear that Christie didn’t realize he was climbing into the Quiet Car – pretty sure he thought it was the Clown Car.

Jon Stewart and Wife Open an Animal Farm Rescue Sanctuary

Jon and his wife, Tracey, who is a veterinarian, have decided to convert their New Jersey farm, Bufflehead, into a sanctuary for neglected and abused animals. They’ll work with Farm Sanctuary, an organization devoted to ending inhumane farming practices.

And according to the New York Times, their farm already is home to four pigs – two of which were rescued from the side of the road in Georgia.

(There apparently is NO truth to the rumor circulating that at least one of the other pigs was recently rescued from an New York bound Amtrak train with remnants of a strawberry smoothie on his snout.)

Sorry about it being later than I wanted to get it out – but I had such a “delightful time” trying to learn how to put a Poll together … on my own … for hours … and hours.

I’m now going to take a little catnap, so “Please Do Not Disturb” …

Terse Tuesday Tidbits

Politics 21 Responses »

Oct 272015

Background With Flower And Butterfly Maiden voyages can be nervewracking, so bear with me please…my philosophy of blogging is that I provide you food for thought that makes you want to comment as opposed to my telling you how to think or interpret most of what I provide: so please, express yourself!