It has been a busy day. The weather has been foul with wind and rain warnings. Ferries on the coast were cancelled late afternoon and evening because of the wind. Our trip to Costco was hampered by all the rain and I was soaked through. I was warmer without my jacket so off it stayed, although I did garner a few questioning stares . . . you know the kind . . . "are you nuts?". I was tired enough that once I arrived home about 6 pm, a cat nap was in order.
Puzzle — Today’s took me 4:28 (average 12:14). To do it, click here. How did you do? With an average time so high, it would seem that many people have had trouble finding the key to this door!
Short Takes
CNN — Donald Trump's tweet on Tuesday dangling the idea of an independent run for president sent a clear warning to the Republican establishment: Attack at your own peril.
After 24 hours of withering criticism from the likes of Dick Cheney, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and virtually every fellow GOP presidential hopeful — not to mention Democrats and the mayors of Philadelphia and London — Trump is defiantly standing by his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States. And he upped the ante by tweeting a new USA Today/Suffolk University poll that shows 68% of the 2016 Republican front-runner's supporters would ditch the GOP and stick with him if he launched an independent campaign for the presidency. …
"You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell," South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said on CNN's "New Day" on Tuesday.
The feelings expressed about Trump from various sources seem to boil down to Lindsey Graham's words: "Tell Donald Trump to go to hell". But will the Republican Party be able to do it?
Time — Europe’s most powerful leader is a refugee from a time and place where her power would have been unimaginable. The German Democratic Republic, where Angela Merkel grew up, was neither democratic nor a republic; it was an Orwellian horror show, where the Iron Curtain found literal expression in the form of the Berlin Wall. The shy daughter of a Lutheran minister, Merkel slipped into politics as a divorced Protestant in a largely Catholic party, a woman in a frat house, an Ossi in the newly unified Germany of the 1990s where easterners were still aliens. No other major Western leader grew up in a stockade, which gave Merkel a rare perspective on the lure of freedom and the risks people will take to taste it.
Donald Trump, also in the running, tweeted this upon learning Angela Merkel had been chosen: "I told you @TIME Magazine would never pick me as person of the year despite being the big favorite. They picked person who is ruining Germany." Congratulations to Angela Merkel for being Time's Person of the Year and at the same time, pissing off the narcissistic, bloviating Trump. I don't agree with everything Merkel does, but she has left an indelible mark on the world stage.
National Journal — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s seeming suggestion this week that students of color would be better off at “a slower-track school where they do well” is not only offensive, it’s wrong.
Black and Latino students who attend selective schools are more likely to graduate than those who attend open-enrollment schools, regardless of how academically prepared they are when they enter.
According to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, graduation rates for black and Latino students double when they move to selective schools from open-access colleges.
“Justice Scalia is making the tired argument that admitting African-American students into white schools is akin to putting ponies in a horse race,”
Further evidence, as if any more were really needed, that Injustice Scalia should be put out to pasture.
My Universe —
8 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 12/12/2015”
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CNN: The GOP let Trump go unabated with his comments, but are now lambasting him for his comments on his proposed ban of Muslims entering the US. But in the same breath say they will endorse him as GOP Presidential candidate.They don't have the chutzpah to stand up to this guy and tell him to 'go to hell'.
Time: Thank the sky for him not making it. Congratulations to Ms. Merkel.
NJ: He should be impeached for his hateful comments.
My Universe: He's so adorable, and so is the little one. 😉
The rain abated enough here for the annual Christmas parade. I love standing there watching the little ones get so excited when they see Santa. I'll take a cat nap any day. lol.
Thanks, Lynn.
5:12 I got hung up on the curlicues.
Busy weekend!
LS: You gotta do what is comfortable for you.
CNN: "Hairball" is the only candidate that could carry the GOP regardless of their displeasure of his disparaging comments. The RNC is afraid of "Hairball" splitting the party if he becomes an independent candidate. No other candidate can match his crowd attendance. Jeb "Dumya" Bush may be the party's perennial favorite but the people do not like him as he is a stumbling mutterer. As said before, "Hairball" speaks out loud while most of the RNC is quiet but secretly support him.
Time: "Hairball" was never the popular favorite of the people. It was Bernie! As usual, Hairball is being very delusional.
Kudos to Angela Merkel for being the Person of the Year as indicated by Time magazine. Not a fan of Time's Person of the Year award, it seems to have been done with care this year. One area that I agree with Merkel is that she has changed her country, Germany, to solar energy and reducing dependancy of fossil fuels. Germany has become the leader of the world in solar energy while USA has remained in the kindergarden courtesy of the Koch Bros and their ilk.
Journal: Scalia is a racist and should be impeached by Congress immediately. Scalia is unfit to sit on the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, Congress is controlled by the GOP racists and they, apparently and quietly, support him.
Universe: Silly kitty can't ketch a fishy but little one can. lol.
5:14 I didn't think you had to be a blacksmith to do it, but perhaps people were trying to solve it with anvil and hammer.
CNN – Of course my hope for the 2016 election is for him to run as an independent and split the hater vote. Oh, Lord, you don't suppose he is deliberately trying to sabotage the GOP by going that route? And I suppose it's anybody's guess what happend down ballot if that happens.
Time – Thanks for the info. I don't actually think Trump was the big favorite. While there were too many people in Time's poll for anyone to have a majority, Bernie got almost twice the votes of his nearest contender, who was Malala.
NatJournal – I would say that putting Scalia on the Supreme Court was akin to putting ponies in a horse race – except that the competition for equine posterior is so formidable there.
Universe – Aaaaw – Poor Simons' cat. Frozen, starving, and outmaneuvered by an infant.
Hope you got dry.
4:47. Big hurry!!
Stayed up late as I could, but you posted too late for me to note that today is only one of twelves times during the year that I don't have to mentally reconfigure your date: 12/12/2015 works either way (m/d/y OR d/m/y)
Person of the Year: I do not follow that stuff, did not know of the "nominations," but suggest that he be THE ONE the year he leaves this planet, and thanked for doing so. It is, sadly, too late to nominate him for a Darwin award.
Impeachment for Scalia would be soooo lovely! Maybe then Thomas would feel free to open his mouth, and show us just how phenomenally dumb he is.
Where do I get my Donald and Dr. Ben for Independent candidacy bumper sticker?
Your weather sounds very much like ours, Lynn: absolutely dreadful, though still far to warm for this time of year. It just doesn't get light anymore during the day, the cloud blanket is too thick.
CNN: Those Republicans need to do their math, 68% of the 30% voters Trump's got on his side now will leave him with about 21% of the voters if he goes independent. You'd think Cruz would be jumping up and down for joy. But of course Hillary is ahead in the polls of Trump as it is, so none of the remaining Republicans can afford 21% less votes. The other candidates can thank their own party: they're doomed with Trump and they're doomed without him.
Time: So glad they let common sense prevail and didn't go for Donald Trump as man of the year. Besides being an unheard-of (?) sponsoring/endorsement of a presidential hopeful, they would have lost any credibility in the rest of the world as a news magazine (not that they have much) and could have closed their overseas branches. Angela is the better choice by far, though Greece, Spain, Portugal… may not agree with that.
National Journal: Of course Scalia was wrong, but that doesn't matter to a bigot and racist. If you have a prejudice as big as Scalia has against African-American (and Latino) people, any argument that can be used against them is good enough. Scalia is a racist and a religious bigot and on based on those traits alone shouldn't be allowed on SCOTUS. His biased argumentation is the direct result of his racism and bigotry and completely inappropriate for a justice.
My Universe: Loved the way Simon's cat prevented the garden gnome from toppling over after he had upset it. Never see any of the cats that own me do that, just the upsetting and breaking.