Julie and Killer Dawg are here for their next to last day. After her work is done, we’re having a small feast of baby back ribs. To spend some time with her, and because I’m tired, I’m making this today’s only article.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:56 (average 5:06). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube: MoveOn and Robert Reich have a special Fourth of July message about patriotism.
Indeed! Henry David Thoreau said that patriotism is the willingness to oppose your country when the leaders violate human rights in Civil Disobedience.
From NY Times: Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, conceding that her airport meeting with former President Bill Clinton this week had cast a shadow over the federal investigation of Hillary Clinton’s personal email account, said Friday that she would accept whatever recommendations career prosecutors and the F.B.I. director made about whether to bring charges in the case.
Ms. Lynch said she had decided this spring to defer to the recommendations of her staff and the F.B.I. because her status as a political appointee sitting in judgment on a politically charged case would raise questions of a conflict of interest. But the meeting with Mr. Clinton, she acknowledged, had deepened those questions, and she said she now felt compelled to explain publicly her reasoning to try to put the concerns to rest.
This is a good move by Lynch, but on a scale of one to ten, Slick Willie was STUPID!!!
From Crooks and Liars: Bill Maher wrapped up this Friday’s edition of Real Time with a look at Republican run states such as Kansas and Louisiana, or as their party likes to call them, the "laboratories of democracy" and what the results of years of trickle-down economics and tax breaks for the rich has done to their economies.
Bill has crystalized the incompetence in a Republican Reich. Who would have ever thought that Californicated would become a compliment!!
Cartoon:
24 Responses to “Open Thread – 7/2/2016”
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Cartoon: applies to apparent nominees of both parties IMO
Many analysts choose to use CA as the comparison of how a governor actually fosters economic growth to contrast with the GOP tanking other states.
Lynch did quip that she wished Holder had told her how to lock the plane door…and some news sources are saying H. Clinton's FBI interview will be this weekend on the email server possible felonies (no estimate yet on when the interviews on the FBI investigations related to the Clinton Foundation will happen).
Time is ripe for reminding everyone that "My country right or wrong" is false patriotism (and you can substitute President or candidate for country equally well).
May all go well with the farewell party.
Most Sheeple vote Republican. Progressives, who vote Blue, do so, because they are prectical. Progressives who do not vote Blue are unintentionally regressive.
Bill Maher should be required listening for all Americans….
5:08 (5:08) Lovely horses. Since they work, they'll probably be a little tough.
Reich – Having trouble with my speaker right now – but I know thw Reich on the left is right – I'll listen when I can.
NY Times – Yes, Slick Willie was anything but slick this time. Very unfortunate. As you say, good move by Lynch.
C&L – Odd – That audio worked just fine. Yes. One of his better ones. "Who would have ever thought that Californicated would become a compliment!!" Well – as a native Californian – I would have. As long as they elect Democrats.
Cartoon – Speaking of audio, I have an audio for that now. TeeHee.
I fault both Bill Clinton & Loretta Lynch. She was the one who let him board her plane.
A totally awful unforced error – on both their parts.
Plus don't they have other aides that travel with them? Did none of them think, "Hey, Mr. President/Ms. A.G – this will NOT look good."
I understand that a staff member let him in, and she did not know it, until he was next to her. She should have told him to get out, but one does not normally treat a former President like that.
That was my impression too, but it wasn't strong enough for me to respond with it. Thanks for paying more attention than I did. Her remark about wishing Holder had taught her how to lock the door supports that also.
YVW
Awwww! Julie's next to the last day! Have a FANTASTIC baby back ribs feast!!! Sounds delicious! Hope y'all have a banner day! Her and her Killer Dawg will be missed!
Now. On to the article. Yeah, Slick Willie slid right in to a pile of crap doin the tarmac jog to Ms. Lynch's plane. Too bad he didn't think before he jogged! Doesn't he have a handler that keeps an eye on him so he doesn't screw up too bad? Where was this person? The act of Ms. Lynch not taking part in the decision of whether to prosecute would have had more weight had Mr. Clinton not done this, but whatevs!
Bill Maher NAILED IT on the Repukkklicans last night!!! I didn't think I had THAT many laughs in my body! Stupendous!
The sheep need to go vote for the idiots that think that voting for Drumpf will get back at Hillary! It will only sink this country in to a recession that we may NEVER come out of!
Puzzle — 3:48 JD, toughness won't matter as there will be no horse fricassée today for the Puddy Tat!
Youtube — Wise words for any nation.
NY Times — At least Lynch clarified that there is a process in place and that it is being followed. Additionally, she expected to follow the recommendations of the director of the FBI. There is no doubt that the meeting between Slick Willy and Lynch was compromising and stupid on both their parts. What was Bill trying to do . . . tank Hillary's campaign? Or is it that he hates the title of his potential new position — FLOTUS!
Crooks and Liars — Maher is funny! "Californicated" — too funny.
trickle-down economics + tax breaks for the rich + Republicans = a failed state
Simple math!
Cartoon — Of course I won't be voting (I already did 19/10/2015 resulting in a Trudeau government) but I sincerely hope Americans actually think critically about their options and do what is best for the country. We did — we got rid of Harper and his harlots thank goodness. Sheeple need to think and
VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO!
H orse fricassee – LOL! Well, he'll have to be content with baby back ribs. (Was that supposed to be a message to Julie? "I want my baby back?")
I bet that Sasquatc h eats hy horsie today too!
You won that bet! Are you clairvoyant?
Youtube: Reich always explains it so clearly. Why don't more people understand that there is more to patriotism than waving a flag.
Real patriotism takes work. Waving a flag anmd calling it patriotism doesn't.
Sorry, I clicked submit comment too soon.
NY Times: The meeting between Bill Clinton and Lynch showed poor judgment on both their parts given the situation.
Crooks and Liars: Trickle down only works for the wealthy and that is why the Republicans love it so much. Kentucky had one of the best records under the ACA for getting people insurance and the program was ushered in by our previous governor, who was a democrat. A Republican governor was elected in November and his first act was to dismantle Kynect, the insurance program under the ACA.
Cartoon: I am very worried about the outcome of our next election. If enough people dont vote blue, Trump will be in office. Many don't like Clinton, and she was not my first choice, but she is better than the alternative.
Company due in, for the 4th.
Thanks, Tom, for posting.
I hope you enjoyed your time together with Julie and Killer Dawg, and also the baby spare ribs, TomCat.
NYT: Attorney General Loretta Lynch's meeting with Bill Clinton was terribly ill-advised and I'm not sure her move to explain the meeting and how she distances herself from the case without recusing herself will be enough to put the "concerns" of the GOP and Bernie's team and supporters at rest. And can Bill's "socializing" with so many people in top positions "he happens to bump into" while flying about in his private plane for whatever reason really labeled as stupid, or is this just the established/establishment way politics and business are done?
C&L: Bill Maher is spot on again when delivering his very serious message with a big grin. Trickle down hasn't worked, doesn't work and will never work except for the 1%. California's example of an economic upsurge under Democratic state government after its dismal failure under the GOP's should give all voters something to think about and then head for the polls and vote each and everyone of the Republicans out of office.
Cartoon: Your cartoon is spot-on too, TomCat. Republican sheeple have always voted. They, and their right-wing counterparts across the globe, always do (remember the midterms of 2014?). They'll continue to go to the polls, even if it's to vote for a Drumpf they dislike or even hate. If Democrats, and especially the progressives of that party, do not do the same, Drumpf will be in the White House by November. As the the Brexit referendum has taught us, we're ALL headed for disaster then. How I hate this yoked control.
You are right about CA Lona–previously Norquist getting all the GOP legislators to sign no new taxes pledges hurt us since budget called for two-thirds majority to pass (so we were also always late with budgets and bills couldn't be paid as all the contractors had to take loans out to cover their budgets, etc.) until we elected a large enough majority that no GOP votes required and voters passed a proposition that the legislators wouldn't get paid for time periods where the budget was late.
Douglas Bruce didn't do you any good either. And then he came here. And we still have TaBOR. I promise not to get started here on what a terrible excuse for a human being he is.
That's why voting blue is important. When Democrats are fully in control, progressive things happen.
Thanks all!! Hugs!!
NY T: Slick Willie was, perhaps, thinking that he could charm Lynch into some form of obediance, or otherwise confound the situation to Hillary's advantage, or whatever! But, he was, indeed, being stupid, not thinking with the wrong head, but not thinking, nonetheless!
Crooks and Liars: I have not followed any of Louisiana's trajectory, presumably downwards, but Brownback,and Kansas, has been much more in the news that reaches me. Brownback was, essentially pilloried, in a NY Times Sunday magazine article, written by his niece, as I recall, last year. It is sad that the delusional state in which the bible belt lives, has bled, as in Madras, over to the political world. Or, these governors, and their sychophants are NOTHING other than cynical, lying, theiving, bastards!
Cartoon: Do you know where syphilis originated? Within sheep! Within sheep, apparently, it is not a big deal, as they evolved with the virus for aeons. In humans, tertiary syphilis, as Al Capone learned, attacks the brain! "Nuff said!