It’s 7:30 AM, and already the street repair crews are making an ungodly racket. I hope the get Labor Day weekend off.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:44 (average 5:47). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Fellow Authors:
Alternet has a new © policy. The only way we can now use their articles without paying royalties to them is to embed them with their ads. Please hold off, until I have time to put up a test article to see just what that will entail.
Fantasy Football Note:
Players, the season starts this coming Thursday, 9/8, at 5:30 PM PDT. Please have your week one lineups set by then.
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: The war of words between Donald J. Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto continued on Thursday as Peña Nieto vehemently asserted that he made the Republican Presidential nominee pay for lunch during his visit to Mexico City.
“As soon as we sat down to order, I made it very clear that I had no intention of paying for lunch,” Peña Nieto said. “And when the check arrived, I made absolutely no move to pick it up.”
To support his claim, Peña Nieto tweeted out a photo of himself seated at a table with an aggrieved-looking Trump, who appears to be placing an American Express card on top of a restaurant check.
Andy, it’s a good thing Rump Dump didn’t pay the check with a check. It would have bounced!!
From Crooks and Liars: Donald Trump is banking on the devotion and adulation of his supporters, so much so that he is demanding all volunteers to sign a non-disclosure agreement. But it’s not your typical agreement for political volunteers, it’s a lifetime pledge to never disparage him, his family or Trump products until death do you part.
Am I the only one this reminds of the loyalty oath Hitler required? On the other hand, Hitler wasn’t selling moustache wax.
From OpEdNews: One of the strangest aspects of the 2016 presidential campaign has been the mainstream media’s decision to spend equal time criticizing Trump and Clinton. This has created a false equivalence. Imagine a political contest between Godzilla (Trump) and Bambi (Clinton). Because of the equal time rule, the nightly news would report, "Godzilla destroys Los Angeles," and then, "Bambi ravishes community garden."
What an excellent point, especially since Hillary haters on the left love this false equivalence so. Clinton v. Trump is not choosing the lesser of two evils. It is choosing the lesser good over the ultimate evil.
Cartoon:
8 Responses to “Open Thread – 9/2/2016”
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NYer: I read this last night, and just laughed, and laughed. So Funny!! Keep 'em coming Andy!! LOL
C&L: I wouldn't trust this guy any more than the notion of me parachuting out of a plane! Nope. Either way, it's not gonna happen.
OpEdNews: He's horrible, and an embarrassment to all of us. Historian Douglas Brinkley observed: "In American history, we've never had a major presidential candidate who fabricated facts with the regularity of Donald Trump. He just simply makes up things." (with his tiny hands, I might add). Vote Blue!
Cartoon: I loved this show! I didn't know about this cancellation, as I was finishing up RTC(W) Bootcamp at the time. . Still enjoy watching the old series though.
Most city workers are off. At least they are here, and it's a long weekend too! Hope that everyone and friends who lives South are okay, from the Hurricane Hermine. Wilmington NC is due for some heavy stuff coming this afternoon. Ah….Texans 28, Cowboys 17. Good game.
Hope that you get some rest, enjoy your day, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
4:59 I think – I did it this morning on the other computer and I know I went over average. I wasn't on a roll.
Thanks for the tip. I'll just knock them out of Erinyes.
Have fun with fantasy football, folks!
New Yorker – Peña Nieto is obviously nobody's fool. That was a good move. (I hope he ordered expensive!)
C&L – That is simply asinine. So you sign the loyalty oath today, and tomorrow Eric rapes you, you have no recourse? And, frankly, to anyone who knows history (and not just 20th century history) it looks very suspicious for Trump. And his family. And his products (food poisoning from Trump steaks, anyone?)
OpEdNews = This is very insightful in my opinion. [I would quibble with one thing he states as fact which I believe is ex post facto. But I guess today people seem to think ex post facto is perfectly OK. I still don't.] His main point, however – false equivalence – is right on the money.
Cartoon – It does seem illogical considering all the fans Star Trek had, and I don't have any facts here, I am speculating. I speculate that, by and large, Trekkies were not what you would call "conspicuous consumers." As time passed, and they grew older, and became more able to consume and consumed more, they became more desirable viewers, so voila! Star Trek was back.
Good one, Andy!
WOW! Herr Drumpf is really taking a hard line on his, um, volunteers!!!
Love the cartoon. Too bad that they had to cancel it then! I was just getting in to it then!
I hope you have a quiet weekend.
The New Yorker: Andy may be on to something. I keep saying Trump won't share his tax returns because they will show he has lied about how much money he has.
Crooks and Liars: Many things about Trump are reminiscent of Hitler. The satire on last nights open thread shows how Trump supporters actually are, so they probably won't have a problem signing the pledge.
OpEd news: This has seemed confusing to me, too. They seem to want to trash both candidates. Although, they continue to give Trump plenty of free coverage.
Cartoon: Broke my heart, it was one of my favorite shows. I watched the later ones and have seen the movies, but the original was mind stimulating, all the possibilities! We had never seen anything like it before.
Let's hope the street-repair is laid off over the weekend and people get a chance to take the ear plugs out and give their ears a rest, TomCat. Noise like that can be grueling.
TNY: Andy's got a much better understanding of politics than Drumpf will ever have: there's no such thing as a free meal, especially not for the likes of Drumpf. And Nieto vehemently denying that he'll ever have diner with Drumpf in the future is straight reporting again. For Nieto Drumpf has served his purpose as the man that made even him look like presidential material by comparison; he'd never want to be anywhere near him again.
C&L: I feel really sorry for those naive volunteers who signed this agreement. The very fact that he has them sign it should have set very loud alarm bells ringing of course, but they are deaf and blind to anything he does; they wouldn't have volunteered if they weren't. But after he loses the election big-time and can't start suing the media, politicians, judges or any one else he's threatened to sue to make big money, he's going to go after the small fry and that'll be those hapless volunteers.
OEN: This is exactly what happened in the Brexit debates and is still happening on other issues such as climate change in Britain, but there it's forced on the BBC by the Tory government. It turns out to be a very effective right-wing strategy. In America it seems a matter of choice to give Drumpf and Clinton "equal billing" in their criticism, although it's doubtful if being under pressure of the GOP backed by the likes of Murdoch and the Kochs can really be called "to decide for themselves".
Cartoon: In retrospect NBC couldn't have done the producers and writers (but perhaps not the actors) a greater favor than by pulling it then. Star Trek became immensely popular afterwards with reruns all over the globe, a series of movies and half a dozen very popular spin-offs.
New Yorker: I hope Nieto had a big, big, fat steak, with all the trimmings!
C and L: Gee, I wonder how many things he has to hide, expects to have to hide, as time goes by? Fascism thy name is Trump! And, the loyalists (Barf!) are going to see this as some kind of "Isn't that special?!" sort of loving connection to him.
Cartoon: What in hell were they thinking?
Puzzle — 3:51 I kept spinning my wheels but couldn't get enough traction!
Fellow Authors — Well that sucks as that was and is a source of good material. Waiting with baited breath . . .
Fantasy Football — Going there next so I'm ready.
The New Yorker — Drumpf looking aggrieved is nothing new and let's hope that continues BIG TIME as it means Drumpf isn't getting his way. He is such a narcissistic twerp!
Crooks and Liars — "Am I the only one this reminds of the loyalty oath Hitler required?" No you're not. I cannot concieve of anyone willing to do so, but then I am not a Drumpf supporter. As a kid, Drumpf probably had all his playmates sign pledges of allegiance to him.
OpEd — Clinton's email issues ≠ Drumpf's nativism, white supremacy (white nationallism) — nowhere even close!
"The second biggest story of Trump's campaign has been his willingness to lie. The independent fact checker, Politifact, reports that 70 percent of Trump's statements have been judged "mostly false," "false," or "pants on fire." In comparison only 29 percent of Clinton's statements have been judged "mostly false," "false," or "pants on fire." (Half of Clinton's statements were judge "true" or "mostly true" versus just 15 percent of Trump's statements.[“true” or “mostly true”]) "
This false equivalency has to be exposed. I suppose the media would say they aren't "editors" or there to interpret the news but someone needs to use their God given brains to properly discern relative impact.
Cartoon — I was certainly bummed out at the time, although my parents were perfectly happy. Now when I see the old show, I think "how polyester" and how 70's. I'm with Spock though, "how illogical!.
We've had 3-4 days of rain and colder weather. Here it is noon and the temperature is 13 C (55 F). I was so exhausted yesterday that I crashed at 1600, woke at 2323 and fed the babes, then crashed again until 1030 — 18 hours of sleep and I feel much better now. No big plans for the weekend other than seeing my mother. Hope all are well.
Thanks all! Hugs!!
For those interested, Netflix streaming has all the Star Trek series and movies.