It trying to finish as much as I can get done before Wendy arrives to scrub and polish the stinky TomCat, do some light housework, and have lunch, before she heads off to Lost Wages.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:47 (average 5:48). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (SNL Channel): Donald Trump Christmas Cold Open
The "humor" is the way it dovetails with reality.
From The New Yorker: Organizers of a massive Inauguration protest announced on Saturday that they intend to surround the White House on January 20th in order to prevent President Barack Obama from leaving.
According to Harland Dorrinson, the organizer of the protest, after the plans for the demonstration were announced, between eighty and ninety million Americans expressed an initial interest in participating.
“People really seem to like this idea,” he said.
He acknowledged that people were still planning to petition the Electoral College, but added, “This idea has a much better shot at success.”
Dang Andy!! If only it were true!
From NY Times: The Patriot News Agency website popped up in July, soon after it became clear that Donald J. Trump would win the Republican presidential nomination, bearing a logo of a red, white and blue eagle and the motto “Built by patriots, for patriots.”
Tucked away on a corner of the site, next to links for Twitter and YouTube, is a link to another social media platform that most Americans have never heard of: VKontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook. It is a clue that Patriot News, like many sites that appeared out of nowhere and pumped out pro-Trump hoaxes tying his opponent Hillary Clinton to Satanism, pedophilia and other conspiracies, is actually run by foreigners based overseas.
But while most of those others seem be the work of young, apolitical opportunists cashing in on a conservative appetite for viral nonsense, operators of Patriot News had an explicitly partisan motivation: getting Mr. Trump elected.
I saw this site several times in the run-up to the election. TRNN referenced it, and Jill Stein supports linked to it directly. This is more proof that protest voters allowed themselves to be fooled into helping create the Fifth Reich.
Cartoon:
Trump wants a do over for Muslims.
12 Responses to “Open Thread – 12/18/2016”
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Oh, dear…that SNL was just too realistic…..and then the Russian Facebook? I feel like Michelle Obama, with no hope….
SNL: Saw this last night! Kudos to the cast of SNL… extremely funny, it's the BEST!!
NYer: If only. If only! Hold on, I've got something my eye…….
NYT: Depressing, to say the least. ugh!
Cartoon: Horrible, and so sad. Have we learned anything? YET???
Getting cozy here, it's 33 here, with a biting northern wind coming through. I am fixin' to watch my guys play. Enjoy your afternoon/evening, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
SNL: Saw it last night, though it was marvellous!
New Yorker: Andy, please tell me where I sign up!!!!!
NY T: It's not our parents' world, any loner. Hell, I'm probably old enough to be a parent to some of you, and it's not my world anymore! If Rumplefuck does, indeed, get into office, it will be one very, very strange world!
4:49 So, is the candle also gingerbread?
Well, it's 29° as I type, heading for a high of 25°, expecting highs of 39° tomorrow and 51° Tuesday, after which ho hum. Just a short polar vortex here. I hope the rest of you can get out of the deep freeze soon.
YT/SNL – If i were Alec Baldwin, I would be really worried about "If you keep making that face, it's going to freeze that way." (By which I mean, of course, GOD, he's good.)
TNY – I'd believe it. Sob.
NYT – Gawd – are we dumb or what? Just saw this also: http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/17/1612231/-My-interview-with-the-man-who-connected-the-dots-on-the-FBI-conspiracy-to-screw-Hillary
Cartoon – OK, that's it. I can't take any more today. Longfellow's long dead, he won't mind if I quote in full his poem from 1863:
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet/The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along/The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,/A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound/The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn/The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,/And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,/The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."
Apparently not just the "Patriot News Agency" but the other Patriots need Saguaro suppositories. Grrrrrr.
Thanks for the link to the NYT. Looks to me like we have lots of people who need to be investigated and indicted.
Thanks for the Longfellow, Joanne, I hadn't come across that before – I had no idea – another hole in my education!
YVW Pat. Parts of it have been set to music as a carol (verses 1, 2, 6, 7 usually) which is powerful, but I think the whole thing is more powerful.
SNL is and has been so right on most political issues in this country, as far as I am concerned, and I have been watching since they first came on the air.
The New Yorker: I agree with you, wish this could happen.
NY Times: I shared this article on Facebook, so some of my red friends might read it. Hardly anyone fact checks an article before they share it, that is how the Pizzagate story went so far.
Cartoon: Let us hope our country never succumbs to this shameful act again.
Puzzle — 3:46
SNL — I wish these were available for viewing here. I guess we're not sophisticated enough. With Drumpf getting his knickers in such a twist over Alec Baldwin's portrayal. you know they have to be funny! . . . and damn accurate!
The New Yorker — What a fine idea! If I thought it would do some good, I'd join that protest.
NY Times — I had never heard of this so I went on to check it out. What a bunch of certified right wing lies and crap. "Tucked away on a corner of the site, next to links for Twitter and YouTube, is a link to another social media platform that most Americans have never heard of: VKontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook." — I tried clicking on each of these and they don't work. Still it is all garbage and lies.
Cartoon — May this never happen again. May the mass hysteria that resulted in the relocations never raise its head again. The US is perilously close again, but may it go no closer.
Well we had that snow dump and the roads were miserable mostly because fewer ploughs were out being the weekend. The temperature overnight should rise to 4 C (39 F) with some rain so the roads tomorrow during the commute will be horrid. Thank God I am retired!
Ah, dagnabit! Andy, ya got me AGAIN! If only ringing around the White House would keep Pres. Obama in there! There would be millions upon millions surrounding the White House!
Don't surprise me a bit that the repukkklican FB was hooked up to that site. And the way that people ate that up, hook, line and sinker was RIDICULOUS! People are so gullible! There's a lot of links I won't click on because they are such clickbait, and so obviously so, that a person would have to be, well about as dumb as a Drumpfenfarten voter to click on them!
Thanks all! Hugs!!