83° is forecast today, and the humidity is now 88%. The sun hit my window at 7:00, and by 8:00, the wall had heated up enough to make me turn on the AC for the day. Wendy will be here in about 30 minutes, so before I finish writing, I’ll be breaking from this until after lunch. Tomorrow, please expect no more than a Personal Update. I will be consulting with an Oncologist about annual exams to make sure my malignant choroidal melanoma, now in remission after radiation, did not metastasize to other parts of my body. I expect that he will set up thoracic and abdominal Cat Scans with contrast. That’s where they inject the dye and make me drink half a gallon of cat pee.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:55 (average 7:30). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (SNL Channel): Hallelujah Cold Open
Apologies to Canadians. Laugh. Then RESIST!!
From The New Yorker: In a notable shift of public opinion, a substantial majority of Americans now favor a travel ban on a person who has recently visited a Muslim country, a new poll shows.
According to the poll, if such a person travelled to a country in the Middle East, for example, he should be subjected to extreme vetting before he is allowed to return to the United States.
If, in the course of such vetting, the person is found to have recently engaged in activities to undermine or even destroy American democracy in collaboration with a foreign enemy, he should be barred forever from entering the U.S., poll respondents agreed.
Amen Andy! What a fabulous idea! RESIST!!
From The Washington Post: Democrats are heading into the homestretch of three special elections over the next month amid a national frenzy over the investigation into the possible connections of President Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian interference in the election.
Yet in all three races, Democrats have made a tactical decision not to turn the contests into a referendum on Trump’s alleged scandals and instead are focusing on policy decisions by the president and congressional Republicans.
Democratic strategists privately say that this might be the recurring theme through the November 2018 midterm elections. Democrats say that they have learned a lesson from the 2016 elections, in which House Democratic candidates relentlessly focused their campaigns on trying to tie Republican incumbents to the personal scandals of Trump or some of his more outlandish policy statements.
Trump is just the worst symptom of the Republican disease. Therefore, I think this is a good strategy, with the caveat that demonstrating what Republicans are doing wrong is not enough. We must also present our own policy alternatives, and convince voters that those alternatives are the best ones possible. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
18 Responses to “Open Thread – 5/21/2017”
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6:02 Well, well. A poisonous herb. Don't even try for a salad..
Sending thoughts your way for tomorrow. It certainly sounds time-consuming … but necessary. Be sure to check in when you get back.
TNY – Just one addition: Andy needs to be put in charge of interpreting yhe 25th Amendment to execute this plan.
WaPo – Oh, well, if we must. But I do love me some Ted Lieu.
Cartoon – I remember.
Thanks! I was going to include that "Cheat Sheet" in my "Sunday Fun" post as a Bonus – but totally forgot it.
(I'm blaming it on the hdrocodone pain meds. They really do make me groggy … for which I'm thankful!)
YVW. it may go better here anyway, since the previos short take mentions the trip – and speaking of which, I think Pat B posted this yesterday or the day before, but it also fits:
Yeah, sounds like a good thing that the meds are making you groggy. Stay home and rest. Don't operate any heavy equipment (I think a can opener is OK).
Like Lieu's Cheat Sheet, it has all the Drumpf characteristics: no more than a page, bullits and simple language. But the last two sentences might be to long to hold Drumpf's attention and to be remembered 😉
Love it! Reelect him!
YT: Saw this early this a.m., and was a wonderful and absolutely wonderful !!!! Goodbye!
NYer: Lordy, if it were only so! LOL
WP: New ideas, and new stategy, sounds excellent, imho.
Cartoon: I remember my father talking about this. So sad. "Between 1946 and 1958, 23 nuclear devices were detonated by the United States at seven test sites located on the reef, inside the atoll, in the air, or underwater." *wiki
Best to you tomorrow, with your appointment. I hope you get to and from your place all right too. Enjoy your evening, and take good, good care. Thanks, Tom.
YT: Marvelous!
New Yorker: where do I sign??
WaPo: Sounds good to me. The Rethuglicans have such a toxic agenda, that focus on it ought to do the trick! Also, though not a professiional politician, or strategist, I have long been attached to the idea of calling out the GOPigs in a direct manner, referencing what they are saying, claiming, tying to yell so loud that they convince the sheep that loud is equal to truth. that said, I offer the idea of using the information, concept, in this piece about "The Science of Lying," from the Greater Good Science Center, at UCB, to all and sundry who are on the right side of history, and humanity. Let those of your district, state, know about it, please:
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/can_the_science_of_lying_explain_trumps_support
Joane, I like me some Ted Lieu, too.
Excellent article. The workings of those "blue" lies really explain a lot why Drumpf's hard core followers aren't bothered by them. Thanks for posting.
I surely wish Jeremy Smith, or his source, hadn't used "blue" as the color of these lies. What was the matter with "gray"? I've already had my color, the traditional color of the left, red, stolen from me by media electoral maps. I really don't want to lose "blue" too, dammit.
I like it.
Tom, MOST GOOD LUCK WITH ALL THE MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TYVM Mitch
Puzzle — 5:28 Pretty, perky posies! Reminds me of the times when I would run about as a young Sasquatch with perky little posies in my hair!
YouTube — Is that an apology because we Canucks cannot view the video, or because in it they make fun of us?
The New Yorker — And all God's children say AMEN!!! The Rancid Carrot should be locked away. Maybe Russia would take him and find him a cozy room in the gulag.
Washington Post — I totally agree. The Dems must stand up with clear policies, unlike Republicans who make promises and then renege. Whatever it takes to get elected and then screw the people — the policy of the Republicans.
BTW, I saw this picture in "This Date in History" — 1832 Democratic National Convention — the very first one!
Cartoon — That looks like the US on Republicans! I was only 4 years old then but I did study nuclear testing in school. Bikini Atoll is still screwed up and virtually uninhabitable today because of the excessive radiation damage in the soil etc.
Resist and Persist!!!
You do have a busy week. Good luck with the appointments. I too have a week like that, although at least Monday is a holiday here — Victoria Day celebrating the birth of Queen Victoria in 1819. I have to take the babes to the vet's on Tuesday so that will be a chore. Fortunately, they like seeing their doctor who is also their godfather. Take care.
Happy Vic's Day.
It was because you cannot see the vids from SNL.
And because Leonard Cohen was Canadian? Of course he was a world treasure, not just a national one.
True, but that was not my reason. In fact, because of similarities in our languages and cultures, I look at both USers and Canadians as Americans.
Sounds like a busy and hot day tomorrow, TomCat. Let's hope your oncologist doesn't get overenthusiastic and will keep the number of (invasive) scans to a minimum. That would mean many more medical appointments you're not looking forward to, but know you have to go through because they're in your best interest.
SNL: What a shame this was the last show of the season and unclear if Alec Baldwin will return with his marvelous portrayal of Drumpf. But then, on a more positive note, perhaps he doesn't need to return.
TNY: Fantastic plan, Andy. Why don't you ask Paul Ryan to push it through the House, he's an expert at taking shortcuts and this ban then is sure to be in place before some people return from their travels.
WP: Absolutely, TomCat. Democrats should not do the Republican thing by focusing on policy decisions by the president and congressional Republicans by only pointing out how terrible they are or, even worse, making up all kinds of horror stories about their consequences, but by putting the Democratic, i.e. progressive alternative next to it and through its benefits make people understand how this is the right and only choice for them.
Cartoon: Let's hope not a glimpse of some "nuclear testing" by a cornered Drumpf to see how far he can go.
Thanks all. Hot hugs!