I got up early this morning to work on the Monthly Report, so I’m feeling tired. Tomorrow is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. Weak as they are, it’s the Dolphins turn to clobber my Broncos. The game is not televised here. Tomorrow will be a bit crazy for me as WWW will be a couple hours late. She’s taking her niece to have breakfast with Santa.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:38 (average 5:08). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (Jeff Merkley Channel): Senators Merkley and Klobuchar Highlight Worst Provisions of GOP Tax Scam
Republicans are desperate, because their $billionaire donors have put them on notice. Pass it or the GOP dies of starvation. Now it goes to conference to hammer out the differences between the House and Senate Bills, unless the House ratifies the Senate bill, as is. I doubt that will happen, because the InsaniTEA wing will object to all the pork Bought Bitch Mitch piled on to bribe the last few holdouts. In conference they are likely to fight. Then they have to approve the final bill in both the House and Senate. We may win yet. RESIST!!
From The New Yorker: Kim Jong Un is concerned that his long-standing plan to destroy the United States has been made totally irrelevant by the Republican tax bill moving through the Senate, a source close to the North Korean dictator said on Friday.
The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Kim fears that his scheme to turn the United States into an uninhabitable hellhole has been to a large extent upstaged by a similar proposal from congressional Republicans.
“You have to understand, destroying America is something that Kim and his family have been plotting for decades,” the source said. “To see the Republicans swoop in at the last second and basically steal that idea—it’s got to hurt.”
Andy, never have you been more accurate. RESIST!!
From Washington Post: Alabama’s closely watched U.S. Senate race is a neck-and-neck contest as voter concerns about personal moral conduct weigh on the candidacy of Republican Roy Moore, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll.
With less than two weeks to go, support for Democrat Doug Jones stands at 50 percent vs. Moore’s 47 percent support among likely voters — a margin of a scant three points that sets up a nail-biter for the oddly timed Dec. 12 special election.
If we take that seat, it could make a difference in the Tax Scam. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
Compared to today’s Republicans, he’s a moderate.
7 Responses to “Open Thread – 12/2/2017”
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4:52 He looks more confused than ferocious.
Jeff – I agree that we may win – we may very well win – but we could lose – so we have to keep screaming. Amy is well spoken here. (BTW, the only difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is that one is more or less arbitrarily legal, and the other is not. Morally they are the same. I do not include legitimate deductions designed to help equalize the distribution of income and wealth in either category.)
TNY – More straight reporting. I have come to the point where I would call Andy a prophet rather than a humorist. Not that that is not true of most of the best of them.
WaPo – You know, Mitch is afraid of that too. That’s why he’s in such a hurry to try to push crap through really, really fast – and to be able to recess at such a time as will keep the winner out till January – if the winner is Jones! It’s still iffy, but other than minimal donations as quietly as possible, we need to lay low outside of the state to keep the GOP from screaming out-of-state interference.
Cartoon – He was not even original. For one thing, in the seventeenth century in England there was Titus Oates. But I’m sure there were others, and re=arlier, and probably people here will remember (well, not personally, but remember hearing of) them.
P.S. I missed the eclipse … but I did manage to see the Supermoon. About 40 minutes after technical moonrise it was just barely fully above the artificial horizon of other houses in my neighborhood, and low enough to be VERY big and practically orange. (It should be visible for two more nights.)
Yes, compared to modern right-wing bugnuts, McCarthy was tame. However, he did succeed in ruining a lot of lives.
Mr. Merkley: Well said, and good points. Passing this one on to friends. Gawd, I’m praying it doesn’t pass!!
NYer: Dam, Andy. Spot on !!!
WP: I hope Mr. Jones wins, and yes, make a difference in the tax spam. Hoping it dies.
Yea, I feel your pain as I’m hoping for a win too. We play the Titans tomorrow. We’ll see. Hope that WWW has a nice breakfast w/her niece and Santa. Hope that you have good evening, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
Jeff Merkley: Merkley and Klobuchar make a lot of sense, but it all falls on deaf ears. GOP senators got what they wanted, or rather desperately needed to keep the GOP afloat for some time, and the House already passed their almost as atrocious tax bill. There may be some discrepancies between the bills, but after seeing how every Republican Senator but one was bought off with some vague promise or provision for his or her state that will be forgotten by tomorrow morning, I hold out little hope that the House and the Senate won’t come to an agreement in the same way. I wouldn’t be surprised if their “sponsors” are shipping their “Christmas presents” to DC right now just to make that happen. And the angel on top of the X-mas tree will be Alabama electing Roy Moore after the sponsors have gone all out to “secure” his seat. I’m sorry I can’t be as optimistic as you are, TomCat, but witnessing the complete ruination of America’s democratic process in such a short period of time has made me question democracy in general.
TNY:
Yes…well…sigh.
WP: To an outsider it is already inconceivable that there’s only a three percent margin between the two, in fact it is mind boggling Moore is still running! One of those “only in a banana republic” moments, I guess. I dearly hope Alabama proves me wrong in two weeks time…
Cartoon: Encore: Those Were The Days.
I’m afraid Drumpf is really isolating America from the rest of the world, and that part has absolutely no qualms with voicing its disgust with America’s current president. This cartoon, made by the very respected cartoonist Siegfried Woldhek, appeared in my newspaper NRC Handelsblad, in standing similar to The Washington Post or The New York Times. It was printed before Drumpf’s so desired Tax Cut Cut Cut bill passed the Senate.
Merkley: Irrelevant by today, as Senatorial bribery won the day for BBM, and tDump (so beautifully portrayed in the ‘toon from Lona).
New Yorker: So, who will Kimmy pick on now? Luxembourg?
WP: It’s Alabama…keep you’re expectations low. “It” is still called “the experiment” in Democracy, and it’s been running for a good while, but downhill, of late.
‘Toon: McCarthy had two very different guys working foe him, at one time: Nixon and J.F.K. Yes, he did hurt a lot of people. And yes, the “Have you no decency?” question would roll off the backs of the GOPIGs today. Having decency, now, would automatically disqualify a potential candidacy on the right.
Thanks all. Hurried Hugs!