Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. WWW and I will be celebrating the day with roast ham, cheese baked potatoes, Brussels sprouts hollandaise, and a surprise dessert from Wendy. If news is as scarce as I anticipate, I may publish only an Open Thread tomorrow, and send no links on Care2. I wish Happy Holidays to all Republicans, and Merry Christmas to everyone else, even if you don’t celebrate it.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:02 (average 5:09). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): Senator Gillibrand Will Not Be Silenced
I fully agree. Hold those who devalue women, especially Putin’s Pussy Grabber, accountable! RESIST!!
From The New Yorker: [O]n Tuesday, in a convention center in West Palm Beach, Florida, amid chants of “USA!” and “The wall is going to be built!,” Donald Trump, Jr., kicked off a three-day annual summit for Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit. Based outside of Chicago, Turning Point’s aim is to foment a political revolution on America’s college campuses, in part by funnelling [sic] money into student government elections across the country to elect right-leaning candidates. But it is secretive about its funding and its donors, raising the prospect that “dark money” may now be shaping not just state and federal races but ones on campus.
Turning Point touts its close relationship with the President’s family. The group’s Web site promoted Don, Jr.,’s appearance for weeks, featuring a photo of him raising a clenched fist. Its promotional materials include a quote from the younger Trump praising Turning Point: “What you guys have done” is “just amazing.” Lara Trump, the wife of Don, Jr.,’s brother Eric, is also involved with the group. In West Palm Beach on Wednesday, she hosted a luncheon promoting Turning Point’s coming Young Women’s Leadership Summit. The group’s twenty-four-year-old executive director and founder, Charlie Kirk, told me that he counts Don, Jr., as “a personal friend.”
Turning Point casts itself as a grassroots response to what it perceives as liberal intolerance on college campuses. Kirk has called college campuses “islands of totalitarianism”; he and his supporters contend that conservatives are the true victims of discrimination in America, and he has vowed to fight back on behalf of what he has called his “Team Right.” Kirk is a frequent guest on Fox News, and last summer he was invited to give a speech at the Republican National Convention. That was where he met Donald Trump, Jr., and “hit it off” with him, Kirk said. After the convention, Kirk divided his time between Turning Point activities and working for the Trump campaign as a specialist in youth outreach. “I helped coördinate some rather successful events with him,” Kirk told me, referring to Don, Jr., “and I also carried his bags.” When friends threw Kirk a surprise birthday party earlier this year, Don, Jr., attended, as did Sebastian Gorka, the former Trump White House adviser.
As Turning Point’s profile has risen, so has scrutiny of its funding and tactics. Internal documents that I obtained, as well as interviews with former employees, suggest that the group may have skirted campaign-finance laws that bar charitable organizations from participating in political activity. Former employees say that they were directed to work with prominent conservatives, including the wife of the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in aid of Republican Presidential candidates in 2016. Perhaps most troubling for an organization that holds up conservatives as the real victims of discrimination in America, Turning Point USA is also alleged to have fostered an atmosphere that is hostile to minorities. Screenshots provided to me by a source show that Crystal Clanton, who served until last summer as the group’s national field director, sent a text message to another Turning Point employee saying, “i hate black people. Like fuck them all . . . I hate blacks. End of story.”
Click through for the rest of this fine article about the Republican War on Student government. It’s an eye-opener! RESIST!!
From NY Times: More than 700 people have left the Environmental Protection Agency since President Trump took office, a wave of departures that puts the administration nearly a quarter of the way toward its goal of shrinking the agency to levels last seen during the Reagan administration.
Of the employees who have quit, retired or taken a buyout package since the beginning of the year, more than 200 are scientists. An additional 96 are environmental protection specialists, a broad category that includes scientists as well as others experienced in investigating and analyzing pollution levels. Nine department directors have departed the agency as well as dozens of attorneys and program managers. Most of the employees who have left are not being replaced.
The departures reflect poor morale and a sense of grievance at the agency, which has been criticized by President Trump and top Republicans in Congress as bloated and guilty of regulatory overreach. That unease is likely to deepen following revelations that Republican campaign operatives were using the Freedom of Information Act to request copies of emails from E.P.A. officials suspected of opposing Mr. Trump and his agenda.
Who can blame them? It’s like chickens resigning over the way foxes run the Henhouse Protection Agency! RESIST!!
Cartoon:
12 Responses to “Open Thread – 12/23/2017”
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MO: Mr. Dumpty is such a turd. No respect for anyone, what a demented soul. (if he has one..).
NYer: Very alarming re: dark money flowing freely into college students elections. WOW!! Good piece, btw. Sending this on to some of my teacher friends too. wow!
NYT: Sad, just so sad, isn’t it? I’d go to France if I was one of them. Seriously.
Cartoon: Aww…..They all think that way, don’t they? A–Hats!!!
Your dinner sounds delicious. We’re vegan this year, with potatoes, and vegetables, and a fruit salad for dessert. Company here tomorrow, and then the festivities begin!!!
btw: Did you see the heated exchange during a House hearing,in which Congressman Al Green brilliantly grills & destroys Trump lackey Ben Carson on Trump’s disastrous budget! It’s on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=90&v=eV0n7vYbwIk
Nevermind, that’s an old one. But I do enjoy watching him squirm !! lol
Pat, that was very entertaining! I watched a couple of others as well and Ben Carson was squirming more than a worm on a fish hook! Then there were the vids with Sessions. Another worm on a fish hook! We could make a blooper reel with all these vids!!!
5:03 I trust you won’t be trying to eat it. Glitter is terrible for pooties.
You’ve probably noticed that Everyday Erinyes is not up yet. Well, I’m going to have to miss a week. Instead, I want to share this feel-good story from Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund.
Gillibrand – She started accomplishments the minute she walked in the door, and is still going strong.
TNY – Well, Crystal, I am white, and you are a big reason I begin to hate all white people. You make me ashamed to be white. End of story.
NYT – I can’t blame them at all. Yes, everyone can resist somehow, but not everyone can stay energized to resist eight hours a day, day after day. OK, those who can probably should, but those who can’t should not try. There’s way too much PTSD in America already.
Cartoon – Love your look, Santa!
Joanne: Awe!!! The story you shared is what the meaning of Christmas is all about. WTG, Tim!!! xox!
Thank YOU for sharing!
Thanks for sharing that lovely Christmas Story with us, Joanne.
Wonderful story!
When scientists bail from a government agency that is supposed to be based on science, that is never a good sign. As the U.S. becomes increasingly a laughingstock, we the people must increasingly rise up, RESIST & PERSIST! We are in for a long fight, and we have to keep up the pressure with petitions, phone calls, demonstrations, marches, meetings with elected officials, and so on. We need to support genuinely progressive candidates and lean hard on the Democrats to return to the party’s real roots. We may yet turn our country around by legal and peaceful means.
MO: Right on, women should stay silent no longer. Men who devalue us need to be hold accountable, all of them, especially those in leadership position who abuse their power and only “lead” half of the population. It’s about time that leaders realize that they represent all people independent of gender, race, creed or sexual orientation and can’t silence any minority they don’t value if they don’t like their opinion, especially not when that minority is in fact a majority.
TNY: First of all, ‘conservative non-profit’ is a contradiction in terms. And just as much BS as “conservatives are the true victims of discrimination in America”. The future of America lies in the hands of the young and the educated and the oligarchy and alt-right sponsored Turning Point knows exactly it is there where it needs to do most damage to ensure ‘conservatives’ stay in power. The president and his children directly and openly associating themselves with this group is so strongly reminiscent of fascist Germany in the 30’s that it makes my stomach turn. As I’ve said a few times before: don’t get sidetracked by Drumpf’s tweets and irrational behaviour; it is in what happens almost unnoticed behind the screen where the real danger lies.
NYT: No, the people leaving the EPA are not to blame, certainly not for abandoning a ship that has been deliberately shipwrecked. I hope that with the current scientific and environmental climate in America the scientist and specialists do not have to sell their soul yet to work for companies determined to destroy this planet just to put food on the table and a roof over the heads of their family.
To all
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or whatever takes your fancy.
MO: Gillibrand rocks, has from the get-go!
New Yorker: The tDump’s personal toxicity touches everything associated with him and the right wing-whores he encourages!
NYT: How sad that this one clown can channel the sickness of the right! And, of course they help him do so!
RESIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks and hugs to all!
Puzzle — 3:37 I think your ham will taste a whole bunch better!
Move On — AMEN!!! The strength of women rocks!!! Given that women account for 51% of the US population and are so disrespected physically, financially and in other ways, by many men but not all, it is amazing that the human race survives. Republican men especially, who claim to hold women and the family in such high regard, should their lack of regard continuously IMO, and that includes the Pussy Grabber-in-Chief!
The New Yorker — I have only read this portion but will return to complete later, after my Christmas feast with friends. However, I do understand JD’s sentiments and share them.
I ate lunch out last Friday at Cora’s and had a server, Rafael, who was delightful. Rafael is from Venezuela and talked about the discrimination he faces regularly. I was appalled. I know we have bigots here . . . I’ve met some . . . but to be on the receiving end so regularly is abominable. There is no place for any discrimination, ever!
NY Times — The population of France is going up as is the IQ level! The US is suffering a brain drain and the IQ level is dropping all because of Drumpf and his Republican toadies!
Cartoon — He has company in Obama! (the first, but not the last, black POTUS!)
Enjoy your dinner with Wendy!!! She is one very special lady!!! Merry Christmas – Joyeux Noël !!!