News is still a little slow, and it’s hard to find original material that does more than update things that I have covered before. The lox and bagels that WWW and I had were delicious. The Immodium AD worked, and I’m over Republicosis until the next time I see too many Republicans on the news.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:26 (average 5:48). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): 2017 dumpster fire
Barf Bag Alert!!
The dumpster that contains most 2017 media content should be burned. RESIST!!
From The Center for Public Integrity: We crunched a lot of numbers this year. Here are a few that stand out.
$36,469,896: Amount President Donald Trump has already raised for his 2020 presidential reelection campaign.
$4,228,162: Total payments to Trump-owned properties by candidates and political committees during the 2016 election cycle.
96: Percentage that came from Trump-related political committees.
$237,472: Amount candidates and committees spent at Trump properties during the 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014 election cycles combined.
Do I see emoluments, or what? Click through for an amazing list of numbers! RESIST!!
From Mother Jones: Many politicians were apparently unimpressed. 2017 obviously wasn’t the first year to be plagued by public policy decisions that disregarded scientific facts, but the Trump era has taken this phenomenon to a whole new level. We’ve rounded up some of the worst examples from around the nation:
1. White House declares climate science a “waste of your money”
In March, Trump released a budget proposal calling for steep cuts to the climate research conducted by NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other government agencies. When asked about these proposals, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said, “Regarding the question as to climate change, I think the president was fairly straightforward: We’re not spending money on that anymore; we consider that to be a waste of your money to go out and do that.”
2. Trump staffers play dumb on the global warming “hoax”
For a week this spring, as the administration rolled out Trump’s decision to begin withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, reporters repeatedly asked whether the president still believed what he’d said over and over: that global warming is a hoax. Rather than respond to this basic question, multiple administration officials simply pretended to not know the answer. “You should ask him that,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told ABC. “You are going to have to ask him,” economic adviser Gary Cohn said to CNN. “Honestly, I haven’t asked him,” Sean Spicer, then the White House press secretary, said. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt actually refused to answer the question four separate times.
I shared two. Click through for the other five. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
12 Responses to “Open Thread – 12/28/2017”
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6:16 That represents hard labor.
“CHRISTMAS IS HERE!” — A Bad Lip Reading of Donald Trump
New police violence report 2017 And this chart isn’t even in it.
Media – I’m sorry, there aren’t enough barf bags in the universe to get me to watch that. But I’ll endorse it unseen.
TCPI – That too.
MoJo – And New Mexico isn’t even all that bloody red. That’s the one that upsets me the most. The rest are standard Trump (or POS POTUS as I saw this morning).
Cartoon – I notice Woodrow Wilson was also born on this date, not of course the same year.
No Barf Bag Alert for Trump?!!?
Is it possible to barf and laugh at the same time? But, yes, my bad.
MM: I can’t stomach this woman, nor FauxNews. Seriously. Talk about a BBA!!!!
CPI: WOW! The sheer amount of $$ !!! How depressing it couldn’t go for the people of this county. Last Line: “0”: “Chance in hell” of congressional Democrats’ efforts to overturn Citizens United will succeed, according to a government accountability watchdog.’
MJ: Very, very concerning to me. As Mr. Dumpty is a non-believer, his Mar-A-Lago estate will be under water and his other estates (golf courses and whatnot)…will be under water in the next 83 years. “A recent study published in journal Nature found that sea levels could rise by six feet by 2100 due to ice melting in the Antartic, and the President’s golf course at Doral, Florida, and several of his Sunny Isles Beach properties – along with two million homes – would be underwater.” Not to even mention the droughts, and hurricanes here, and other place in the US.
Cartoon: A good book with fascinating compilations of weather forecasts, recipes, jokes, and aphorisms!
Hope that you have a relaxing, good evening, take care, and Thanks, Tom Love your description of seeing too many Repugs, I feel that way too!
*Joanne: So enjoyed watching the Bad Lip Reading ‘Merry Christmas’, it’s absolutely hysterical!! Whoever did this is brilliant!! Thank you for sharing.
The police report you posted is staggering!!!! and very, very sad.
It is sad that there is so much police violence in the USA. Our constables could learn a lot from other countries. Too much killing by cops leads to fear of cops, which leads to hate and contempt of them.
So the Orange Ogre thinks climate science is baloney? Spoken like a stooge of Big Fossil Fuel.
YT/MM: What a bunch of bozos speaking through their nether regions!
MJ: Amazing how tDump’s delusional idiocy is in such synch with the desires of the Koch boys; and how he has been able to access some of the sickest sycophants. But, of course, these types attract one another like dung beetles and the dung on which the species thrives!
MM: Sometimes I feel almost blessed I cant get videos to run down here mst of the time. It gives me an excuse not to watch Drumpf and his acolytes over and over again. There’s hardly a clip worth viewing more than once. Of course I’ll make a lot of exceptions when Drumpf and all those connected to him in the Russia collusion are arrested and led from their front doors in handcuffs. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired from watching that over and over again; on the contrary.
CPI: Kudos to all you guys working at the Center for Public Integrity for crunching all these numbers day after day and doing that in the knowledge that however much all your hard work is appreciated by us, you’re doing it al for the cat’s fiddle (Dutch proverb) and nothing will change. I hope you have the courage and stamina to continue your important work right through 2018 too.
MJ: Once again it becomes shockingly clear why Republicans will not give up Drumpf. He’s the perfect anti-science buffer for them.
Hope I can get thru this next game! I’m having a hard time trying to keep up with you on FF. All I can do is sit, my DNP’s! My best play is to just sit all I have and hope for the best! Have a GOOD game, TC!
You too Viv. Our projections are neck and neck.
Puzzle — 5:32 We used to see whole trees stacked up like this awaiting transport. We called them toothpicks back when I was a kid.
Media Matters — That is a toxic waste dump!
Centre for Public Integrity — Rather telling:”$4.2 million: Total amount the financial industry interests have given Rep. Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and one of the leaders working to roll back banking regulations in the Dodd-Frank law.”
Absolutely disgusting . . .
Keep crunching those numbers!
Mother Jones — Alternative ideas
1 The People declare Republicans a waste of our money.
2 Trump staffers are dumb.
3 Science, shmience! Who needs it?
4 Next Generation Science Standards . . . the abridged version in New Mexico. Why fill young minds with clap-trap.
5 Handing condoms to teens encourages higher rates of teen pregnancy.
6 Your residence is now a waterfront property, Mr Pruitt? Is it clean water?
7 You want “humane” executions? Why? These are convicted murders etc.
It has been raining these last few days so that most areas away from the mountains are now back to blah! Some snow is nice for the spirit. Unfortunately, Greater Vancouver drivers are generally not good at driving through the stuff.
Thanks all! Yucky sticky hugs.