I’m a bit less frazzled than I was yesterday, when everything was crazy to get things done. Now chasing my tail all day has become ‘hurry up and wait’ I might as well post while I’m waiting. I’m sure there are hectic days ahead. Tomorrow, I expect to post as usual, but even on hectic days, I should get at least a Personal Update posted.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 5:01 (average 5:13). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): MIDTERM VIBRATIONS – Parody
I’ve been in the hospital for a week, and this one is worth the wait! RESIST!!
From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Michael Cohen Knowledge A ‘Very Dangerous Threat’ To President Donald Trump
I could not get MSNBC in the hospital. I missed Rachel Big-Time! Putin’s Pervert is giving his owner a $50 million suite with hot and cold running hookers. RESIST!!
From NY Times: When the blue wave came to North Carolina, the red levees held.
In a year in which Democrats picked up as many as 41 House seats, including in places as conservative as Oklahoma and Utah, they lost all three of their targets for pickups in one of the nation’s most closely divided states. Democrats in North Carolina earned 48.3 percent of the total vote cast in House races but won only three seats; Republicans had 50.4 percent of the vote and won 10 seats.
The results, which left the partisan makeup of the state’s House delegation unchanged, were as much a triumph of mapmaking as campaigning. The election was held using gerrymandered district lines that federal judges had deemed unconstitutional; those lines were drawn because previous ones had also been deemed unconstitutional.
That only hints at the depth and ferocity of the battles over gerrymandering and voting regulations in North Carolina, where a Republican takeover of the General Assembly in 2010 set off a barrage of conservative legislation and rule changes that are still being fought in the courts.
In this, North Carolina is one conspicuous example of a critical story line in this year’s elections: the degree to which gerrymandering has created firewalls in key states that even a wave election may not be able to breach.
I wish I had a solution. I do not, beyond the certainty that I know one must be found. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
How about a trial for Injustice Pervert KavaNazi?
14 Responses to “Open Thread – 11/30/2018”
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PPC: Excellent & well versed.
MSNBC: This reads better than any Tom CIancy novel I’ve read, and happening in real time. Gawd, I sure hope that Cohen is getting protection, he’s spilling all the beans on dt (and co.), gawd, now where did I put my popcorn?
NYT: Very disturbing. Hopefully….this can be remedied before any other election happens there.
Nice to see you in the house, welcome back. How’s Wendy feeling? Hope that you are relaxing/resting, take good, good care, and Thanks, Tom.
*This just in – “If the president depends on his gut, then he needs a good internist, because he’s full of sheet.”~ C.J.J. ~
Glad to know you’re well enough to post a new Open Thread entry, TomCat!
6:26 Seems like this is the third time around.
Don – Excellent parody of a VERY parodiable song!
MSNBC – Several things are happening that weren’t happening before. Manafort’s plea bargain revoked, for one, and now, today, there’s word of a “mystery witness” to testify before a grand jury in two weeks – someone under subpoena who was resisting testifying – amd much speculation as to who it might be. Guess the midterms are finally, really over now.
NYT – When I was stationed in North Carolina, there was a Democratic governor. Things have really changed. Did you also see that Wisconsin is pulling a Virginia and passing legislation to hobble gubernatorial power, now that it will be a Democrat and not Snotty Scotty?
Cartoon – And, IIRC, was not convicted. Too bad!
“Parodiable”
What a great word!
Why, thank you, sir! I made it all by myself.
Well, someone beat you to it – because it’s a real word:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Parodiable
Oh, that’s funny. Great minds falling in the same ditch again.
I call “Good Vibrations” parodiable because it so often has been parodied, and so effectively Just two examples –
– by Bob Rivers from the album “Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire” (Lyrics)
– by The Hampton String Quartet from the album “What If Mozart Wrote Born To Be Wild” – no lyrics – the style is not Mozart but Beethoven; they parodied many composers but it was always Mozart in the album title.
Don: Great parody.
MSNBC: It’s getting really juicy now. Glad that Cohen is finally speaking truth about tRump.
So happy that you are doing better. Pray that you continue to get better.
PPC: So cool!
Rachel: If this fellow is right about Cohen…it’s got to be giving Drumphy the bloody sh**s! No mention of the FBI raid in Chicago, though. What in the heck do Burke’s files have to say about the fool in chief? Butcher paper on the windows, and desks inverted!!
NYT: The days of Jim Crow are hardly gone!
PP: Marvellous.
MSNBC: If Cohen was really dealing with Russia in order to gift Putin with the $50 million penthouse, and as late as June, the Drumpf was in on it. Or better still, behind it, because Cohen couldn’t possibly have the authorization, he was just the fixer. So giving, or even intending to give, such a lavish gift to the head of a hostile foreign power at the beginning of, or later on in the presidency, must be crime which can get Drumpf impeached/behind bars. Weren’t there sanctions against Russia at the time too?
No wonder the Russians are so annoyed at Drumpf cancelling his meeting with his boss at the G20. Now they have to give him instructions in the corridors, which can be overheard.
NYT: Again I’m flabbergasted by how things work in the US: a federal judge has deemed the latest gerrymandered district lines in North Carolina unconstitutional, i.e. not according to the law of the land, and yet the state could simply ignore the law and get away with it? State laws apparently surpass the American Constitution, because nothing can be done about it. This could have dire consequences!
Glad you’re back in the saddle, TomCat, but do take it easy. Lynn did a great job covering for you, and so did Joanne and Nameless; and they will do so again if necessary.
Give my regards to WWWendy when she’d back on her feet again.
Puzzle — 4:17 We have definitely done this more than 4 times!
Parody Project — Excellent, and even better the second time around!
MSNBC — A $50 million apartment, quid pro quo?! An AlterNet article explains that “not only does the existence of a long-running and secret Trump Tower Moscow project during the 2016 campaign suggest deep and troubling ties between the president and Russia, but the project itself was almost certainly supposed to be, in large part, a front for money laundering.” In another article, it was suggested that by having Putin own a suite, other Russian oligarchs would want to buy in to be close to Putin and Trump could then demand higher prices for the other units.
NY Times — “The election was held using gerrymandered district lines that federal judges had deemed unconstitutional; those lines were drawn because previous ones had also been deemed unconstitutional.” — Should not North Carolina be held in contempt of court and the election results held in abeyance until new, constitutionally acceptable lines are drawn? Or does that also run afoul of the constitution?
Cartoon — Clear the Senate docket for a trial of Kavanazi for political bias! With the current Senate, it will never happen!
I haven’t been doing these as long as everyone else, so I will have missed some fo the go-rounds. And there sure are a lot of pix they show thumbnails of on the main page that I, for one, have never seen as puzzles. Of course that’s one of the problems with “randomness.”
I have been doing them since August 2011 when I first came to PP. My times were beyond dreadful!
Thanks all. Pooped hugs.