I’m writing for tomorrow, day 79. I’m hurrying, because I have to leave soon for volunteer work in prison. I’ll be meeting with around 100 guys. This is the only article. I’ll probably be scarce for a couple days.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:29 (average 4:15). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes: (All Andy)
From The New Yorker: A new Oxfam report indicating that the wealthiest one per cent possesses about half of the world’s wealth has left the richest people in the world “reeling with disappointment,” a leading billionaire said on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters in Davos, Switzerland, where he is attending the World Economic Forum, the hedge-fund owner Harland Dorrinson said, “I think I speak for a lot of my fellow billionaires when I say I thought we were doing a good deal better than that.”
Calling the Oxfam findings “sobering,” he said that he hoped they would serve “as a wake-up call to billionaires everywhere that it’s time to up our game.”
“Quite frankly, a lot of us thought that by buying politicians, rewriting tax laws, and hiding money overseas, we were getting it done,” said Dorrinson, who owns the hedge fund Garrote Capital. “If, at the end of the day, all we control is a measly half of the world’s wealth, clearly we need to do more—much more.”
Andy has them pegged, and they have the Republican Party working hard to increase their share to 100%.
From The New Yorker: In a poll taken on Tuesday night, a wide majority of Americans said that they now believe that they could be elected to the United States Senate.
The results reflected a renewed sense of the inclusiveness of the American political system, as those surveyed said that they believed that anyone could serve in the Senate regardless of intelligence, the ability to speak, or any other qualifications whatsoever.
While those responses indicated that, as of Tuesday night, at least, Americans were energized about the possibility of their future careers in Washington, other results were not so encouraging.
Andy knows that a pig’s nuts would be a better Senator than Pig Nuts.
From The New Yorker: Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) shared more folksy stories of her childhood on Wednesday, telling reporters that she used to wear a bucket on her head for no apparent reason.
“I’d be walking outside our house and see a bucket lying there, and I’d say to myself, ‘That’s a perfectly good bucket, I think I’ll put it on my head,’ ” she said. “It wasn’t because I needed a hat or anything. I must have had, oh gosh, a half-dozen hats or so. I just wanted to wear a bucket.”
Ernst said that during her youth, she was known for poking a hole in a large piece of corrugated cardboard and wearing it as a poncho.
“I can’t for the life of me tell you why I did that,” she said. “I just liked the look of it, I guess. Nobody paid much attention to it. People sure don’t notice your cardboard poncho when you’re wearing a bucket on your head.”
Andy, I think people liked it, because the bucket muffled what she was saying.
Cartoon:
19 Responses to “Open Thread–1/23/2015”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
New Yorker – brilliant – but Andy has got to stop reporting fact!
New Yorker – there is an old phrase, 'those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad [insane]' – looks as if work started early with her! Mind you, with these stories you can easily see which part of the electorate she is aiming for – her fellow nutcases!
Painfully good cartoon – thanks TC!
4:05 average up a second. Gotta get on the road. Back later.
3:02 TC was in more of a hurry than either one of us, Joanne.
True, Patty – but I was in such a rush I couldn't have stuck around to collect it even had I been faster.
The New Yorker says I have had my quota of free articles this month – but fortunately they don't grasp that my laptop on motel WiFi is still me. So I did get to read both the articles I hadn't already. And did I need the laughs! On the no-qualifications-for-Senate one, I am firmly in the 14%.
I get that warning every once in a while but I've never been stopped from reading the New Yorker on line.
3:07 Has anybody told that puddy tat that tulips are not edible, not even with garlic and butter?
New Yorker ~ Andy, that is not satire!
New Yorker ~ This was too funny! I could actually picture her doing this along with the bread bags on her feet. This is what every well dressed Congresswoman and man should wear. Like you said, Tom. said, it would muffle them.
Cartoon ~ I wouldn't doubt that this would be their "compromise".
New Yorker 1:
Davos 2015
New Oxfam report says half of global wealth held by the 1%
Oxfam warns of widening inequality gap, days ahead of Davos economic summit in Switzerland
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/19/global-wealth-oxfam-inequality-davos-economic-summit-switzerland
New Yorker 2:
Poll would certainly say that there are "high information" people out there in the general population who could serve in Congress and be much better at those jobs than the current makeup dominated by the GOP/TP/Koch Party people. lol.
New Yorker 3:
Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) gave us some more of her home-spun homilies. Maybe her new nickname should be "buckethead" instead of "pig-nuts". Maybe both combined as "buckethead pignuts", lol.
A bit of trivia: The name "buckethead" has already been taken by Brian Patrick Carroll (born May 13, 1969), better known by his stage name Buckethead, is an American guitarist and multi-instrumentalist who has worked within … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckethead
Forgot Cartoon: Not amusing at all.
Thanks for the triple dose of AB TC. If you have a bucket on your head, how can you see responses to a cardboard poncho? Given the 'source' I guess that reality wouldn't matter.
Oh, the irony of all of the articles by Andy! Please let “pig nuts” do all of the responses by the rethuglikkkanTs!
Puzzle — 3:07 Has anybody told that puddy tat that tulips are not edible, not even with garlic and butter?
The New Yorker — Love the name of the hedge fund . . . Garrote Capital! It is choking off small investors, nay it is decapitating the world economies by controlling to much wealth. And yes, yet again, Andy has them pegged.
The New Yorker — "… they believed that anyone could serve in the Senate regardless of intelligence, the ability to speak, or any other qualifications whatsoever." — They must have heard Pig Nuts Ernst giving the non rebuttal. The Greedy Old Pharisees (GOP) leadership must have told her to go wide so she wouldn't screw anything up.
The New Yorker — Pig Nuts probably wore the bucket and cardboard because she thought it made her look more put together. Idiot!
Cartoon — The Greedy Old Pharisees are trying to play poker again! Look out!
I don't know if you know Lona at Care2 who follows PP closely and comments all the time (Lona naps). Lona's brother pasted away. He was "…my only sibling, my best friend, had very suddenly died at the breakfast table, aged 56, most likely from a heart aneurism." The funeral/celebration of life is tomorrow (I guess today now in the Netherlands). Sorry to break the news but I thought you'd like to lnow.
I am sorry to hear about Lona's brother. I have lost both of mine, it is a hard blow.
The New Yorker: Andy gets closer and closer to reporting facts. I shared this on Facebook, too.
Cartoon: Yesm they will!
Thanks. exhausted. Pit stop. Hugs.
Re/ Bread bags over shoes. She HAD shoes!. Lucky girl!. I would posit the following. If a "scientific study(world wide) of the cumulative I.Q,s of the legislators of industrialised countries were totalled the lowest would be the nit wits in Washington USA.Who, in their right mind would vote for these dingbats.? does not speak too well for the American public{or maybe they just do not care!. ) It does not take a science major to read a book or listen to those who are scientists.(ref. the great climate change "hoax" WE, who have an IQ. higher than a plant pot GET IT)
America you are in trouble, as is the planet.!
Good Cartoon TC, not funny…