It has been a long week for everybody, and the weekend is here. We can't do much more to check on the Puddy Tat until Monday, so I thought a "similar to TC's Open Thread" would keep us busy. I'd also like to thank all of you for your patience, but I would especially like to thank Nameless, JL and JD for all the behind the scenes work They have done and are doing. And lastly, but never lastly, please continue to hold Tom in your thoughts and/or prayers.
BTW, I can't seem to get the hot links to work so unfortunately, you'll have to copy/paste the links into your browser.
Fantasy Football — Don't forget to check your rosters. The games have started! . . . and you can bet that Tom's Teabag Trashers want to take the trophy home again this year.
Puzzles —
Candy Fruits http://www.jigzone.com/puzzles/2015-09-10 my time 3:47 average 5:17
Yacht Ropes http://www.jigzone.com/puzzles/2015-09-11 my time 3:35 average 5:07
Key Blanks http://www.jigzone.com/puzzles/2015-09-12 my time 3:51 average 6:31
How did you do?
Short Takes
Raw Story — An Oklahoma County judge on Friday gave the state a month to remove a 6-foot-tall (1.80-meter) granite monument containing the Ten Commandments from Capitol grounds after the state’s top court said it had been erected illegally.
District Judge Thomas Prince denied a motion from Attorney General Scott Pruitt to keep in place the monument that had been on Capitol grounds since 2012 and garnered strong support from Oklahoma’s Republican leadership.
In June, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the monument must be removed because the Oklahoma Constitution bans the use of state property for the benefit of a religion.
The decision prompted Republican lawmakers to say they will look at impeachment for the justices who made the decision and legal briefs from the attorney general’s office to keep the monument in the shadow of the Statehouse.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/judge-gives-oklahoma-a-month-to-remove-ten-commandments-from-capitol/
Republicans like to think it is their way or the highway!
The New Yorker — Republicans, who mercilessly mocked Barack Obama’s lack of government experience before he became President, now favor Presidential candidates with no experience whatsoever, the head of the Republican National Committee has confirmed.
The R.N.C. chief, Reince Priebus, said that he sees “no contradiction at all” between Republicans’ contempt for Obama’s pre-White House résumé, which included eleven years spent in public office, and their rabid enthusiasm for G.O.P. rising stars Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Carly Fiorina, whose combined years in public office total zero.
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/party-that-mocked-presidents-lack-of-experience-favors-one-with-no-experience-whatsoever
Is Andy reporting straight news again? The anachronistic Republican bubble machine is at it again!
NY Times — Visitors to Japan are often surprised by how prosperous it seems. It doesn’t look like a deeply depressed economy. And that’s because it isn’t.
Unemployment is low; overall economic growth has been slow for decades, but that’s largely because it’s an aging country with ever fewer people in their prime working years. Measured relative to the number of working-age adults, Japanese growth over the past quarter century has been almost as fast as America’s, and better than Western Europe’s.
Yet Japan is still caught in an economic trap. Persistent deflation has created a society in which people hoard cash, making it hard for policy to respond when bad things happen, which is why the businesspeople I’ve been talking to here are terrified about the possible spill over from China’s troubles.
Deflation has also created worrisome “debt dynamics”: Japan, unlike, say, the United States after World War II, can’t count on growing incomes to make past borrowing irrelevant.
Another fine article by Paul Krugman.
Now normally, TC would have a cartoon. All I can offer you is "Kim Davis' stunt demolished in one brilliant tweet".
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/04/1418315/-Kim-Davis-stunt-demolished-in-one-brilliant-tweet?detail=emailclassic
34 Responses to “Surrogate – Open Thread 12/09/2015”
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OMG! You did it! Awesome! Congrats! Way to go, Mz. Lynn…
Now, I'll look into your posts via copy & paste route. No biggie and easy as pie.
Hugzzz…
I forgot to ask but will this PP Open Thread be posted in C2?
Already is. I do not however have a large Care2 following, and certainly not all of TomCat's network. Is there anyone out there willing to distribute Care2 links while TC is away? Please let me know. Thanks.
I just messaged all my political friends and friends who follow TC regularly…
PS–I did skip the two of you who already knew…
Judi, you did, indeed, and i am taking ths opportunity to again send you my heartfelt thanks!
Mitch
What is the C2 link?
Here it is on C2: http://www.care2.com/news/member/775377582/3909603
It is front page now–the post I made linked to Nameless's post here was still on front page when I went to bed last night
Three cheers and please take a bow Ms. Surrogate! I'm impressed you managed to juggle all the balls and cover everything!
I fear those in OK do not realize they would even lose at SCOTUS since there is very similar settled case law.
I now note how the ones in the poll to drop out all are GOP candidates with some time in office…
Krugman does a good job of helping people really understand the economic principles and concerns he chooses to write about.
And the tweet does explain how to understand what is and is not freedom of religion.
And reply buttons remain on both of the threads Nameless posted! Kudos!
Tes, I just checked that too. Very nice!
A similar court decision to OK elsewhere:
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/atheists-defeat-christian-group-fight-over-10-commandments-pittsburgh-public-school?akid=13471.902764.9qx8sD&rd=1&src=newsletter1042320&t=20
Raw Story: The Republican lawmakers must not know how to read the Oklahoma Constitution. It bans the use of state property for the benefit of a religion. The state is so red that republican lawmakers are tripping over themselves. They are pitiful.
New Yorker: Reince Priebus is a straight-out hypocrite and a know-nothing. Organizing a community is very similar to organizing a government. After all, the government is made up of people working together for the betterment of society. Trump may have hosted a reality show on TV but it was trump's own "reality". Carson would not know nor understand Iranian's brains as their culture is vastly different from his. As for Carly, Yep, she has the distinction of being the worst CEO and nearly destroyed a major computer tech company. Carly is despised by her former employees which number in the thousands. The RNC "bubble machine" just popped. Did you just hear it? lol.
NY Times: Interesting article but will leave it up for comments from our more enlightened commentators. All I can say is that austerity hurts people. What is wrong with hoarding money under the mattress, saving for a rainy day? Look at what happened to Greece when the banks closed. What is wrong with respectability? Spend, spend is what keeps the economy moving and higher costs of credit cards plus trying to pay them off will take forever, sigh…
Cartoon: Kim Davis' stunt demolished in one brilliant tweet – Excellent!
Carly ran in CA on her own dime like Meg Whitman…but at least Meg asked for mentoring on what was different about leading and managing in government vs. business…
Carly is a mutimillionaire and Meg is a multibillionaire.
Meg showed up in Sonoma at my coffee shop with entourage and doing a photo op. They had to move because I was reading a NY Times magazine about Obama. The cover was Obama and I was reading the article in it. Guess the photo op people didn't want me and Obama in the background. lol. Meg was kicked out of the Tuesday Night Market because she and her group were politicizing the people there. lol.
Both Carly and Meg lost their elections in California. Carly was running for Senator against Barbara Boxer, a very popular Senator. Meg was running for Governor against Jerry Brown. Yes! lol.
LOL–thanks for the personal touches I hadn't heard before Jim. In other CA news, I celebrated a bit ago feeling a few raindrops before the breezes brought back the smell of smoke from my most local major wildfire.
Congrats, Lynn, you did it. I really wish we could learn something about TC and I know I am not alone in this.
Raw Story: All Republicans Think it is their way or the highway.
The New Yorker: This does sound like straight news. There is just no reasonable explanation for Republican choices.
NY Times: Krugman always does great work.
I put my puzzle times on the last open thread and it's a little long t look for them. I do remember today was 4:07, which was very darn good measured against the average, but not against the PP crowd.
Raw Story – Arkansas is going through the same thing but there, the First Church of Satan is calmly pointing out that if the Ten Commandments are to be on government property , they have a very nice statue of Baphomet which should be right next to it, thank you. http://www.care2.com/causes/should-arkansas-capitol-get-a-satanic-monument.html (The picture with the article is not of the statue. I saw a pic of it somewhere and it is white marble with a couple of sweet children. Or it may not be marble, but it does look like it. Quite tasteful.)
Sunday puzzle ship in drydock 4:30 (4:38) Was rushing to do that – out of breath now.
Well done Lynn – and am still praying for TC. (Am still very worried for him, though trying to convert worry into prayer and positive thinking)..
Raw Story – typical Repugs to want impeachment – especially since they have never tried to keep one of the Commandments.
New Yorker – you are quite right – Andy is reporting straight news again. Once again the Repugs are beyond satire!
NY Times – I really do love and respect Paul Krugman! Jim is quite right – austerity always, always, always hurts the poor and vulnerable, never the rich and powerful.
Kudos Lynn (and behind the scenes folks too), for getting this set up. Cut & paste is no problem for me either.
Everything is working like a charm.
Prayers, and more Prayers for our TC, and get well thoughts.
Thanks!!! Big Hugs to y'all.
FANTASY FOOTBALL
I recall that someone new agreed to play (Vivian perhaps)–if someone who plays can offer her the helping hand TC would've done, it would be wonderful
PERSONAL REQUEST
There are still some who were regulars posting here or on Care2 who I haven't seen and thus may not know what is going on.
Of those on Care2, as I think of them, I've been sending them an Intro with a link to one of the threads linked to here we have posted…if others could do the same if they know how to contact people, it would be very much appreciated.
Wow, not sure how you did this, but there are some techie smart ones in the C2 community.
I sent around a notice with the last Dandelion Seeds letting those on my list know that TC was in hospital. I had a few thank me who still didn't know. I'll repeat the process again in my next send out for those who may not of noticed or were too busy to open that particular Dandelion Seeds.
Thanks ever so much Dandelion! I think Labor Day weekend and vacations/school starts may have led to less activity on both sites increasing how many might not have caught initial posts/messages.
Three cheers for all of you who have made this surrogate PP possible and the efforts by all of you to keep TomCat's blog alive and ready for him to continue when he gets out of hospital. Fantastic teamwork.
I'm running very/to late today, but I'm sure to comment on `the Surrogate Open Thread tomorrow.
Thanks, JL A! I still need a little help on the FF site, but I have gotten around to moving some players around and have a game going right now. In fact, a couple are over. Me and End the GOP are up against each other. If someone could send a message to me on C2, it would be much appreciated!
Kudos to you, Lynn, and Nameless plus all the others that are trying to keep us informed on TomCat!
Pat yourself on the back for that success Vivian!
Thanks, JL A! Kudos to you for your messages on C2! You ROCK!
I hope TC is well soon! Prayers and good vibes goin his way!
Thanks everybody for your support in keeping things going. I solemnly promise you that I will do the best I can to keep things going as far as Open Threads etc as I can, but it certainly won't be the same as the Puddy Tat's. As I learn how to do hot links, I'll incorporate them to make things easier for you.
BTW, in homage to the Puddy Tat, I will be renaming the Surrogate Open Thread to Squatch's Open Thread, so don't be alarmed. TC called me Sasquatch often and when I called him last week, he said "It's the Squatch!" with much delight. He also used the shorter 'Squatch'.
Thanks for the comments.
Nice plan Lynn!
Great Job, Lynn! Am keeping tom in my prayers.
Fruits ~ 4:29 Love them candies!
Ropes ~ 2:57 I didn't get tied up today.
Keys~ I got locked out!
NOTE A NEW OPEN THREAD HAS BEEN POSTED NOW, TOO