Wendy arrived yesterday at 2:00 PM. In only four hours, we de-stunk the stinky TomCat, did our normal housekeeping chores, did the dreaded task and had Christmas dinner. She brought fruit salad and fudge to go with the ham, Brussels sprouts Hollandaise, stuffing, and garlic bread that I made. We had raspberry pudding cake for dessert. She gave me a Broncos T-shirt and a beautiful quilt that she made herself. I gave her an opal necklace. She doesn’t know it yet, but I also got her a Samantha Bee Thundercunt T-shirt, but it won’t be delivered until tomorrow. The only downside is that a washer malfunctioned and ate four pairs of my briefs. I was so pooped that I fell asleep during my Broncos game. Because it’s a dead day for news, and because I’m tired, this is today’s only article.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:08 (average 5:53). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Religious Agony:
Short Takes:
From NY Times: Soon after his inauguration next month, President-elect Donald Trump will nominate someone to the Supreme Court, which has been hamstrung by a vacancy since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February. There will be public debates about the nominee’s credentials, past record, judicial philosophy and temperament. There will be Senate hearings and a vote.
No matter how it plays out, Americans must remember one thing above all: The person who gets confirmed will sit in a stolen seat.
It was stolen from Barack Obama, a twice-elected president who fulfilled his constitutional duty more than nine months ago by nominating Merrick Garland, a highly qualified and widely respected federal appellate judge.
It was stolen by top Senate Republicans, who broke with longstanding tradition and refused to consider any nominee Mr. Obama might send them, because they wanted to preserve the court’s conservative majority. The main perpetrators of the theft were Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, and Charles Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee. But virtually all Republican senators were accomplices; only two supported holding hearings.
What Republicans did for nine months, Democrats must do for four years, using every parliamentary dirty trick in the book. RESIST!!
From Washington Post: Donald Trump is set to inherit an uncommon number of vacancies in the federal courts in addition to the open Supreme Court seat, giving the president-elect a monumental opportunity to reshape the judiciary after taking office.
The estimated 103 judicial vacancies that President Obama is expected to hand over to Trump in the Jan. 20 transition of power is nearly double the 54 openings Obama found eight years ago following George W. Bush’s presidency.
Confirmation of Obama’s judicial nominees slowed to a crawl after Republicans took control of the Senate in 2015. Obama White House officials blame Senate Republicans for what they characterize as an unprecedented level of obstruction in blocking the Democratic president’s court picks.
What Republicans did for two years, Democrats must do for four years, using every parliamentary dirty trick in the book. RESIST!!
From YouTube (White House Channel): Weekly Address: Merry Christmas from the President and the First Lady
God! I’m going to miss him! If only Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians shared those Christian beliefs!
Cartoon!
15 Responses to “Open Thread – 12/26/2016”
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NYT: How low can you go, RePugs? Pretty dam low, imho.
WP: Lord help us!
YT: Gulp!! Hold on….I've got something in my eye……;-(
Cartoon: Ahhhhh…where a person can get frisked, cuffed, yelled at, tasered, and jailed in a Texas minute, no Thanks to Repugs. I sure hope that Santa went to Cancun, the long way around after that!!
Sounds like you had a great day!! Sorry about your guys. You are so thoughtful to get Wendy a Sam Bee shirt too. Your dinner sounded delicious! Get your much needed rest, and Relax!! Take care, and Thanks, Tom.
He must have. He made it to the beach.
5:57 Chili with prickly pears in it? Sounds wonderful. Or pico de gallo! Yum!
Sorry for yet more relligious agony. Poor baby. You didn't need that. At least dinner was good!
NYTimes – I can't agree with you more. And I must point out it's actually worse than it looks. Trump is already starting to try to pressure Ruth into retiring. We must resist that as well, as strongly as we can, and with both hands. (Editing this to add a link to a petition on Ruth: http://act.endcitizensunited.org/page/s/letter-to-ruth )
WaPo – It is not only the White House that blames Republicans. So does anyone with a functioning brain. And, yes, for sure, we must resist. I don't LIKE to advocate obstruction, but in this case it is definitely the least of all possible evils.
YT(WHC) – Don't we have to go back to the Roosevelts to get such a personal and beautiful message from the first family? Or am I (probably) leaving out the Carters? I echo your wish, but the fact is, if Republican Christians were Christian, we wouldn't be in this mess.
Cartoon – He certainly deserves a day off. (But then, back to resisting.)
I'll leave for now with this thought: "They told me to follow my dreams, so I went back to bed."
RESIST !!!
Signed the petition, thanks for the link.
Thanks, Signed!
Sounds like you had a GREAT dinner with Wendy! The menu was perfecto! We had pizza! Me and my husband watched football all day and age pizza like a couple of teenagers! One of our kids lives in Georgia and the other went to the in-laws for Christmas dinner. Like I've said before, we never celebrate holidays in THE day. We just do it when we feel good enough to do it. And that just happens when it happens.
Oh! Football! Three players went down with broken legs yesterday! Carr, Mariota and Lockett! That was quite unusual! I was watching when Lockett broke his. Ghastly! But it is a rough sport! It's a wonder that more don't break arms and legs! And the game with the Broncos was just a runaway from the get-go!
We are in for some really hard times of you are in the other 98%! And I'm in the lower part of it! If Drumpfenfarten cuts Social Security off, we are doomed! And Medicare is my only insurance! The new year starts the deductibles all over again and that always messes me up.
Signed your petition, Joanne! This is a clustereff with the SCOTUS! People all over the world are laughing at us for letting Drumpfenfarten STEAL the election!
Have a great day and enjoy the leftovers! Thanks for ALL you do, TC! We are forever in your debt for keeping us informed! And I agree we MUST RESIST!!!!
Sounds like your Santa is a little enamored with the Drumpfian give-and-take: you give presents and he takes your briefs. But it sounds like you had a good day all in all, TomCat. You deserve some rest and let that delicious meal take its natural course…
NYT: Of course it's a stolen seat, no matter whom Drumpf nominates. Drumpf shouldn't be in the White House and the position should have been filled by Obama's nominee Merrick Garland, who was as bi-partisan as they come. I hope the Democrats will do some crash courses on "Dirty tricks in the book" and get even better at it than the GOP, finding more loopholes to block anything Republicans and Drumpf put forward, even when they're a minority. The GOP deserves to be served a cooky of their own dough (Dutch proverb) after making Obama and too many American's life a misery for eight years. Well, actually, on some abstract level they deserve to be shot for treason, among other things, but that's not part of my outlook on life, so I'll take:
RESIST!
WP: I don't think I need to copy my comment above, do I?
Cartoon: Can't blame Santa for staying on an Aussie beach after he got out of Texas in one piece.
If it were an Aussie beach, he's be upside down.
You and Wendy had a full day. She must really like you since she made a quilt for you, that is a LOT of work.
NY Times: I think the Democrats should block any nominee Trump presents them, citing will of the people, since he lost the popular vote by such a large margin.
Washington Post: Ditto on the above, no federal judges nominated under Trump, "will of the people" has been abrogated.
YOuTube: We certainly won't have a classy Prez or First Lady for the next four years. Too bad Obama couldn't run again.
Cartoon: Is it true that Texas makes a billion dollars a year from fines?
Puzzle — 3:34 I've never eaten prickly pear but it does sound interesting.
NY Times — Alternet has an article — 5 Reasons Senate Democrats Should Block All Trump Supreme Court Nominees, Forever — which is rather interesting. I believe 2017- 2020 should be referred to as Democratic Payback. Republicans have been obstructing Obama for 8 years on just about everything and anything. Of course the SCOTUS nomination obstruction is only 10 months, but it would have been longer had one of the justices died earlier. And I hope that RBG does not retire, assuming she is healthy. Trump, IMO, is meddling in the judiciary by bullying RBG — isn't that illlegal? . . . separation of powers etc. Trump is such an asshole!
RESIST!!!!!
Washington Post — "What Republicans did for two years, Democrats must do for four years, using every parliamentary dirty trick in the book. RESIST!!" — AMEN!!! Payback time!!! . . . not for the sake of pay back, but for the good of the country!
RESIST!!!!!
Youtube — As far as pseudo Christians and Republicans are concerned, the Obamas might as well be speaking a foreign language. I guess I could say that I speak English, French, learning Farsi, and speak Obama! AMEN to their message!
Cartoon — He should have asked for a NORAD escort!
Sounds like your dinner was scrumptilitious! . . . and of course the company was the best ever. While I was feeding my mother (her food is puréed now), mum's nurse heaped a plate full of turkey, dressing, gravy, Brussels sprouts and squash for me. I was going to have a can of beans when I got home but didn't need it. Dinner was very, very good. One lady who is a miserable old bitch (apparently she was like that even before being diagnosed with dementia according to her daughter) and doesn't like me, accused me of eating my mother's dinner and started screaming. We think she hates me because I used to dance with Maurice (the fellow that passed away last Sunday) and she was jealous. The nurse, who I have known now for 5 years, was very apologetic.
Amen to all five.!!
So you like that pureed fuud, eh?
No but my mother does. As her disease progresses, it is the only way she can get food in. If she could, I think she would live on ice cream, applesauce, pudding and yoghurt . . . all nice and smooth with no chewing required.
I figured that, and was teasing you.
Thanks all! Hugs!!
Damned Repugs! Damned third party voters! This country is in for one damned scary ride! I'm in the midst of watching the Kennedy Center Honors, with its rainbow icon, shuddering at imagining what empty Orange will do to it next year! Can't reasonably imagine watching him beong there. He just might find an excuse to cancel them, in true Hitlerian style! And that's the least of it all!