Getting my medications squared away is taking me a lot longer than I anticipated, and and I also have other chores. Since I figure you’ll find out about the contraindications between the charming and talented Meryl Streep and Buckaroo Bullshit from several hundred other sources, this is my only article today.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:49 (average 5:05). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The Daily Beast: The passing today of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, president of Iran from 1989 to 1997 and a key figure from the 1979 Islamic Revolution, will have earthshattering consequences not only for Iranian reformists and moderates but also Iran’s immediate political future.
At the time of his death, Rafsanjani was president of the Expediency Council, an influential advisory body to the Supreme Leader. Reformist elements in the council have now lost a powerful protector. But this is the least of the inevitable impact of Rafsanjani’s passing.
For the past ten years, within the upper echelons of power, Rafsanjani was the main protective shield for Iranian reformists and other similar factions currently out of power. His fearlessness in confronting hardliners and even the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, with skillful use of the media to do so, created a balance in Iranian politics between moderates and hardline “principlists” largely loyal to Khamenei. The loss of Rafsanjani now causes an overwhelming vacuum that will upset the balance of power between hardliners and more moderate groups in the Islamic Republic.
This could be disastrous for peace with the US, because it will pit extremist Shia hardliners against an Islamophobic Fascist megalomaniac. RESIST!!
From recordonline.com: According to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the time is nigh to play hardball with the Republicans. Under the tutelage of Mitch McConnell, they became the standard bearers of a do-nothing Congress — and that was never more evident than when President Obama nominated mainstream judge Merrick Garland for a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court.
It would require a supermajority in the Senate to confirm a new SCOTUS judge, and Garland never stood a chance with McConnell deciding the day that Antonin Scalia died that there would be no hearing on a pick by Obama for a replacement.
"I said in February of [2016], to a hail of controversy, that I thought it best if the American people decided this appointment," he said.
And now with President-elect Donald Trump set to appoint his own pick for the Supreme Court, the Democrats and Schumer are threatening a similar blockade — lest it be another "mainstream" pick to their liking. That pits the two counterparts against one another, effectively continuing the partisanship over the nation’s highest court.
I’ll believe it when I see it, but I’d be shocked, if Republicans failed to employ the nuclear option. RESIST!!
From Raw Story: A Republican plan to replace President Barack Obama’s health care reform law would turn employee health benefits into taxable income and shift more tax savings to high earners.
In a report over the weekend, congressional correspondent Jamie Dupree revealed that buried within an Obamacare replacement bill proposed by the Republican Study Committee in the House is a provision that would create a standard deduction for health insurance (SDHI) of $7,500 for individuals and $20,500 for families.
To pay for the deductions, the Republican plan would remove the tax exemption for employee health care, instead treating the benefits as taxable income.
The plan differs from the Affordable Care Act, which would only tax so-called “Cadillac” health insurance plans with annual premiums exceeding $10,200.
But the poor and middle classes will still get the RepubliCare Death Benefit: Can’t pay? Die for free. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
For how much longer? RESIST!!
20 Responses to “Open Thread – 1/9/2017”
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Well, all I can say is I'm glad I'm old – but I do feel sorry for the rest of the world. Sure doesn't look too good for the good guys, does it?
Healthy care for the rich and famous will always be just fine. I do think it would be a good idea if every person wanting to be in Congress had to live an ordinary, average life for at least six months. Bet things would be different then.
As for Drumpf calling Meryl Streep an "over-rated celebrity", a skunk smells his own perfume first and any mirror would tell Drumpf where the true over-rated celebrity is standing. I'm so weary of this twit brain already – however will we stand four years of him?
DK: Sound like relations will go sour, now with Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's passing. I don't see DT being receptive nor gracious to Iran at all. Not good. At.All.
RS: I think the Repugs should sign up for it, try it out first, with no privileges whatsoever…to see how it works out for them.
Cartoon: Also, the United Nations has three additional, subsidiary, regional headquarters, or headquarters districts. These were opened in Geneva (Switzerland) in 1946, Vienna (Austria) in 1980, and Nairobi (Kenya) in 1996 *wiki
*Don't forget tomorrow evening, to listen to President Obama's Farewell Address 8 p.m.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/Farewell?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=email666-text2&utm_campaign=farewell
Meryl Streep was so spot on in her smack down of the Trumpelthinskin!!! It was short, sweet and direct. FABulous!!!!
Hope you get your chores done, and get an opportunity for an R&R. Take good care, enjoy your evening, and Thanks, Tom.
With Rafsanjani gone, there will a new government in Iran and Drumpfenfarten won't play well with them! RESIST!
The crazies are out in full force! The confirmation hearings for ALL of Drumpf's cabinet jammed in to two days is INSANE! And the background checks and the betting NOT done yet makes this like they are trying to "grab the US by the pu$$y" and taking them for the horrible ride of our lives! We are in DEEP do do! Get out the constitution and see if they can read it! Drumpfenfarten and his cronies are gonna bleed us DRY! RESIST!
RESIST!
The Drumpf care will be free for people in the upper 99%, or next to free and the poor will not be able to afford it! So here's the "death panels" that has been hounding Pres. Obama since the inception of the ACA! RESIST!
Puzzle — 3:45 From pillar to post, you can't hide from me Puddy Tat!
Daily Beast — Rafsanjani's death does not bode well for the global community. The Iran nuclear deal was always on shaky ground, but now, if the hardliners assert themselves and Rouhani, a reformer and protégé of Rafsanjani, fails to curb them, there will be trouble, especially with the US. Drumpf being the idiot he is, is likely to start a tweet storm with the Iranians right before he launches missiles. Interesting to note that the paragraph that begins "Rafsanjani could not act as a political horse trader" is word for word the same as a paragraph in Wikipedia. I wonder who published it first.
recordonline.com — I hope Democrats are united, have steel balls and are committed all the way. They are going to have to turn some Republicans to stop a nomination. I agree with you Puddy Tat that McTurtle will likely use the nuclear option, but that only serves to bring debate to closure, if I remember correctly. The danger, as I understand it, is if the Senate votes along party lines, then Trump's nominees are likely to be approved since the vote is a simple majority. UGH!
Resist!!!
Raw Story — Total bullshit! IMO, the Republicans should have their plan ready to go BEFORE they repeal Obamacare. But they won't! Why? Because they have no intention of coming up with a fair and equitable healthcare plan. They will throw millions of people off of Obamacare with no health insurance and only offer the Republicare Death Benefit. They are a pack of snivelling, conniving poor excuses for human beings.
Resist!!!
Cartoon — The United Nations — a great idea that needs some tweaking. How about no veto power to any country. I know, the US, and probably Russia and China, would only become part of the UN if they had a veto. Trump may change that. He referred to the UN as a club that does nothing, and may pull the US out. I don't think the US has paid their UN fees in years.
IMO, the Republicans should have their plan ready to go BEFORE they repeal Obamacare. But they won't! Why?
The biggest problem is that they are nowhere near agreeing among themselves on what the replacement should be, and some of them are realizing that taking insurance away from millions of people (including millions of rural poor white people — their own consituency) would be disastrous re-election-wise. Resolving that problem means compromise, but all they really know how to do is obstruct and strike absolutist poses. They're stuck. It increasingly looks like they'll wind up doing nothing at all in the end, or just making a few cosmetic changes and claiming that that constitutes "repealing and replacing" it.
The dog that caught the car
Daily Beast: Betcha that Tom Cotton (R-AR) can hardly wait to get his itching bony fingers on the Nuclear Deal Kerry and Obama made with Iran and tear it apart along with his "47 buddies" who signed the "infamous informative" letter to the ruling leaders of Iran. Strangely enough, all 47 who signed the letter were not charged with violating the Logan Act.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/10-horrifying-facts-about-gop-senator-tom-cotton
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Although I'm nearly a day ahead of you, TomCat, I'm in very late, so no complaints from me about an Open Thread only. I'm pining for a little of your cold weather, as the temperatures are up and above body temperature now and even above mine, which is somewhat elevated from a very persistent cold we brought with us from wintry Europe (hubby in the first week, then me). Sigh, only three more days and then I'll be pining for the Aussie hot weather in very cold Holland again. This girl isn't easy to satisfy.
DB: Most of the current peace process and the Iran nuclear deal are orchestrated by Iran's current, very moderate president since 2013, Hassan Rouhani,who is a lawyer, academic and former diplomat and a member of Iran's Expediency Council since 1991, member of the Supreme National Security Council since 1989. Rafsanjani's death will lessen the influence of moderates on the government and the religious leaders, but it goes too far to say there will be a vacuum in Iran after his death. The nuclear deal between seven western countries and Iran, the steps taken to abolish the sanctions with a subsequent improvement of economic standards in Iran, have given the reformers a good solid base.
What REALLY is the biggest threat to the balance of power in Iran, is the GOP who have vowed to repeal the deal even before not the popular vote Drumpf took it up as a campaign meme. The other countries in the deal are not about to come back on their word, ao America will have to operate in isolation, and knowing by now how they do that, it'll destabilize the whole powde -keg reagion even further when the Saudi's try to ally themselves with America even further to have them obliterate their biggest – so called religious – enemy Iran.
Recordonline.com: I had exactly the same reaction you had, TomCat, when reading this: I'll believe it when I see it. Until now Schumer has done nothing but talk and I don't think much of his resistance so far.
RD: So it's not a new plan, just a redistribution of benefits and taxes, and ultimately taking it away from the poor (about 50% of Americans by now) to give to the rich 1%. What a surprise 👿
Cartoon: Soon to be UN – 1
The loss of Rafsanjani is not good news, but the Presidential election in May of this year will be what's really decisive. If the election is at all free, Rouhani will be re-elected resoundingly. If it isn't free, the country is likely to erupt in protests like in 2009. Either way the hard-liners will get a strong rebuke.
I once told an Iranian blogger that the situation in that country — a reformist President (Rouhani) trying to liberalize the country but being obstructed by a legislature full or religious crazies — reminded me of the situation in the US. He replied, "The difference is that we Iranians would never have elected those religious crazies if we had genuinely free elections for the legislature."
Trump will be a disaster for foreign policy generally, but he shouldn't look to Iran to provide him with much in the way of pretexts.
Trump, by the way, cannot unilaterally roll back the nuclear deal with Iran. That deal consisted of the removal of sanctions in exchange for Iran giving up its nuclear-weapons program, so reversing the deal would mean re-imposing sanctions. Other countries won't go along with this if the reasons for it are obviously phoney, and the US doing it unilaterally would have no effect since we hardly trade with Iran anyway.
My concern is Trump losing his temper in an exchange of insults.
Never was all that fond of Schumer as Ranking Member, but really enjoyed his turning the tables on Mitch "McTurtle" McConnell in demanding full vetting of SCROTUS* nominees by simply changing the names in the letter McConnell sent back in 2009
https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/818544880658108416
*SCROTUS: Supreme Commrade Republican Of The United States
I trhought this was in Cabinet nominees.
Is that for real? Damn!
Yep! Schumer did a good thing!
(It's right there in his Tweet)
Thanks for the response. I am happily surprised!
Is that for real? Damn!
Just got back om line after almost 36 hours power failure, and I have 275 emails in my inbox, and at least one bill to pay. Will be back to PP as soon as I can.
So sorry!! ARGH!!
Thanks all! Hugs!!
Recordon-line: If Chucky can come on with something like brass balls, or knuckles, I am apt to go sweep the sidewalk in front of his house!
RS: The GOPigs have been salivating over the prospects of privatizing Social Security for a long time now! Andhere they have the opportunity to "bundle" it with killing the ACA.