WWWendy w/wings and I are back on schedule, and she is due to destink the needy TomCat and help with chores momentarily, so I’m rushing to get what I can done.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:43 (average 4:55). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Democrats Release Response to GOP FISA Memo
So far, it looks great for the good guys and rotten for the Republican Reich. I’m sure I’ll have more, once I have time to dig in depth. Or read it yourself. RESIST!!
From Washington Post: Tentative plans for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to make his first visit to the White House to meet with President Trump were scuttled this week after a testy call between the two leaders ended in an impasse over Trump’s promised border wall, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.
Peña Nieto was eyeing an official trip to Washington this month or in March, but both countries agreed to call off the plan after Trump would not agree to publicly affirm Mexico’s position that it would not fund construction of a border wall that the Mexican people widely consider offensive, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential conversation.
Speaking by phone on Tuesday, Peña Nieto and Trump devoted a considerable portion of their roughly 50 minute conversation to the wall, and neither man would compromise his position.
One Mexican official said Trump “lost his temper.” But U.S. officials described him instead as being frustrated and exasperated, saying Trump believed it was unreasonable for Peña Nieto to expect him to back off his crowd-pleasing campaign promise of forcing Mexico to pay for the wall.
The Fuhrer was willing to be muy simpatico with Nieto, but only if the Latino was willing to keep his proper place at the feet and in the service of el Residente Pervertido! RESIST!!
From LA Times: The California Democratic Party decided not to endorse in the U.S. Senate contest on Saturday, an embarrassing rebuke of veteran Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Feinstein, who has represented California in the Senate for a quarter-century, is facing an insurgent bid by fellow Democrat, state Senate leader Kevin de León. Though De León did not get the endorsement, his success in blocking Feinstein from receiving it shows that his calls for generational change and a more aggressively liberal path have resonated with some of the party’s most passionate activists.
I agree. Despite DiFi’s seniority and years of service, I would welcome a change to a more progressive Senator. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
The most recent was Vladimir Putin (R-RU) and his trained monkey-substitute. (I don’t want to insult the monkey).
9 Responses to “Open Thread – 2/25/2018”
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4:17 Ordinary ginger is edible, though powerful. I have my doubts about this (probably due to the “speciosus” in the scientific name.)
MSNBC – Not that anyone who can read and isn’t hypnotized didn’t already know that no one abused the FISA process … but I’m glad the memo was finally released.
WaPo – I will concede that it isn’t necessary for Rl Residente to lose his temper in order for him to be disgustingly offensive. However, he loses his temper so easily that I would bet that he did. The jive turkey. No, strike that. Jive turkey is to nice to describe him.
LA Times – If De Leon is more progressive, AND if he can make it into the top two, I am all for him. If, however, he splits the vote and the top two end up being two republicans, I am going to be upset.
Cartoon – Good one.
MSNBC: WTG, good job!! Dems!
WP: Glad that Mr. Nieto stood his ground, and cancelled his trip. Americans sure aren’t paying for his stupid wall either!
LA: I feel kind of bad for Feinstein, though I do understand a need for change and a more aggressive approach at this time.
Cartoon: To which the trained monkey later went on to have a very successful career in federal politics…..lol.
Hi, WWWendy!!! Hope that you get your chores done, and enjoy the rest of your day. Enjoy your evening, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
MSNBC: Nail the GOPIGS to the very wall they are trying to build!
WP: “…saying Trump believed it was unreasonable for Peña Nieto to expect him to back off his crowd-pleasing campaign promise of forcing Mexico to pay for the wall.” Wow, so now the Empty Orange is right in expecting Peña Nieto to simply play into tDump’s BS? Well, of course, these would be “U.S. officials” in the thrall of the Great Emptiness! Nail the GOPIGS to the very wall they are trying to build! Here is a quote I recently found,and saved for just such an instance as this: “You must all understand that I am not to be contradicted, because it only raises doubts in my mind and diverts me from what I know to be the right path, whereas my own animal instincts are always right.” Benito Mussolini.
LAT: I think it is time for a generational change, there, indeed! Too much of my generation has had its collective heads up its collective asses!
‘Toon: In the case of the monkey, one can not suggest motivation by a secret agenda, from hell!
For What it is worth, comments about the perennial short term thinking idiocy of the right:
As everything is attached to everything else, as nothing does not have its antecedent, “…the anti-colonialism that remade the globe, after WWII…tried to raise up native people as well as push way from foreign rule.” these various leaders “wanted to imitate advances already made in the European countries, in matters like democratic procedure, religious pluralism, or the emancipation of women. But in doing this, they created resistance in the temples or synagogues or mosques that had created the ethos they were challenging.” As a result, they were “undermining the culture of the newly declared sovereign entities.” Thus, “Everywhere the success of secularization undermined itself. Religion was supposed to die, but it refused to.This is the massive worldwide phenomenon the neoconservatives were ignoring when they launched the invasion of Iraq.”Though “David Rumsfeld said that the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with religion,” opportunists, here, “…said that conflict there had nothing to do with anything but religion. Senator Lindsey Graham spoke for many when, preparing to run for president in 2015,” he paraded out all sorts of misinterpretations of Islam as a monster, saying that “…their way of life is motivated by religious teachings that require me and you to be killed, enslaved, or converted….They, (our Muslim foes) cannot be accommodated. They cannot be negotiated with. They have to be eventually destroyed.” Graham speaking on the Hugh Hewitt Show, Jan.7, 2015.Garbage like this, as it is spoken, and heard, can only inflame and motivate the enemies it simultaneously creates!!!This is what the GOP does, as almost every turn, it blindly takes short term goals, and tun=rns them into long term horrors!“This ignorance undermines any sensible policies towards the Islamic world. The invasion of Iraq, for instance, the worst foreign policy decision of our recent history, was led by President Bush with no awareness that we were not just unseating dictator, but overthrowing a Sunni Muslim regime that ruled a Shia Muslim majority population, with predictable sunni reprisals that continue to detonate.” IMHO, Bush did not, and had he known, would not have cared, he was out for the oil fields, and/or taking revenge on Hussain for calling his father a mere “footnote in history.” Their religious ignorance is only equalled by their ignorance of how the world really works, believing , as they do, that nothing has antecedents, or context, that it is all about ”Personal responsibility” connected to nothing that came before! Source of the inspiration(?) for this particular material is Garry Wills’ “What the Qur’an Meant, and Why it Matters.”
Trained monkey acts are still going strong in the USA. Today we call them Congress.
MSNBC: Nunes’ memo was so badly written it had refuted itself for anyone who could read with understanding had seen it, so it’s no surprise that Schiff’s neatly undercuts everything the GOP memo says and more, even though it’s highly redacted. But the GOP is counting on their base never reading it and just taking Nunes’ word for it that the FBI’s investigation into Drumpf Campaign Team’s dealing with Russia is a Democratic conspiracy, as did Drumpf himself who tweeted: “The Democrat memo response on government surveillance abuses is a total political and legal BUST Just confirms all of the terrible things that were done. SO ILLEGAL!” So to Republicans the Democrats counter-memo won’t matter much, but to Drumpf’s lawyers and other minions it will when they have to come clean and advise him not to stop the investigation in its tracks with Nunes’ memo in hand, as it would be seen as (further) obstruction.
WP: Confirming the story the NYT mentioned somewhat off-hand: “After the call, Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, spoke with Mr. Peña Nieto, and the two agreed they should keep working on areas of agreement, another administration official said.” After the demented “great deal maker” had a go at Nieto, his son-in-law needed to step up to once again iron out the problems daddy has created. When will it stop?
LAT: Good news from the Democratic front. No endorsement for either candidate by the party will leave it up to California’s Democratic voters. I hope they all want a more progressive senator to represent them.
Cartoon: Most acts with wild animals have been banned by now, so why is that trained aberration still doing its Russian tricks in the White House?
Thanks all. Pooped hugs!
Puzzle — 4:41 I love ginger, a trait that my paternal grandfather instilled in me. I even put ginger in scrambled eggs! BTW, diet Coke has a new flavour, ginger lime, which is quite nice. To me, the lime is not that noticeable but the ginger sure is! Apparently, it has only been out about 3 weeks. Here is a web page about the relaunch of diet Coke https://www.coca-cola.ca/stories/dietcokerelaunch. Now that I have helped Coke with its advertising, on to more important matters.
MSNBC — Nunes is such a liar, and quite frankly an idiot! He was caught skulking through the WH bushes at one point and denied it. At that point, he reminded me of Arte Johnson from Laugh-in peering through bushes in a German army uniform, ostensibly spying, and saying at the end “Very interestink.” Remember him?
WaPo — After all this time, Drumpf is still pushing for the wall and Mexico paying for it. Why ever should Mexico pay for it when it is the US that wants the wall, and more over, it will be on US soil. If I want to keep the neighbourhood kids out of my yard, then I erect a fence at my cost, not the neighbourhood. I could try suing the parents, but that likely would not accomplish anything. I’d like to hear an international court shoot down Drumpf’s wall payment. This is just further evidence that Drumpf is not suited for office as he does not have the temperament. Such arrogance on the part of Drumpf!
LA Times — Good on the California Dems for not endorsing Feinstein. The lady is 84 years old with 25 years in service to her community. It is time for some new blood providing that the blood is progressive of course.
Cartoon — Talking about Putin and his trained Monkey substitution (Drumpf) who has small hands, I saw the following picture today of Napoleon who also had small hands and was a dictator . . . he was banished to Elba 26 Feb 1815. OK, he was only 1.69 metres (5’7″), but still, those hands are small.
I had computer problems yesterday evening so did not get this done then. It took me almost 2 hours to shut it down! My neighbour was very nice and shovelled my sidewalk as I said yesterday, so I delivered a couple dozen cookies to him on Sunday. This old broad is very thankful to have his family and my physio’s family looking out for me. My physio’s wife was a bit ticked off that I did not call her when I fell and smashed my face. I went to my neighbour’s which is a lot closer, especially at 2130 hours. The weather has been very mild yesterday and today. There has even been some very light rain, but the pile of snow in front of my house is still about 120 cm(4 ft) high. More rain is supposed to be on the way which is normal for us.