Today I’m going to go with the low-hanging fruit – especially since there’s such an abundant crop to pick! Most will slant humorous, but a few have a serious message.
We all got a chuckle when Ted Cruz was pilloried for his flight to Cancún during the winter storm that ravaged Texas. Ted had to slink back home with his tail tucked between his legs – but sporting a brand new hairdo!
Gov. Abbott rightfully earned FOUR Pinocchios for his mendacious claim that frozen wind turbines were the cause of Texas’ travails.
On a serious note, the question we face as a nation is this: Can a country survive if it bases its decisions on lies?
Of course, we all realize that there is more than one side to any issue. But republicans never seem to find a side that has even a kernel of truth to it.
I mean, doesn’t it seem odd how wind turbines “froze” in Texas – but did just fine in frigid Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and Norway?
Texas Republicans:“I’ll vote for Democrats when hell freezes over”
Mother Nature:“Deal!”
Twitter had a few observations of the Cruz Cancún fiasco:
President of Mexico: "When Texas sends its people here, they’re not bringing their best. They're bringing seditionists. They're bringing deserters. They're bringing Ted Cruz."
And on another serious note, Julián Castro had a fantastic Spot-On “Take Home” Message valid at any time – but particularly when a city, state or nation is faced with a crisis:
Don’t ever put people in charge of government who don’t believe in government. pic.twitter.com/mD8bk2q4gd
“Don’t ever put people in charge of government who don’t believe in government.”
A huge “THANK YOU!” to Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré for calling Josh Hawley a “Little Piece Of Sh*t” which ran as a chyron on Tfucker (the “T” is silent) Carlson’s show while Hawley was speaking.
“This little piece of sh*t with his Yale law degree should be run out of DC and Disbarred ASAP,” Honoré wrote of Hawley in a since-deleted tweet on Jan. 12.
Last and always least, MTG Marjorie Taylor Greene tried to block the Equality Act with language that was (while certainly in character for Greene) particularly vile and hurtful to Rep. Marie Newman whose daughter is transgender.
So Rep. Newman did what any proud mother would do – supported her daughter.
Our neighbor, @RepMTG, tried to block the Equality Act because she believes prohibiting discrimination against trans Americans is “disgusting, immoral, and evil.”
Thought we’d put up our Transgender flag so she can look at it every time she opens her door 😉🏳️⚧️ pic.twitter.com/dV8FatQFnx
As you know, last Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday – or Mardi Gras. And no city does Mardi Gras better than New Orleans. But …
NEW ORLEANS’ YARDI GRAS HOUSES
This year has been unlike any other. A tremendous amount of setback, disappointment, and loss consumed the vast majority of our days. In spite of it all, New Orleanians did what New Orleanians always do – found a reason to celebrate.
When the news broke that Mardi Gras parades were canceled, locals got to work. Contemplating and creating their own COVID-safe celebration now dubbed – Yardi Gras. Thanks to the efforts of the Krewe of House Floats, home and business owners linked up with local float makers and artists to recreate the same visually stunning and cleverly themed floats Mardi Gras is known for right on their front porches.
There were literally hundreds of “Yardi Gras” decorated houses to sort through, so I might well have missed one you happened to see and particularly enjoyed. If so, feel free to share it in the Comments.
I’ll begin with ones that had an identifiable Theme to it.
This is a dinosaur from Jurassic Park at the famous “Wedding Cake” house.
In a salute (I guess) to infamous attorney Sidney Powell, here is Release the Kraken house.
What’s not to like about this frog from Down on the Bayou house?
Covers of Dr. Seuss Books cover this house.
Here’s the Jester/Joker in his Harlequin-like outfit.
You can almost smell the Beignets from this Café du Monde house.
This house celebrates the fine art of Creole Cuisine.
Blacklights were creatively used for the Shroom house.
Everybody loves a Circus.
Look at the gold arms reaching out at the bottom – you can almost hear them yelling “Toss Me Some Beads!”
In honor of Prince, the Purple Rain house.
Celebrating New Orleans’ wonderful history of jazz, the Silhouette house.
And some New Orleanian must have read TC’s Blog and decided to honor JD with the Nine Muses.
In the Oaks section of NOLa they had traditional-style floats that were stationary, and people could drive by to view them.
These “Yardi Gras” houses had no theme that I could discern, but I liked them.
Hopefully New Orleans will be back in full-swing for Mardi Gras next year!
Sen. SCHUMER. It is very, very difficult to put into words what has transpired today. I have never lived through or even imagined an experience like the one we have just witnessed in this Capitol…. Unfortunately, we can now add January 6, 2021, to that very short list of dates in American history that will live forever in infamy.
We’ve all seen hundreds of photos and thousands of frames of the January 6th Capitol riots, incited by Trump. And now as his second impeachment trial begins, I felt it appropriate to view the physical damage the domestic terrorists left behind: Splintered wood, shards of glass, pillaged offices, fire extinguisher residue discharged by rioters covering desks and floors.
It’s difficult to know where to start, so let’s just begin with huge amounts of trash the rioters left behind:
Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) was so distraught over what he saw, he felt the need to help in the cleanup: “What else could I do?”
“I was just overwhelmed with emotion,” Kim, 38, told NBC Asian America. “It’s a room that I love so much — it’s the heart of the Capitol, literally the heart of this country. It pained me so much to see it in this kind of condition.”
So for the next hour and a half, he crouched down and filled a half dozen trash bags with debris. When he finished cleaning up the rotunda, he began working on the adjacent rooms, including the National Statuary Hall and the Capitol crypt downstairs.
Afterwards, Rep. Kim received numerous requests asking why he did what he did. He responded with this childhood photo:
Many of you asked me why I cleaned the Capitol on Jan 6. I want to show you this photo. This is my mom, an immigrant from Korea, bringing me to DC for the first time. She took me to the Capitol and taught me to love and care for this nation that gave us everything. pic.twitter.com/PecgTb5HWB
And there was lots of broken glass – both involving windows …
And doors – both inside and out …
There was damage and debris that’s not so easily classified:
Although some damage will not be easily washed away or repaired, we must still pay tribute to the scores of hardworking congressional staff that diligently worked to clean up the damage done by Trump’s domestic terrorists – Trump’s thugs who transformed the very center of our democracy into a deadly crime scene.
I want to close with a serious news piece that I think is worth archiving for possible future reference. But I’ll start with a fewer light-hearted anecdotes I came across.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) (former Auburn U. head football coach) proves republicans didn’t listened to Bobby Jindal back in 2013 when he told the RNC to “stop being the stupid party” and become a “party that talks like adults.”
The Senate now has their own version of Louie Gohmert. When asked by CNN reporter about his thoughts concerning QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Sen. Tommy replied: “I haven’t looked at what all she’s done. I’d have to hold back a statement on that…. This weather’s been a little rough. [Didn’t] look at any news or whatever.”
The weather prevented him from watching or reading any news?!? *sigh*
Obviously he’s too dumb to be taught to simply say “No Comment”
Probably shouldn’t be a surprise that the weather prevented Sen. Tommy from keeping up with the news. He also would fail our Naturalization Test because he doesn’t even know what the three branches of government are:
Well, at least he got one out of three correct. I suppose 33% is a pretty average score for a republican.
Point of Interest: Question No. 16 in the civics section of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Naturalization Test asks would-be citizens to “name the three branches of government.”
Looks like we’ll have to deport Sen. Tommy.
(As we all know, the three branches of the federal government, as laid out in the Constitution, are the legislative, including both the House and Senate; the executive, or presidency; and judicial, which includes the Supreme Court.)
And if you want visual proof Sen. Tuberville isn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier, here’s a screengrab of his recent Google Search History:
Little-Too-Late Word of Advice, Coach: YOU SHOULD’VE WORN THE HELMET!
If you ever need an example of Trump’s stupidity (or like to review the lowlights of his presidency) here’s a Tweet asking folks to add their favorites:
what's a dumb trump moment that you remember that many of us may have forgotten?
Speaking of Tweets, I got a kick out of this one about an Andy Williams, a Florida fireman, who participated in the Capitol riots – but was sure the sheer number of rioters would protect him from being found out:
Andrew Williams, a Florida firefighter who was seen on video at the Capitol riot saying,…
WaPo has done an excellent job of tracking Trump’s untruths through his four years in office. They have compiled an excellent archive of his lies that is really well done.
The first provides an overview summary of his four disastrous years:
“Trump averaged about six claims a day in his first year as president, 16 claims day in his second year, 22 claims day in this third year — and 39 claims a day in his final year. Put another way, it took him 27 months to reach 10,000 claims and an additional 14 months to reach 20,000. He then exceeded the 30,000 mark less than five months later.”
Maybe it’s just me, but ever since Pres. Biden’s Inauguration, it seems like there’s definitely been a better vibe in America. Not that there’s been one huge paradigm shift to explain it, but a number of small “Feel Good” ones. So I decided I would share a few of them.
Neither Rain, Nor Snow, Nor …
The story of a “Snowstorm-Induced Impromptu COVID Vaccine Clinic” is what really got me thinking – things ARE getting better.
Twenty Josephine County Public Health workers had finished a vaccine clinic in rural Cave Junction, OR and were on their way back to Grants Pass to finish administering the six doses they had left. But a jack-knifed semi-trailer truck closed the highway for hours.
Realizing they wouldn’t make it back to home base to give the last six Moderna vaccines before they expired, they decided to create an ad hoc impromptu vaccine clinic right there on the snowbound highway.
Like the Pfizer version, Moderna’s COVID vaccine must be used within six hours after it comes to ambient temperature.
Even though they were accompanied by an ambulance which could manage any untoward reaction, it was still difficult to find six willing recipients. Partly because that area of Oregon is not pro-vaccine. (Josephine County voted for Trump 62% to 36%.) And no doubt anyone would be a bit dubious about a knock on your car window while stuck in a snowstorm asking if you’d like to get a shot.
Going car-to-car, it took the team 45 minutes to get their six “yeses”. And fittingly, the last person to get the last leftover vaccine was a woman who hadn’t made it on time to her appointment earlier that day because of the snow. A perfect ending!
So six lucky people got (as a six-y/o calls them) their “Fauci Ouchie” shots … al fresco!
An Inclusive Pledge of Allegiance
While not receiving as much coverage as Amanda Norman’s well-deserved rendition of her “The Hill We Climb” poem, for a certain niche population (myself included) there was another special inclusive moment early in the Inaugural ceremonies.
When Georgia fire captain Andrea Hall (first ever African American female fire captain in Fulton County, GA), it was very personal. For the first time ever, the Pledge of Allegiance was both simultaneously spoken and signed. She did it as an homage to her late father, who was deaf.
Describing her use of sign language as a very intimate experience – like being able to speak another language – she said she had decided shortly after being asked to do it in ASL sign language.
“You’re between Lady Gaga and J. Lo. I mean, come on, that’s it. And I have like my little 15 seconds of something.” Hall said, “Those are too hard to be sandwiched between, so I need to put some meat between there, you know?”
At a time of such division — especially at a place like the Capitol, which is recovering from the January 6 insurrection — perhaps the words of the pledge say it all.
“It was written for little children who were immigrants,” Hall said. “And in some way, we’re all immigrants. You know, we’re a mishmash of people from all over. And I think that’s the significance of it. It’s a way to unify all of us by speaking those thirty -one words.”
A little dose of Schadenfreude at Donnie’s expense would also count as a “Feel Good” offering. And Lord knows Trump richly deserves it.
Jane Mayer, a reporter for “The New Yorker”, provides a video of the Trump Hotel in Washington – now BARREN and EMPTY! In fact it looks a lot like the lobby from Jack Nicholson’s movie, “The Shining”.
I’m not an accountant, but I bet having NO occupants will have a negative impact on one’s cash-flow.
Cathedral Arts Flower Festival
I know I’ve mentioned the Cathedral Arts Project Flower Festival at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha. In the past I’ve gone most years, or at least every other year, with family and friends. It’s a wonderful daytrip for a unique experience.
Florists from the Omaha Metro are assigned different areas of the Cathedral (which is really quite beautiful) to decorate. And while you wait your turn to take the tour throughout the cathedral, there is music from different choirs, orchestras, organists, etc. (Obviously lost on me, but the others all love it.)
This year because of the pandemic, it’s going to be a virtual tour. So I thought you might enjoy taking a look online.
Typically the show runs from Friday through Sunday – but I’m not sure how long it will run online.
There seems to be a general consensus that Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman was a breakout star at the Inauguration last Wednesday with her memorable rendition of “The Hill We Climb”.
But what also will be remembered is Bernie Sanders sartorial choices for such a solemn occasion. Vermont’s Senator-cum-Grandfather haberdashery was memorable in its own right. Enough so that the Memes just started pouring out!
In case you were out of the country and missed it, here’s a quick review of what inspired all the creative juices to flow:
BACKGROUND & OUTFIT
WRT that manilla envelope he’s carrying – apparently Bernie had a few errands to run afterwards, including a stop at the post office.
(Actually it’s been reported that the envelope was the official Inaugural Invitation with all the related packet materials.)
There were literally hundreds and hundreds of creations, so it was hard to get it down to a manageable number. And then to make presentation easier, I decided to group them in very broad categories, so they don’t take up quite so much real estate.
CHRIS CHRISTIE
I’d be remiss if I didn’t pay homage to Bernie’s predecessor for Memes when Chris Christie got caught sunbathing at Island Beach State Park over the July 4th weekend back in 2017 – even though the entire island was closed to the public because of a NJ statewide government shutdown.
POLITICS
Keeping in the political arena, I think these are pretty self-explanatory – from the Grand Alliance portrait to the closing Inaugural fireworks. (But I got a real kick out of the Trumpkin domestic terrorist stealing Bernie rather than Pelosi’s Speaker podium.)
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Vogue Cover; Beatles; Bernie Challenges Ringo; Where’s Bernie (He’s in there – you can stop the slideshow by clicking on the photo); Lunch Atop a Skyscraper (Photographer of Iconic Photo Is Unknown); A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (George Seurat); The Last Supper (Leonardo da Vinci)
TV
These are also pretty self-explanatory
MOVIES & BROADWAY
Some are obvious to us oldsters, while some are more familiar to newbies. I tried to put them in chronological order:
Breakfast Club; Basic Instinct (Unlike Sharon Stone, PUH-LEAS Bernie – do NOT uncross your legs! We’re begging you!); Forrest Gump; Big Lebowski; Hamilton
Several folks created GIFs of the Bernie Meme. The two I liked best were Bernie on a subway train and on a roller coaster.
There was a web site that allowed you to create your own Bernie Meme – but it got too expensive for the NYU Masters degree student to post them.
I’ll give the last word to Jen Ellis – who gifted the now-famous mittens to Bernie a couple of years ago.
I made Bernie’s mittens as a gift a couple years ago. They are made from repurposed wool sweaters and lined with fleece (made from recycled plastic bottles). #BerniesMittenspic.twitter.com/lTXFJvVy9V
You might remember from an earlier “Friday Fun” that while …
Only 13 Presidents have failed to get reelected,
Only 5 Presidents have failed to win the popular vote,
Only 4 Presidents have been impeached or resigned …
But only ONE President has hit the Trifecta and accomplished ALL THREE!!
And now we can add another accolade to Trump’s “accomplishments”: The only President to have ever been impeached TWICE! If that doesn’t call for a double-ribbon award, I don’t know what does:
In fact, I believe the USPS should issue a commemorative stamp in his honor. Fittingly, it would be called the “Forever Impeached Stamp”.
But knowing Trump, this doesn’t mean he isn’t still totally delusional and divorced from reality. Why, he still wants to put President-Elect Biden in jail.
Shortly after the Trumpkin domestic terrorists rioted and laid siege to our Capitol a little over a week ago, #NoFlyList started trending on Twitter.
Fortunately for felonious Trumpkins, there’s a work-around:
But Trump isn’t the only republican who went down this past week. The blind ambition of my senator, Josh Hawley, led to his backing the wrong horse and joining up with Ted Cruz to vote for disenfranchising millions of American citizens in an effort to subvert and overturn our election.
Hawley, who has been open in his lusting after being President for years, has now effectively flushed his chances down the crapper.
But I’m actually thankful for his indiscretion. Having lived in Missouri over half my life now, it’s been a well-known fact that Hawley’s been the Fashionable Face of Fascism.
Sure, he objected when Biden compared him and Cruz to Goebbels, but it doesn’t take much of an imagination to get from here to there …
And speaking of “going down” – there’s proof now that Trump has had much greater difficulty dealing with his Twitter withdrawal than first imagined.
Out of an abundance of kindness (and fortunately for you) I’m also supplying the antidote to cleanse that image:
My hope right now is that the Inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris comes off without a hitch – with no injuries or deaths, both in Washington, DC and across our great nation.
This is more or less a spur of the moment decision to change direction and share a couple of letters that I’ve sent to my senator, Sen. Joshua Hawley. I’m hoping that it will provide me some catharsis, because I am absolutely livid with that A-Hole.
It all began when I came across an article in the Washington Post where Hawley (turns out mendaciously) claims in a Tweet that “Antifa scumbags” came to his house in Vienna, VA to threaten his wife, screamed threats, vandalized and tried to pound open the door. (That house in Vienna is currently the only home he has. He used his sister’s address in the Ozarks to claim Missouri residence.)
Here’s Hawley’s lying Tweet:
Tonight while I was in Missouri, Antifa scumbags came to our place in DC and threatened my wife and newborn daughter, who can’t travel. They screamed threats, vandalized, and tried to pound open our door. Let me be clear: My family & I will not be intimidated by leftwing violence
Tonight while I was in Missouri, Antifa scumbags came to our place in DC and threatened my wife and newborn daughter, who can’t travel. They screamed threats, vandalized, and tried to pound open our door. Let me be clear: My family & I will not be intimidated by leftwing violence
But if you read the WaPo article, you’ll learn it was a peaceful vigil. In fact the group (with NO ties to Antifa) fortunately took a 50+ minute video of their visit:
They don’t arrive at Hawley’s house on Desale St. until around the 24:00 mark. As near as I can make out (the CC isn’t the best) their peaceful vigil consisted of lighting votive candles, chanting, singing, praying and leaving a copy of our Constitution on the front porch.
Most of their peaceful vigil was monitored by the local police. Officer Juan Vazquez told the Associated Press that when police arrived, they found that the “people were peaceful. Officers are only allowed to put in the report what they see,” Vazquez told The Washington Post. “We can’t get warrants on something we didn’t see.”
On Wednesday when Hawley continued to say he was going to object to the Pennsylvania Electoral College vote count – even after Trumpkin rioters had stormed and vandalized our Capitol – I had enough. I sat down and wrote him a “sternly worded letter”. And I followed up on Thursday with another after Hawley was roundly rebuked for his actions – even by fellow Republicans.
(It took a couple times to FAX the letters to his DC office because it kept getting a busy signal – but mine eventually made it through. And I included CCs to his Kansas City office. Those went through easy-peasy.)
Here are my letters – the first on Wednesday evening (although I’m compressing the formatting for space considerations):
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Senator Joshua David Hawley
United States Senator for Missouri
212 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
RE: SHAME ON YOU! SHAME ON YOU! SHAME ON YOU!
Sen. Joshua David Hawley:
Unlike your recent entirely mendacious claim that:
“Antifa scumbags came to our place in DC and threatened my wife and newborn daughter, who can’t travel. They screamed threats, vandalized, and tried to pound open our door. Let me be clear: My family & I will not be intimidated by leftwing violence” …
Today your compatriots – Proud Boys, White Supremacists, Boogaloo Bois, Neo-Nazis and other radical right-wing terrorists – actually did commit violence against the People’s House – our nation’s Capitol.
Fortunately, as former FBI Director James Comey said: “Lordy, I hope there are tapes” – there ARE tapes documenting the peaceful vigil at your Vienna, VA home. The peaceful vigil consisted of a small group who lit votive candles, sang songs, chanted, prayed and left a copy of our Constitution on your doorstep. All actions protected by our First Amendment rights!
Unlike your Proud Boys, White Supremacists, Boogaloo Bois, Neo-Nazis and other radical right-wing terrorist cohorts who quite literally, to use your very own words: “Screamed threats, vandalized, and tried to pound open the door” of our nation’s Capitol.
To use your very own words again: Let me be clear, true American Patriots will NOT be intimidated by right-wing violence.
This sad and frightening display of Trumpkin scumbags was the product of Trump’s four-years of hate-mongering efforts to create chaos, divide our nation and incite violence. (Again, let me be clear: LORDY, THERE ARE PLENTY of TAPES DOCUMENTING Trump DOING JUST THAT!)
And yet you, in hopes of hitching your wagon to these Trumpkin scumbags in an effort to promote your own hope of launching a presidential bid, have openly announced your intention to contest the results of our free, fair, secure election administered according to the United States Constitution.
Given that there was no irregularity or evidence of election fraud that would justify such an action, it becomes clear that you are simply pandering to the republican party’s right-wing base, which has obviously lost touch with reality and fealty to our Constitution.
Your engagement in the attempted literal subversion of our democracy – whether called sedition, coup, anti-democratic putsch or something else – simply because you did not like the results clearly violates your oath of office. You should, at the minimum, face ethics charges and expulsion.
Our national elections of 2020 have occurred. The people have spoken. Multiple recounts and audits of recounts have been conducted. Legal challenges have been addressed by the courts. Trump et al have lost at least 60 of those lawsuits. And in those legal challenges over 90 judges – appointed by both Democrats and republicans – have ruled against Trump’s unfounded lawsuits. Governors have certified the results. And the Electoral College has voted.
The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the Electoral College votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.
It was a free, fair, secure election administered according to the United States Constitution. It’s well past time for you to do your constitutional duty and standdown.
In Deep Sorrow for Our Country, Aided & Abetted by Your Shameful Actions,
[Real Name]
Actual Missouri Citizen
PS: If you wonder why my salutation is not formatted, as I usually do for other Senators, as:
“The Honorable …”
It’s simply because I find NONE of your actions in this matter to be “Honorable”.
Here’s my second letter sent on Thursday after Hawley is widely chastised for his actions:
Thursday, January 7, 2021
Senator Joshua David Hawley
United States Senator for Missouri
212 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
RE: Your Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad, Rotten Day
Sen. Joshua David Hawley:
Josh (I hope you don’t mind me calling you by your Christian name – I like to call ALL my employees by their given first name) sorry to learn you have had such a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, rotten day. (Not that you haven’t earned it – you surely have!)
The dilemma is where to start listing all the events of the day that your seditious actions have produced.
Let’s begin with Missouri’s former Senator, John C. Danforth, assessment of you:
“Supporting Josh and trying so hard to get him elected to the Senate was the worst mistake I ever made in my life.”
It’s clear you backed the wrong horse given that Trump’s lawyer for the Pennsylvania Electoral College vote case (Attorney Jerome M. Marcus for the state of Pennsylvania, the same one YOU used to object to the Electoral College certification) resigned today with these words:
“The undersigned respectfully requests leave of this court to withdraw as counsel … inasmuch as the client has used the lawyer’s services to perpetrate a crime and the client insists upon taking action that the lawyer considers repugnant and with which the lawyer has a fundamental disagreement.”
We learned today that the publisher Simon & Schuster, based on your seditious actions, has cancelled your lucrative book deal:
“We did not come to this decision lightly. As a publisher it will always be our mission to amplify a variety of voices and viewpoints: at the same time we take seriously our larger public responsibility as citizens, and cannot support Senator Hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom.”
Why even your old Rockhurst High School debate partner calls you the:
“WORST PERSON HE’S EVER MET”
my husband was briefly Josh Hawley’s debate partner in high school and has long, since Hawley first ran for Missouri AG, described him as the worst person he’s ever met.
