It's Christmas time again. So what
have you been doing to keep the spirit alive? Or perhaps a better
question is, what is the spirit of Christmas? I've done some
decorating, some shopping, and I've made my fudge and will probably
make another type of candy today. Next weekend will be the Christmas
cookies to take to a Christmas Day gathering. It's what many of us
do. Perhaps it is our version of self sacrifice and giving.
Fighting those crowds at the stores isn't a pleasant thing. ;)
But while we have been doing those
types of things, others have been up to something quite different. I
ran across an article just today about the USNS Comfort. It is one
of our hospital ships, which is sent to support our troops, to assist
at disaster areas, and has also been tasked to aid those in South
America who have little access to medical care.
Some have asked why so many people want
to come to the United States. Perhaps the answer lies in something
so many seem to have forgotten. It is something that is within all
of us, the compassion and kindness to recognize people in need and to
offer help.
I also ran across this video of a scene
from “The Newsroom”.
Maybe the place where Christmas spirit
resides is also where a great country does too.
52 comments:
Takin' a minute to go back to an old argument that happens to intersect with some political shenanigans that're goin' on in a couple of your near neighboring states, (and that conceivably even has some relevance to the issues brought up in your film clip)… Vox has a consolidating theory on what's going wrong with our body politic (and it even helps explain why Donald Trump decided to switch parties and run as a Republican instead of going for the Democratic nomination).
I was reading in Politico where Stephen Miller (the sole surviving member of the ‛Two Steves’ brain trust) was telling us that the Trump administration is willing to do "whatever is necessary" to get Trump's $5 billion for the Great Wall of Trump. The article mentioned in passing that Homeland Security is amongst the agencies which will be hit by any partial government shutdown.
And it occurred to me…. Isn't the Border Patrol a subsidiary of Homeland Security? I decided to look it up. "Yep". The U.S. Border Patrol (and ICE) both are divisions within Homeland Security. Which means they won't get paid. The agents will, no doubt be designated as ‛essential’ workers, which means they'll report to work anyway, but they won't get paid. Unless, of course, somebody has figured out a workaround on that rule.
This being the Trump administration… Whatcha wanna bet nobody's even told Trump yet? Much less figured out a workaround.
One of Marcus' fellow citizens apparently made a big splash at the recent climate conference.
My name is Greta Thunberg. I am 15 years old. I am from Sweden.
I speak on behalf of Climate Justice Now.
Many people say that Sweden is just a small country and it doesn't matter what we do.
But I've learned you are never too small to make a difference.
We could use more like her.
From your Vox article:
Scott Walker, the Republican governor who'd set this whole thing in motion, campaigned in 2018 by saying (falsely) that he supported preexisting conditions protections.
Unlike Hawley, he lost. So did other statewide GOP officials, including the state’s attorney general. And Democratic candidates for Wisconsin State Assembly won a majority of the votes. But thanks to gerrymandering, the GOP still held a majority of the seats. And then in his last act as governor, Walker signed a series of lame-duck bills reducing the power of newly elected Democratic Party statewide elected officials.
Yes, disgusting behavior. The Republicans in Wisconsin have shown their disregard for voters' opinions. I hope in the end the people of Wisconsin find a way to snatch democracy out of the jaws of autocracy.
Whatcha wanna bet nobody's even told Trump yet?
What? That he's making himself look ignorant again? lol! I would like to be a fly on that wall.
I notice that Trumptweets have a special word of encouragement for Michael Flynn this morning.
I conclude that the media is off the trail with their concentration of late on the minor scandals that Michael Cohn has pled to. It's the ex-general who's got the major goods on Trump; that's who Trump's afraid of (him and Paul Manaforte).
Headline: Trump Campaign Swallows the GOP
All I can say is "wow".
Trump has decided to back down from his demand for $5 billion in the next budget package to pay for The Great Wall of Trump. He's going to declare victory and move on. WashingtonPost
(The current plan is to declare that the funding will come from ‛somewhere else’ in the federal budget--which it won't, but that's all the cover story he's got right now, so they're goin' with that for the time being.)
We have information that the defendant in that secret court case I mentioned in the last thread is a foreign corporation (ain't Trump personally). Politico.com Mueller wants info on Team Trump from a foreign corporation. That's… …, that's … … . That's spooky is what that is. (As in spies are called ‛spooks’ on occasion)
Huh! Beat me to it again! Yes, apparently all of that closed floor grand jury stuff had to do with a subpoena that the company wanted to duck. Interesting turn of events. Very interesting.
Four days after attorneys secretly argued over a grand jury subpoena suspected to be related to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election, a federal appeals court is forcing an unnamed company to comply with the subpoena.
The appeals court did not identify the company, nor did the appellate judges say the subpoena was related to the Mueller investigation. The company that sought to quash the subpoena is owned by a foreign country, the ruling Tuesday said.
All I can say is "wow".
That and, well, yuck!
Any question in your mind that the right-wingers have been radicalized?
Take a look at this:
"Let’s stop pretending that America in 2018 has a “justice system.”
It’s not a justice system. It’s a set of elite institutions that swing the
law like a sledgehammer to crush threats to the ruling class’s
monopoly on power. You know, threats like the people we elect to
represent our interests against the elite. And we are under no moral
obligation to pretend it is anything else."
TownHall Op-Ed
Okay, so one radical does not a movement make. But the important point is that they're writing shit like this in the right-winger on-line media, and the right-wingers who're not writing it are letting it slide. More than letting it slide, FoxNews promotes this radical as a FoxNews Insider
This is where Trump is getting his information and opinions.
Comfort this:
https://bbs.thegoyimknow.to/uploads/default/original/4X/8/6/3/8632002b316660ea932ccff4330f544a1716884f.jpeg
It appears that the current Republican budget plan is to not pass one out of the House of Representatives, and that'll kinda let Trump off the hook.
Lynnette:
"My name is Greta Thunberg. I am 15 years old. I am from Sweden.
I speak on behalf of Climate Justice Now."
Well Greta is the daugther of Malena Ernman, a long time and well known political activist in Sweden. Malena has been an anti SD agitator, a Wellcome Refugees activist and much more.
This is a case of a severely left wing mother pushing her daughter into politics by keeping her from school and putting her on a sidewalk in Stockholm with a banner.
This is child abuse really. Regardless wether the thought behind in might be benevolent.
BTW, sooner or later the USA will decide to rethink the stalwarth alliance with the house of Saud. I have said it before, but the signs are inceasing. At some point Saudi will be the main enemy, bet that.
I mean, the Sauds have been:
1. An authocracy.
2. A place with zero human rights.
3. a place where women are the lowest on the planet, not even allowed to drive a car.
4. where 19 out of 20 of the 9/11 terrorists came from.
5. THE origin of the madrassas and radical mosques prooting Jihadims all over the world.
And yet you fuckers wanna cuddle them inbred dune coons. You are fucking insane you lot. You think RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA instead.
So I check out the headlines and find that Trump will not sign a bill to keep the government running, the Dow is slipping further into bear territory, sooner even than I expected, and we are going to send all asylum seekers back to Mexico.
*sigh* Maybe I should have stayed in bed.
...and the right-wingers who're not writing it are letting it slide.
Comey made a similar point when he talked about Republicans who are retiring instead of staying and fighting Trump.
This is a case of a severely left wing mother pushing her daughter into politics by keeping her from school and putting her on a sidewalk in Stockholm with a banner.
It's hard to imagine getting a 15 year old to do something they don't really want to do.
You think RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA instead.
Actually there is no "instead". I think of both and tend to agree that KSA isn't exactly what we would term "democratic". I tend to support those who are fighting for human rights, whether it be in Russia or KSA.
Just another reason why I don't like Trump...
Looks like the House has decided they're not gonna take the rap for the shutdown, and so they've passed a $5.7 billion appropriation for The Great Wall of Trump after all.
So, they're heading home now, having handed that hot potato back to the Senate, which has already broken for the holidays and will have to re-convene if they're going to consider the House appropriation.
So, now we are withdrawing our troops from Syria, half of our troops from Afghanistan and Mattis has quit. It's surprising he stuck it out this long in that crazy asylum called the Trump administration.
The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force fulfills all the necessary criteria to serve as a Declaration of War. (Nowhere is it specified that Declaration of War has to bear such a caption; the Authorization for the Use of Military Force is sufficient to serve.)
If Trump made a secret deal with Erdoğan during that last phone call, and there are those who think that's likely, then the textbook requirements for a charge of Treason under Article III § 3 of the Constitution could conceivably apply to Trump's blindside announcement of a troop withdrawal from Syria. (Or, if he made a deal with Putin on the matter of Syria, at any time.)
And there are intelligence services of allied powers who are not prohibited from eavesdropping on the President of the United States.
Just a thought.
Morning headlines don't show any indication of McConnell calling the escaped Senators back to Washington to vote on the House plan for $5.7 billion for funding The Great Wall of Trump.
By the way, it's gotten lost among all the recent Trumpistries, but….
The North Koreans have publicly announced that they have absolutely no intention of giving up their nukes nor their long range missiles. WashingtonPost
The Trump White House has tried to spin it otherwise, but it turns out that the Justice Department's Ethics Office recommended that Trump's acting Attorney General, Matthew Whitaker, recuse himself from Mueller investigations. Politico Mr. Whitaker has declined to do so.
If Trump made a secret deal with Erdoğan during that last phone call, and there are those who think that's likely, then the textbook requirements for a charge of Treason under Article III § 3 of the Constitution could conceivably apply to Trump's blindside announcement of a troop withdrawal from Syria. (Or, if he made a deal with Putin on the matter of Syria, at any time.)
Perhaps you are not the only person those scenarios have occurred to. It seems Fox & Friends and Mitch McConnell are actually being rather critical of Trump's decision to pull out of Syria.
I'm not sure that McConnell is too thrilled with the possibility of a government shutdown either.
The North Koreans have publicly announced that they have absolutely no intention of giving up their nukes nor their long range missiles.
Only a fool would have believed they would.
Lynnette:
"Only a fool would have believed they would."
Quite right. BC they see how Trump is hamstrung in the USA and realise his promises are not the promises of the USA.
And when they look at other "rouge regiemes" who were on the brink of WMD:s they may well conclude that keeping and upgrading Nukes is the ONLY way to stay safe.
Especially here, I want to point at the insane and destructive and worthless campaign against Khadaffi.
Khadaffi really DID end any WMD program, in the hopes of not being targetted, and targetted is what he was anyway, for all his efforts to stay sane. In restrospect... well there's no retrospect for a man who was raped to death by bayonettes.. but if there was hindsight: he should have went all in on a nuke from day one.
"We came, we saw, he died" clucked the mentally insane shrew Hilllary after Khadaffi was bayonette-raped to death and the country of Libya descended into chaos, murder and anarchy.
That's what he got for disarming.
"Khadaffi really DID end any WMD program, in the hopes of not
being targetted, and targetted is what he was anyway…."
Oddly enough, giving up his nuclear program didn't buy him a pass for his years subsequent announcement that he was going to methodically slaughter the citizens of Benghazi. Ya'd think that he'd have been allowed to do that unhindered wouldn't ya?
Look at this fucking lunatic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmIRYvJQeHM
Trump has been so-so as a President. A lot of what he said he'd do has been shut down. He's no great President so far.
BUT, but what we have to kepp in the balance is what we would have got were it not for Trump. And that something was Hillary.
And then we might all be either dead or scurrying from shelter to shelter during a nuclear winter. That that insane bitch never got into the Oval Office is in itself a solid reason to cherish Trump.
Lee: "Oddly enough, giving up his nuclear program didn't buy him a pass for his years subsequent announcement that he was going to methodically slaughter the citizens of Benghazi. Ya'd think that he'd have been allowed to do that unhindered wouldn't ya?"
Not the citizens, but he would prolly have outright slaugthered the Islamist rebels who stirred up Bengazi, and I don't really see an reason to oppose that course of action.
He did not confine his threats to Islamist rebels. In fact, I don't think he even mentioned them.
Fact of the matter is it was actually the French who got this whole Libya war thing started and it was all for Total, their major oil company, when Khadaffi was nationalising national assets - as he should be. This time around it was the US getting sucked into a euro-war instead of the opposite. But the vampire-shrew Hilary joyously got on board and ramped up the bloodshed, and prolly got another few hundred million into the Clinton Foundation as thanks.
And ya'll claim Trump is corrupt.
I litterally can't even.
Lee:
"He did not confine his threats to Islamist rebels. In fact, I don't think he even mentioned them."
OK, so your view is that Khadaffi after having ruled Libya for decades decided to just up and purge and genocide the country's second biggest city for... for what? Just for the lulz?
"OK, so your view is…"
My view is that Khadaffi wasn't specifically or especially worried about ‛Islamist’ elements (mostly he just encouraged them to go to Afghanistan and screw with the Evil Merkins). My view is that you just made that up in the moment to suit yourself.
I believe you just made up that line about Hillary probably receiving ‛another few hundred million in donations’ as well; I believe you're equally without evidence of that accusation--just slingin’ whatever bullshit happens to cross your mind in the moment.
There is an odd dynamic attending this 3ʳᵈ government shutdown of the Trump era. It seems that the outgoing House members are intent on showing their allegiance Trump.
"The outgoing House majority is intent on not
disappointing the president. ***
"“I honestly believe that we can and must get the
wall,” said [ousted House Rules Committee Chairman
Pete Sessions (R-Texas)] as he wheeled his luggage
through an empty Capitol. “I was asked personally that
I would not vote for anything that does not fund the
wall.”
Politico
And remember, Paul Ryan could have put the budget bill the Senate had already passed (without funding for The Wall) in front of the House for a vote. It would have passed (granted with a Democratic majority and a significant but not unanimous Republican vote to go along with it). And Ryan could have gone home with a better reputation at the end among both Democrats and Republicans and independents. Then it'd have been up to Trump whether he caved or stood his ground, but Ryan chose to provide what cover he could for Trump and the remaining Republican Trumpkins.
I don't quite get it. They just got their clocks cleaned for hangin’ in there with Trump. And now they seem to want more of it.
All the explanation I can come up with is they got no better plan than to hope they're among those still standing after the reckoning comes for the national aspirations of the national Republican Party. Meantime they're gonna be all in for Trump 'cause they got no better plan.
And, in what's gotta be good news for Federal employees furloughed by the shutdown… The next batch of federal paychecks has already been set for payment (they get paid monthly, and it was already in the computers Friday to cut the checks for December). So, unless the shutdown goes on well into January they won't actually miss a paycheck.
Quite right. BC they see how Trump is hamstrung in the USA and realise his promises are not the promises of the USA.
I can only hope that others realize the same thing.
It seems that the outgoing House members are intent on showing their allegiance Trump.
Perhaps it isn't so much as showing allegiance to Trump as it is thumbing their noses at those who voted them out. They have to know that a majority of Americans do not want the wall.
"Perhaps…thumbing their noses at those who voted
them out."
I haven't come up with a theory that makes any better sense. I know that many of the dedicated Trumpkins (perhaps a majority) are in a ‛burn the whole damn thing down’ frame of mind. I hadn't expected that would have spread to their political class just yet, but I don't have a better explanation handy.
"I won an election, said to be one of the greatest of all time…"
TrumpTweets
Even for Trump, that's true incoherence. Gawd only knows what he thinks he's referring to there. It's obviously got something to do with the 2016 election and with the Trump fascination with superlatives, but gawd only knows what he thinks he said there.
It's not thinking in the real sense of the word. It's running the BS to provide cover for his poor or possibly treasonous policies.
It's something those who are providing him cover should consider.
Somebody said on FoxNewsSunday that the next federal pay period comes around on January 11ᵗʰ, so it would appear that the feds pay every two weeks these days instead of monthly (which was the old rule I still think, but maybe not).
That mystery company subpoenaed by Mueller appears to have appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. It will be interesting to see what Roberts' court rules.
"It will be interesting to see what Roberts' court rules."
I'm afraid it will be the first of a series of 5-4 decisions which will seal the Supreme Court's reputation as a political rather than a legal forum.
Actually, probably the second of those coming 5-4 decisions, as Roberts voted against Trump on his order banning asylum seekers.
Headline; al-Monitor: Win for Erdogan, betrayal for the Kurds
David Ignatius, writing in the WashingtonPost, is equally disparaging, but rather more eloquent.
Islamic State communications last week showed new hope they can restore their caliphate, which was on the way to destruction, he said. What’s more, Mazloum has been holding more than 2,200 Islamic State prisoners, including 700 foreign fighters. Without help from the United States and other coalition members, those deadly fighters may eventually escape.
I spoke to someone just this evening who has been a Trump supporter in the past. Even she is questioning this decision of Trump's. She is also concerned about the ongoing trade war's effect on our farmers.
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