Friday, December 23, 2016

T'was the Friday before Christmas

30 comments:

  1. With deep apologies to Puddle:

    Bob Dylan singing "Once Upon A Time [Click] from Tony Bennett's Ninetieth Birthday special.

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  2. Blogger seems to have discarded the links I posted at the end of yesterday's thread; oh, well. They were mostly apolitical things, science news and suchlike. One story indicating that the War on Christmas is going strong at Trump Tower--hardly a "Merry Christmas" to be found. The reporter finally found the phrase on a small overpriced Christmas tree ornament for sale in a shop.

    I saw this morning that the Berlin market attacker was, shall we say, "apprehended" in a most decisive manner in Milan. After getting off a local train about 1:00 AM, he was asked for identification by the police, whereupon he pulled a pistol out of his backpack and shot one policeman (not seriously) before being shot dead by the policeman's partner.

    Alan

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  3. Reflecting on The Great Orange One and public reaction to same, it seems to me that he is an incredibly obvious bullshitter. Maybe my bullshit detectors are more sensitive than those of many others, but I never fail to be "impressed" by how many people fall for bullshitters. Even many people who have graduated from college, and even have further schooling--but are not educated in that respect. Plenty of people (not all, certainly) who don't have a high school diploma ARE educated in that way. Oh well. When bullshitters are put into positions of responsibility it rarely ends well; the problem is the damage they do to others. But the others mostly survive the bullshitters.

    --Alan

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    1. I firmly agree that Trump is a bullshitter. Which is why I've been trying to argue that it's a mistake to focus on his bullshit remarks or on Trump as a person. We need to keep out eyes firmly on the policies involved and focus our efforts there.

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    2. Agreed, Bill. He is the distraction. He's building a world of illusion. We need to stay focused on the reality behind the illusion.. The phrase "don't leave the path" comes to mind.

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    3. Thanks for relaying what happened with the bomber, Alan. I'm rather at sixes and sevens today and haven't yet gotten to the BBC etc. It's rather sobering to find that police in Milan are armed...though it oughtn't to have come as a surprise. Police everywhere seem to be armed nowadays...the better to shoot people dead.

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    4. Well, in Italy they have had a history of violent criminals. And these were the municipal police, not the Carabinieri (the equivalent of the French Gendarmerie)-those guys ain't nobody in their right minds gonna mess with unless they have an army. And unlike far too many cops in the US, the cops in Milan didn't shoot first and consider whether the person might be unarmed later. It's not like gunning down a kid with a toy, or a demented old man with a crucifix, or some other examples that come to mind. I honestly think the training cops in the US receive turns no small number of them into paranoid psychotics--just like methamphetamine abuse does.

      Bill--I certainly agree with you that we should pay attention to the actions of The Great Orange One rather than his words. He and his toadies (I can't call them myrmidons-- I don't think they will be either that strong or that faithful) are going to be fetching up against some institutional (and other) barriers ere long.

      Alan

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  4. I find myself wondering how many of us have jobs that actually make Friday relevant. I know Alan does, but I don't and I don't seem to recall that any of the other regulars do either.

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    1. Na, but I like to keep up the pretense.

      Besides, it helps me as your hapless blogmaster to maintain some sort of routine and know what I'm going to post at least one day out of the seven.

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    2. Ah! That makes sense. I sometimes find it hard to keep track of the days of the week.

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    3. Bill, while I have only rarely worked on Fridays outside the home, my husband has and still does, which directly affects my day and life and plans. The irony is that because Christmas Eve and Christmas Day fall on the weekend, his workplace is closed today and Monday. However, he was the person on call today, and it managed to fill his day. So he will be given a day off in compensation, to be taken whenever he likes.

      While I am retired from the Library (and previous Bookshop), I still meet with people who are seeking spiritual guidance. Therefore, I do need to keep track of the day of the week, most often.

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  5. I seriously doubt that he is a billionaire. I think he lied about that too and that is the real reason he won't release his tax returns. Before getting this gig where he can grift his avaricious little heart out I believe he was going broke.

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    1. Why Susan, you cynical person! [grin] Next thing I know, you're likely to say that people who are really worth something (financially or otherwise) don't have to show off...

      Alan

      P.S.: Some more rain here today. That's OK.

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    2. LOL Susan, if just a touch bitterly. Interesting idea. He has had several businesses go bankrupt. So you think he wanted the gig for the salary?

      Actually, I'm trying not to cry. Never been more miserable or frightened in my life. I'm vulnerable, my parents are vulnerable. When Trump dismantles MEDICARE and Tricare For Life (the military retirees' equivalent), I don't know how we're going to afford my sister's medication. She's on a lot of it and without it she would be nonfunctional at best and suicidal at worst. Not sure about Mum's and Dad's medication, but I'm profoundly frightened about Sis'. Fortunately, I don't take prescription meds, or I'd be worried about that too. Thank Heaven for small mercies. :P

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    3. Cat--I VERY MUCH think you need not worry about Medicare or Tricare. So far as I can make out, the only specifically contemplated changes to Medicare the wingers in Congress seem to have verbally explored of late are changing it to a stingier plan for new enrollees at some time in the future. And how they are going to do that without an unforgettable reaction they don't know. Just like they don't know how to replace the Affordable Care Act. Maybe they could make some tiny changes, name it after Ronnie Ray Gun, declare victory and go home. After all, the ACA is basically the plan developed by the Heritage Foundation; if it hadn't been largely what the Republicans had been pushing for all along, how could it have been enacted?

      --Alan

      P.S.: If the insurance companies get spooked, look out--Congress might be forced to enact Medicare For All.

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    4. Cat, Son #1 sent me a copy of his medical costs. $14 thousand a year for one medication. I'm a little bit scared, but only a little, because if you push too many people to the edge they WILL pick up the torches and pitchforks. The idiots cannot expect to rain hell down on people and have those people sit meekly and accept it. Not gonna happen.

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    5. Congress is just waiting until it's my turn to use Medicare to make it the stingy version. Every single step f the way, from college costs to the cost of buying a house to this, my age group has done FAR worse than the folks just 8-1o years older. I'm very aware of this because my husband's eldest siblings are that much older than we are, and they've had it so good.

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    6. My understanding is that Ryan's voucher plan would apply to everybody. ("Voucher plan" = you by private insurance and the government pays a fixed amount. Rather like Obamacare, in fact.) But I agree with everyone else that any attempt to cut benefits would be political suicide. Us old folk *vote*.

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  6. Revenge giving [Click] Which reminds me of one of the links I posted that disappeared:

    Guerilla Concert! [Click]

    —Alan

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    1. I hope that becomes a reality. The one thing the orange menace hates is to be ignored. Did you see that the Rockettes union is forcing them to perform at the Inauguration even though many of them don't want to? How fitting for a gross pig who uses women as objects by force.

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  7. Very cold in and out last night--not good for sleeping. Hurty knees, calves, thighs. Glad to get up, even though it didn't hurt less, lol! -- did offer distraction.

    Nice neighbor arrived with mail: all gifts except the delivered one, are now in house. So done on that front.

    Now. COOKING. Turk going slow/low, so needs twenty hours. Think I'm going to boil bones after, make several quarts of turkey broth/soup/base. Since this may be the last turkey I ever do. . . . Miss the days I did goose for Christmas. Used to have to drive to Baltimore to get one fresh (stores didn't carry them fresh Or frozen). Goose is the perfect bird: ALL dark meat, lol!

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    1. We had goose once. Like duck better. Though, like Alan, I like rock Cornish game hens.

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  8. Replies
    1. FINALLY! Huzzah! It's only taken twenty-four hours, but my Peace Dove is showing at last. Phew!

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    2. VERY nice dove, Catreona!!

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