Open Thread - Friday, November 25, 2016
Submitted by NCTim on Fri, 11/25/2016 - 5:17am
I woke up this morning and suddenly realized I forgot the open thread. Thanksgiving was such a roller coaster ride that I was thrown off stride. It was just Sweetie, the kids and I, but it was a rough day for Sweetie. The inability to eat caused some consternation and all the activity took us out of our schedule/routine.
Have a great funkin' weekend!
Comments
And so it begins.
Check this out: http://www.ithacajournal.com/story/news/politics/2016/11/24/schumer-hope...
Chuckie is going to grovel for NY. And then act as champion for the cameras, his favorite location. Grrr. But no surprise. He's been in DC too long.
Chez Dogwoods, my property name, rain yesterday, above freezing all night, 39 now. My foot-o-snow is packing down well. I think I will Ignore. As far as extensive moving by shovel.
I feel like a hoarder after sleeping overnight in a bed piled with clean laundry and some in a basket. All carried up from the basement laundry area because I finally felt balanced enough to carry it all upstairs. Then ran out of steam. Today, I tell myself. The pup liked it all just fine! Thank cat no cameras were present.
I have a few very minor home improvement projects that even I can do. But they require a trip to Lowes. Not today. Maybe Monday. Easy-peasy like changing out dimmer knobs that have sun-yellowed and look aged against white walls (that need repainting, OMG).
Have a good long weekend, all in the US. I had a lawyer call from Canada yesterday, house sale closing stuff. I was home alone. She forgot that it was US TG. I did not remind her.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Morning Tim.
Stay strong brother.
Just a thanksgiving dinner story. Prior to dinner we were sitting around talking and the conversation turned to Trump. There were some people there I'd just met and they happened to be Trump fans, or at least lukewarm hopefuls. Someone made a comment about Trump not paying his taxes and one of the new people said that's what a good businessman does and why should we begrudge him for taking advantage of loopholes in the system. I said yes, I do begrudge him, because why should the rich be able to take advantage of loopholes they're largely responsible for putting into the system for themselves when the rest of us cannot. I decided to go out to the garage to smoke some weed at that point instead of continuing. It was all good but didn't want it to turn.
I cannot believe that NOW, people are actually defending tax cheating billionaires. Extending the logic of the tax loopholes, what about hiding money in offshore accounts or overseas assets? Of course those that use the loophole logic have to accept that too, it's what any reasonable person would do in that position.
The Trump presidency, how low can we go?
I like loopholes
for me.
15% off all jobs paid in cash.
Barter baby. Will you take weed in exchange? How about half of that free range cow and 10 chickens for my services? A dozen huge eggs for $1.
I'm lucky to live in a rural area where many have gardens and livestock.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
How low?
Using the position of Secretary of State to enrich your own personal coffers, not bothering to secure classified information, etc etc ad nauseam and people thinking that's OK.
Either way we are thoroughly and completely fucked.
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
So low we'll need a stepladder to see over the top of a dime.
I don't know about completely. That sounds final, I'd hate to think we the Serfs can't muster up one final push to topple the King and his Court. Just for old time sake if nothing else.
Blame the lawmakers for whom we effing vote.
Well, not you, because you stopped voting, but the rest of us.
Tax law is simply tax law, not 3/4 tax law and 1/4 "loopholes," whatever that means. When a person with six kids takes six deductions, they are simply doing what the law allows, not creating or taking advantages of six loopholes. I don't know anyone, rich, poor or in between who deliberately pays more taxes than the law requires them to pay, do you?
We rail about, and rant against, the rich and corporations, but that only disempowers us even more.. I can't do a thing about the tax returns of the rich. Well, nothing legal. Neither can most people I know. I don't own enough stock in any company to be able to direct corporate behavior. But most of them are not breaking the laws passed by people about whom I can do something. OK, I can't even do much about them, but something is more than nothing. We need to focus our anger where it belongs, on the people to whom we give our votes, the people whose salaries our taxes pay.
Recount Update - This Is Gonna Happen People
Let the hanging chad count begin again. I'm sure the Dem and Repub 'fixers' have already landed and rented office space in key cities.
Stein has blown through two goals in a couple days
Previous goals : $2.5 mill, then $4.5mill
$4,757,041.28 raised so far. (9:30AM US East, 11/25/2016)
New goal : GOAL: $7,000,000.00
https://jillstein.nationbuilder.com/recount
And that is ONLY the Jill Stein donation page. There are two other Green Party pages where people can also donate and with higher donation limits I will bet their totals raised is much higher -- but total raised not reported on the donation page.
I'm neither for it or against it. I do remember the florida recount in 2000. It was a circus with both sides trying their best to cheat and manuver in court. And this will be three states, not one.
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
Florida was very different. That was the candidate and his
campaign, believing they had likely been cheated by a very biased Governor and Secretary of State, demanding a recount.
If Hillary and her campaign thought they may have been cheated by those three states, why aren't they demanding a recount?
Why did Jill Stein say on national TV two days ago, when asked, that she knew of no reason to doubt the first count in those three states?
Why did she have no answer that made sense when they asked her why she was demanding the recount? Instead she rambled about 87% of Americans polled saying they were disgusted with both candidates.
Let's assume she got the number right, how does 87% of Americans being disgusted with both candidates equal a rational basis to take money from the public for a recount? I don't know what Stein's motives are, but I know she made zero sense when interviewed about this and did not offer a single justification for asking the public for millions of dollars for a recount.
And, btw, what did former President Gore get out of the Florida recount?
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/31/politics/bush-gore-2000-election-results-s...
Real Low, Big Al.
I haven't recognized this country in 36-plus years. tRump, the FRWnuts, and the fake Democrats have done a very good job of obliterating it. Hi NCTim: hope Thanksgiving was as good as possible for/Sweetie and your family.
Ours down here was a quiet, peaceful one. (I'm the soul music nutt who follows your diaries from east central Florida. LOL)
Sweetie is very aware of everything you are doing. That happens to be a fact that I've personally experienced.
You all take care, and hope the rain gods send us some. We need it. Rec'd!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
good morning Tim and c99
I guess it's national consumerism day. About half my email was black Friday ads. Oh boy...go out and buy more cheap Chinese shit to horde for a while and then get rid of. I often talk about a media of mass distraction, but today is a shopping distraction - American greed (and stupidity) on display. The 1% needs your support. Bezos is awaiting your clicks!
We finally got a few drops of rain yesterday AM. Not even enough to do any good, but a bit of a dust settler. Here's a couple of shots of our local river to give you and idea of the severity of our drought -
First normal fall flow -
And the river last week -
Other than a few pools, the river is dry - something never seen by anyone living that I've talked with.
Edit - just found out NPS says it did this in 1927.
Here's hoping your world is filled with moisture. Have a good one!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
It is with shock and dismay that I see scenes like that, too
Stuff that people in their 80's never recall before. I am just in my
early63, and such changes. Of course the Years of the Gypsy Moth Infestation here were awful. My woods were stripped of leaves by June. And dogwoods went locally extinct with Anthracnose blight. And our 21 acres was named Dogwoods for the glorious bloom in the late spring. Gone. I refuse to go kousa, want a blight-resistant florida to start again, after I am gone they would bloom and disperse. The local stream is across the road; it has cut its own gorge and dumps into the wetland below, now much drier, due in part to destruction of several beaver dams. By humans.My woodland sits on the shoulder of a water recharge hill, parts very steep. Still trying to import trees from zones 6-7, of value for wildlife or wood or fruits and nuts. My late-life project. This year's drought was a major shock, just sneaked up with little snowfall for the last few years. So the 12" dump of wet snow over last weekend was a blessing. Now make it go away before the nuisance 1-2" stuff begins. Snow tires on, as of this AM, thanks to son in law, summer tires are out of my car and in the shed for a winter's nap.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
OTOH the cheap Mg, metals and other components
of urban/wilderness trek kits are at rock bottom prices.
Definitely worth at least a few cheapo blocks of magnesium and/or ferro rods, just a lot more caveat emptor to deal with.
Good Morning, Tim. Thanks for the OT and happy
recovery day. Got to start the day after process here. Fun.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
I did not mean to start. But I butt-bought (online) today.
Most or all of my Christmas shopping done. Stuff to re-send. Got every significant person currently in my life a gift. Or two. Coolest is an RC Helium-inflatable clownfish that floats, guided through the air by its tail (?). For son-in-law, to annoy their 2 dogs/2 cats. Already bought two toy airplanes for aeronautics-employed son, for his cubicle.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.