Welcome to Sunday Brunch. This is an open topic thread so help yourself to the goodies and sit a spell and let us know what is new with you. My apologies for missing getting up Thursday's Coffee Hour but I was at an emergency doctor's appointment with my brother. He has sores on his only foot and leg and we have been at the doctor's offices for the last six weeks. Fortunately they think it is under control and that they will heal if he stays off the foot.

Hope you all had a good week. There was better, if not good, news from Standing Rock last Sunday. Time will tell. I'm proud of and glad for the protectors who are staying in the cold. The recount seems to have almost ground to a halt as T-rumps lawyers play to partisan courts that are ruling against Jill. Do you find it odd that the democrats gave in to election fraud in 2000 (FL), 2004 (OH), and this year in multiple states without a fight or even an objection? As T-rump assembles his cabinet, I think it can't get worse...and then it does. Wow folks, it looks like we're in for quite the struggle.

Hey, it's songday. Today I pick a song that I believe warrants it and publish an assortment of the covers of that song by various persons and or groups. Pick a few that a new to you and have a listen. It is also, of course, an open thread to talk about anything you feel like.

Today's song is: Smokestack Lightning.

Howlin' Wolf 1956

A dear friend of mine in the Sacramento area is in need of help. They reposed her house and threw her out on the streets. She is a widow in her seventies with 2 cats and living in her car. She has tried to get help but no one in the government wants to help her. She is a very sweet lady and doesn't deserve this. Is their anyone here that lives in the Sacramento area who can help?

It's seven minutes before the Open Thread should go up, and it looks like JtC has gotten the site back up. As always, thanks for all your work, JtC. We all hope you weren't up all night working on this.

I saw a video from Sane Progressive on how 95 million people have nowhere to go when it comes to their place in the workforce ( Link here). And boy does she have it right. Many people in this country have, quite literally, nowhere to go when it comes to finding work or carving out a living for themselves. Virtually everything is gone.

(Shahryar here....shaharazade has a little illness, nothing serious, and I'm swamped with work. She's authorized me to repost this open thread she wrote way back when the membership of c99 started booming, way back in March 2016. It's pretty wonky! And still timely, probably always will be.)