I say YES. YOU say NO....Numero Tre! Enjoy!
Comments
-
Hi gals! You know I was getting all sad and depressed reading what all is going on with you guys, and THEN I saw I was reading back to 2017!!! I don't know how that happened! But hopefully, most problems are over, and you are looking and living in a brighter tomorrow! DANG, that was all scary!
Waiting for our "friends" to stop by for DH's birthday tomorrow, & Christmas... We have known little Rosie for a million years, went to her wedding... She is from Viet Nam, and came over here when she was 16. WHAT a life she has had, but happily married for many years now.... worked with my Daughter, but now retired. We love them.... Just kind of worried to be around anyone right now, but I have masks, for all of us, and I know they are as afraid as I am.... His Mom is even older than WE are! And they spend Holiday's with her! She is like our "other" Daughter... So I have shacks & dessert ready....
Take care gals, and stay safe.... xoxoxo
0 -
I'm gonna be a MIL! Gordy proposed to Leslie en route to her folks in Houston (they're renting a property with separate cabins for all four couples) and she said yes! Still biting my nails that they'll stay safe on the road. (And not putting the announcement on social media till Gordy greenlights it).
0 -
Congratulations, Sandy. Some really great news to close out this awful year.
0 -
All the best to the happy couple, Sandy!! I hope they make each other incredibly happy.
0 -
Is Trill still around? She made block art
0 -
Wonderful news, Sandy. Congratulations to All!
0 -
Mazel Tov, Sandy! We need more simchas in the world today 😊
0 -
Great news! Wishing them a long and happy marriage.
0 -
Faithfully faithful to every trust,
Honestly honest in every deed,
Righteously righteous and justly just:
This is the whole of the good man's creed.
unattributed0 -
Sandy, add my good wishes and congrats to Gordy and Leslie.
((((Chevy))))) You will keep it safe.
0 -
How exciting, Sandy!!!!!!! So happy for you and the bride-and-groom to be!!!! When do you think the happy couple will want to exchange vows? How fun to have a wedding to look forward to!!! Congratulations to everyone!
0 -
Heather Cox Richardson:
December 21, 2020
In the past two days, stories in major papers have focused on the president's deteriorating mental state. The Atlantic ran a story by Peter Wehner titled "Trump is Losing His Mind." It describes "Trump's descent into madness." Politico ran Michael Kruse's story titled "Is Trump Cracking Under the Weight of Losing?""[T]he actual fact of the matter," it said, is that "Trump is a loser." Kruse points to Trump's uncharacteristic absence from the public eye to wonder if he is breaking down mentally.
"His fragile ego has never been tested to this extent," Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen told Kruse. "While he's creating a false pretense of strength and fortitude, internally he is angry, depressed and manic. As each day ends, Trump knows he's one day closer to legal and financial troubles. Accordingly, we will all see his behavior deteriorate until it progresses into a full mental breakdown."
CNN reported that senior White House officials are worried about what Trump might do in the next month as he spends more and more time with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who is under active investigation by federal prosecutors; conspiracy lawyer Sidney Powell; disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn; Steve Bannon, who has recently been indicted for fraud; Peter Navarro, Trump's trade adviser; and now Patrick Byrne, the founder of the Overstock retail website.
Trump is turning to this group of misfits rather than advisers like his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, or White House counsel Pat Cipollone. The new advisers are encouraging him to declare martial law or to seize state voting machines to examine them for fraud or to appoint a special counsel to investigate Joe Biden's son Hunter. Trump has floated the idea of naming Powell as a special counsel inside the White House Counsel's office to investigate the election. Meadows and Cipollone argue, correctly, that this is crazy.
Nonetheless, far right House lawmakers met with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on Monday to strategize challenging Congress's certification of the states' electoral votes on January 6. While several House Republicans are on board with the scheme, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is trying to stop senators from signing on, since challenges in both the House and the Senate would force Republicans to vote against Trump, publicly. The challenges do not have the votes to stop to certification of Biden's ballots.
Previous loyalists are opening up water between themselves and the president. Evangelical leader Pat Robertson, who famously said Trump was part of God's plan for America, made the news today with his declaration that, for all the good he claims Trump has done, the president "lives in an alternate reality," and has been "very erratic." Robertson says it is time to recognize that Biden is the president-elect and it is time for Trump "to move on."
Attorney General William Barr also broke with Trump today, saying that he saw no need to appoint a special counsel to investigate voter fraud or to investigate Hunter Biden, and that there was no evidence of voter fraud that would have changed the outcome of the 2020 election. Barr also confirmed that it was Russia, rather than any other country, that hacked the United States government and prominent companies over the course of the past year. Barr will leave office on Wednesday.
Yesterday, Erica Newland, a former lawyer for the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, published an op-ed in the New York Times saying she is "Haunted by What I Did as a Lawyer in the Trump Justice Department." Lawyers like her, she said, hoped they were limiting the damage Trump could do but were instead, she concluded, finding ways to make his demands legal. Represented by the caliber of lawyers who are currently at his side—Giuliani and Powell, for example—Newland argues, he could never have made anything stick. Newland resigned from her post in 2018 and now says, "No matter our intentions, we were complicit." They helped enable Trump's assault on our democracy, and on reality. She offered her apology to the nation.
Meanwhile, right-wing media outlets Fox News Channel, Newsmax, and One America News are also concerned with the law. They are madly backpedaling as they face the consequences of their baseless accusations against election software company Smartmatic. Although that company was involved in the 2020 election only in Los Angeles County, right-wing media personalities have accused it of altering votes in several states in the 2020 presidential contest. The lawyer for the company's founder, Antonio Mugica, has sent letters to the FNC, Newsmax, and OAN demanding that they retract their stories and warning them to keep documents for a forthcoming defamation suit. Voting machine manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems, also included in the news stories, has also hired legal counsel.
The threat of lawsuits has prompted the FNC and Newsmax to "clarify" at some length that they had no evidence of any of the improprieties they alleged. On Newsmax, John Tabacco also had to clarify that there was no relationship between Dominion Voting Systems and Dianne Feinstein, the Clintons, Nancy Pelosi, George Soros, Hugo Chavez, or the government of Venezuela.
As he descends into the fever swamps, Trump has largely given up any pretense of governing. His public schedule remains empty, and his private meetings appear to focus on how he can stay in office. Today we learned that Russian hackers broke into the email system used by the leadership of the Treasury Department, but the cyberattack from Russia has gone unaddressed except to the extent the president tried to blame the attack on China (although he has made no move to retaliate against China for the attack). He has made little attempt to shepherd any sort of an economic relief bill through Congress. And, most crucially, he is silent about the epidemic that is killing us. As of this evening, more than 18 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus, and at least 319,000 have died.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis that is investigating the Trump administration's handling of the pandemic today released documents showing that Trump appointees in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tried to "alter or block" at least 13 of the reports written by CDC scientists. Appointees messed around with the CDC's traditional "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports" and edited reports on the use of masks, the dangers of Covid-19 in children, and the spread of the disease. They also tried to delete emails revealing political interference in scientific assessments. Some of the emails from science adviser Paul Alexander calling for the administration to speed the spread of coronavirus in order to achieve herd immunity have sparked outrage.
Chaired by Representative Jim Clyburn (D-SC), the select subcommittee today issued subpoenas to Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Alex M. Azar and Director of the CDC Dr. Robert Redfield for all documents "relating to efforts by political appointees… to interfere with scientific work conducted by career officials." It had requested the documents earlier this month, but HHS and the CDC declined either to cooperate or to permit Redfield to testify about political censorship to the committee.
Meanwhile President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris are preparing to take office in the midst of a pandemic, a sweeping computer systems hack, and a recession, while the outgoing president tries to undermine them by ordering his own officials not to tell them anything that could be used against him and by insisting that they were not legitimately elected.
Biden was inoculated with the coronavirus vaccine today on national television to illustrate that the shot is safe; incoming First Lady Dr. Jill Biden also got the shot today. Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will be vaccinated next week.
0 -
Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you? To remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old? Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world, stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death? Then you can keep Christmas! But you can never keep it alone.
Henry Van Dyke0 -
Why Trump should resign today
Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio's daily program "The Dean Obeidallah Show" and a columnist for The Daily Beast.
(CNN) — Donald Trump probably could not have been a worse person to lead Americans through the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is a man who "fueled confusion and conspiracies from the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic," as PolitiFact recently documented in its annual "Lie of the Year" designation. The nonpartisan group gave its 2020 "award" to "coronavirus downplay and denial"— in which it said Trump had been the conductor of the "symphony of counter narrative" about the virus.
During the course of the year, Trump mocked Joe Biden and a reporter for wearing masks to stop the spread of the virus, despite experts recommending face coverings as one of the most effective ways to save lives while treatments and vaccines were developed. In the fall, as virus cases jumped, Trump held numerous campaign rallies with his mostly maskless supporters jammed together in spite of reports tracing these events to spreading the virus.Now, as unbelievable as it may seem, Trump has checked out on even paying attention to a virus that is taking the life of an American every 40 seconds. As the Washington Post reported Saturday after speaking to numerous Trump advisers, the President has given up on dealing with Covid-19 since Election Day. Instead, Trump is almost solely focused on spewing lies to overturn his defeat by Vice President-elect Joe Biden.
At this point Trump should resign and allow Vice President Mike Pence to serve as President through January 20. Despite Pence's numerous faults, at least he appears to be engaged in attempting to combat Covid, as evidenced by his effort to bolster public confidence in the new vaccine by getting his shot on live television Friday.
While nothing at this point Trump does should come as a surprise, The Washington Post reporting is jaw dropping in documenting that Trump, since about the time he was declared the loser of the presidential election, abdicated his responsibility for managing the public health crisis. The Post quotes one of Trump's closest advisers as saying, "I think he's just done with Covid."
"Done" despite the alarming spike in Covid cases and deaths since Election Day. To give some perspective, on Election Day (November 3), the United States was averaging 847 daily deaths over a one-week period. Where are we now? More than three times that rate, with an average of 2,630 Americans dying every day during last seven days. In fact, our nation saw a gruesome new record set Wednesday with over 3,600 Americans dying from Covid—the most lost in a dayfrom the virus so far.
Heartbreakingly, that was just one of several days in the past week where more Americans died from Covid in 24 hours than in the attacks of 9/11. Meanwhile, Trump is laser focused on one thing: Serving up lies about the election. And while Trump is no longer attending Covid briefings, he did find time on Friday to hold a meeting in the White House where he reportedly discussed imposing martial law as a possible way to remain in power. (He denied that he was considering martial law in a Sunday morning tweet.)
For the most part, Trump's only Covid-related comments over the past month have been to pat himself on the back for scientists developing a vaccine. Trump also claimed that the vaccine's announcement was delayed to after Election Day to hurt him politically—yet another lie.
While it's true that the virus would have caused infections and deaths in America regardless of what any President would have done, many experts believe that Trump's failed leadership played a key role in the virus causing proportionately more infections and deaths in the United States than in most other developed nations.
Trump's conduct surrounding the virus, especially his lies that misled the public about the actual dangers posed by Covid, is morally reprehensible. There must be an in-depth investigation into the administration and Trump's personal actions surrounding the virus when he leaves office to learn from their failures to protect us.
For now, if Trump has truly surrendered to Covid despite the record breaking number of hospitalizations and deaths, he should resign effective immediately. While we can't be certain how many lives would be saved with Pence as president for the final month of this administration, even one life saved by a change in leadership would be worth it.
0 -
In the “Hell Freezes Over" category, or as someone from Twitter said “I did NOT have that on my Bingo card!
Robertson had previously said in October that God had told him Trump would win the election, after which an asteroid would hit the Earth.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pat-robertson-trump-time-to-move-on_n_5fe12d1dc5b6e1ce83350631
0 -
Divine: So glad you put in the Richardson piece. I read through it and thought about putting it here but just didn't take the time at 3 a.m. this morning when I was up for the first time. I'm in strong agreement with your last two posts. We really can't expect much from Trump but the mentally challenged ( crazy ) side to keep rearing up now. Trump really hasn't been with it since the day he lost this election. Only the most ( I think the word used in the news was rat-tag ) out there types will continue to back him up. Like the female lawyer Sidney P or Giuliani. Even old fart Pat Robertson has given him the heave-ho. These things that are chewed over while maybe making Trump feel like there is promise it has been said many times now will not go anywhere although they will indeed leave their stains on our democracy.
Making things harder likely for Pres. Biden to do all that needs doing. There is so much that needs repair in our government, not only those things that will need immediate attention, but also things that will hopefully work towards not having so much chance for another " Trump " to see or get a hold of our government again. Although the rule of law is holding, there are weak points and only the fact that Trump and his sycophants were in the end so inept is what made a difference. I shudder to think if there were a "smooth operator" rather than Trump. I would hope among other things that oversight is heavily strengthened so that subpoena's must be answered and that there is a better structure for hearings when the oversight takes place. The mockery that went on during this last four yrs. surely can be adjusted so that is not more conducive to keeping REAL answers and truth hidden. I know a lot of that is up to the Reps. who used Trump's playbook almost all of the time.
I can't wait for Pres. Biden to be able to start and while difficult -- I do think given time he can overcome most of the disaster Trump and Co., have made of our government.
0 -
My tRump-fan DH is pinning his hopes on the Jan 6 joint session of Congress, like these people: House Republicans meet with Trump to discuss overturning election results. They're all delusional. Maybe he will tune into the alt. inauguration with these people: Trump supporters organizing 'second inauguration' for him online Jan. 20. He was glued to the computer all day watching the WI Legislature's Dec 11 Committee on Campaigns and Elections Zoom hearing on election fraud, and the US Senate Homeland Security Committee's televised hearing on election irregularities. (RoJo is such an embarrassment. If he runs again in 2022, contrary to his campaign pledge to stick to two terms, he will lose.)
I don't understand my DH anymore. It's like he's been replaced with a pod person à la Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
0 -
Jackie, how's this for making the new admin's life more difficult? Revise OMB Circular A-11, a thousand-page document that federal agencies use to craft their budget requests.
Trump eyes unusual move on government accountability before Biden takes office
By Rebecca Beitsch - The Hill - 12/22/20 06:00 AM EST
The White House is considering changes to the budgeting process that require agencies to spell out their policy goals and show progress in achieving them, an unusual move given the imminent change in administration. [tRump's OMB would strip from Circular A-11 strategic planning and performance measures required under the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act.]
According to emails obtained by The Hill, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plans to craft a memo in the coming weeks that would overhaul how agencies undertake strategic planning and make progress toward accomplishing their objectives in order to receive funding from Congress. The proposed changes could bring about a major shift in how the government sets goals and evaluates its work, less than a month before the Biden administration takes over.
"It is co-opting the prerogative of the Biden administration to mold its own budget process," said Robert Shea, associate director at OMB during the George W. Bush administration who is now a principal at consulting firm Grant Thornton LLP. "It's a weird time to do it."
...
Some worry the last-minute changes spell trouble, especially as this would be the second time this year it has been updated, whereas updates typically happen only once a year. The White House updated the document in July. "It does regularly go through updates, but this one feels different and more substantial... No one knew they were working on updating it at all," said the source familiar with the discussions, adding that the move would likely take agencies by surprise. "This is very close to the transition and is not normally when you'd be looking to revise this."
The Biden White House could similarly update the guidance before the budgeting process for fiscal 2022 is in full swing, but there are signs that the incoming administration could find itself staffed by a significant number of Trump holdovers at OMB due to an earlier executive order...from President Trump in October that created a new class of federal employees who would not be subject to the same civil service protections offered to career staff. ... Critics fear that order will be used to more expeditiously fire career staff while allowing Trump political appointees to stay on as part of the next administration. The new classification of government workers, known as Schedule F employees under Trump's executive order, cannot be dismissed due to their political leanings.
At OMB, the new classification has already been widely used, with the agency requesting to transfer 88 percent of its workforce, 425 people, into the new category, according to a Nov. 21 report from RealClearPolitics.
0 -
Badger my DH is similar. We got into it the other day, ended with me asking him how he could believe all the lies, and stomping out. I don’t talk much to him, mainly along the lines of, is it gonna rain, or something the dogs did. I just can’t. At the dog park there is a group of Dems, is much better to be with like minds. The dogs don’t care.
30 more days.
0 -
I would imagine those employees could be terminated due to their abject incompetence. It's pretty obvious, to even the most casual observers, that every single Trump appointee has no clue how to do their job.
Trump is so ham handed that his machinations are visible to all. It's no secret that he's only doing this to muck up the workings of the Federal government. I think those firings would hold up in court.
0 -
The conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn was beautiful, and on the Solstice. Clouds cleared briefly, and we were able to enjoy. The planets are still close, don't know if they will look like a single planet. Look in the SW just as it gets dark, should look like the brightest object,except for the moon.
Is mental illness /madness contaigous? Given how his base continues to believe the lies, it might be. Would mask wearing have reduced spread of the insanity or is it too virulent and pathogenic? I think Trump's reign of terror is ending, even if not soon enough. Hopefully Georgia swings blue. Biden will need the support for his programs.
Warnock for Georgia <info@warnockforgeorgia.com>
Jon Ossoff HQ | Atlanta, GA <info@electjon.com>
0 -
0 -
Taken from an Observatory in Idaho.
0 -
ruthbro - lovely!. Tried to take one with a smartphone through a telescope, but just too fuzzy.
0 -
Congratulations Sandy!
Ruth you look so cute in your profile picture! And the 'Christmas Star' looks beautiful!
0 -
Thanks for the photos. All we saw were dark clouds spitting rain.
0 -
Congrats Sandy!!!
We had lovely clear and dark skies here in New Mexico for the Conjunction and got some nice views...the pic that Ruth posted is much better, however!
0 -
Badger - My DH and I are similar to yours. We argue daily about Trump and will probably continue. I am not at all sure how he swallowed the koolaide, but he sure did. Makes life pretty rough at times!
0 -
How many times can you lose -- over the same thing in such a variety of ways. How much do you really want to degrade yourself and prove that you are not only a HUGE loser but one of the worst sorest losers ever. Then again -- this is a man who is incapable of normal emotions. Otherwise he would be hanging his head, but he just goes on trying to figure out more and more ways to get his foot back in a door that completely closed when all the states certified. He has no shame, no regret, and absolutely no ability to understand the way most NORMAL people will perceive him and the actions he insists on taking right now. He is such a zero and I am still amazed that he got the votes he did -- not that it did him much good. I hope indictments come soon for he and his bunch. What a bunch of con men crooks.
Trump Blew A Gasket In The Oval Office After Being Told States Won't Overturn The Election
Trump is trying to get state legislatures to rescind their electoral college votes. When he was told no, he blew up in the Oval Office.
Read more »0 -
Was able to clearly see Jupiter about 5:20pm. (At the start of sunset, a horizontal stripe of clouds obscured both planets). Don't have a telescope, but it looked like just Jupiter--from my deck, where Saturn would have been was obscured by roofs & treetops. Was able to get an image on my phone cam at about 6x zoom. By tomorrow night at this time, it'll be too cloudy again as the showers start. Christmas Eve is my mani-pedi--gonna have to wear UGGs (with baggies over my sprayed toes) rather than flip-flops, lest I get frostbite. Why does the weather always suck on pedi days?
The wedding will be in 2022--one of Les' sisters already set a 2021 date, Gordy's BFF's baby is due in May, and we're all hoping to be able to gather in late June, at least outdoors, for our 50th anniversary. The kids want to "spread out the simchas." And it will be here in Chicago or maybe that little venue in Lake Geneva where his BFFs wed in 2018. (Our rabbi & cantor will be disappointed that they want a secular celebrant).
Vanity Fair had an article today about the Trump hoo-hah having reached the "feces-flinging stage." He's even furious with Pence for going ahead with presenting the EC vote to Congress on 1/6. Anyone who doesn't approve of the insanity is now a traitor in his eyes--including Barr and WH Counsel Pat Cipollone (his chief defender in the impeachment trial).
And he's just shat out a spate of pardons--most notably George Papadopoulous.
0
