DF, I must confess that traffic is so light without teachers and school children (bus) not on the road. I can leave home 15 minutes later to arrive at work on time 😎
🙂 Definite benefit to winter break! Of course, I’m so glad that I’m not on the road with THEM, either:) My “commute” is ridiculous though. I can walk to work. Have a delightful day!
N. AZ got lots of snow…resorts are open for skiing. Here in the desert, the morning temps are in the 40’s and 70’s during the day. Beautiful! We had a boat ton of rain and everything is just saturated…I’m over the rain. Always need it, but not for days on end. Sunny today:) You all situated in your new place? Pain to move….
Yes, I’m lucky that I now have a second bedroom in which to store the boxes and empty them one by one. 🙂
The place is taking shape and I can see the little items that I will need to compliment what I have.
Still looking forward to you visiting us TOD So Cal Peeps ❤
Hi J’OB. While I don’t relish the actual, physical move, I do have a modicum of excitement about being in a “new” place. I have that wonderous excitement about starting at a new company, which is why I want to be a Temp when I retire. The first 6-12 months is the honeymoon period at any company and that is as long as I want to stay in any assignment. LOL!
I hope you and your family enjoyed the holiday time together. Please give Steve a gentle hug from all of us at TOD ❤
Thanks so much, GGail, especially on the “gentle hug” for Steve part! He loves it when I pass those along from TOD! And I like your idea of being a Temp when you retire – and why. I was only a Temp once, but I was in my late 30s and I kept thinking “I want my own desk and my own things on my own desk.” Ha. How things change over time!
Hi 57 ! ❤
I played too long this morning on TOD and left the apartment 7 minutes later than I had planned and I still got to work on time.
It was glorious!!!
Donald Trump can change our nation’s foreign relations with Israel, but he can’t undo the latest UN Security Council Resolution condemning Israel’s settlement activity in East Jerusalem and the West Bank as “a flagrant violation under international law” that is “dangerously imperiling the viability” of a two-state solution. The Security Council voted unanimously, 14-0 with the United States abstaining, and then broke out in self-congratulatory applause.
Nancy Pelosi gently criticized the vote, while Chuck Schumer said, “It is extremely frustrating, disappointing and confounding that the administration has failed to veto this resolution.” But their discomfort won’t change the result, either.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should look in the mirror before he criticizes anyone else. It would have been one thing if he had limited himself to playing the role of bad cop to Obama’s good cop as the U.S. negotiated a nuclear agreement with Iran. But he came to Washington and addressed Congress in an attempt to sabotage the negotiations. That was an extraordinary display of disrespect, and it removed any leg he had to stand on as he accuses the president of betrayal.
More broadly, Israel needs to consider the unanimity of global opinion now arrayed against it.
This is Schumer’s major weakness that Trump will exploit. I hope I’m wrong, but I am worried about what Trump will be able to extract from Schumer in exchange for “Israel is always right, about everything” foreign policy.
I’m a 67 year old Jewish woman, but I believe Israel behaves abominably and has nurtured the discord in the ME. I’m no idiot – I know how the Arabs treated the formation of Israel. It was ugly, bloody and outrageous. But it is long past time to find a solution that doesn’t support apartheid conditions and a virulent Jewish Religious Right.
But Schumer, DWS and others – Israel is untouchable. I think Schumer is capable of selling us out easily if Trump continues to support Israel’s and the Christian Right’s positions.
This is another reason I thought he was a bad choice for Minority Leader. But it was “his turn” and apparently the Dem leaders have no clue that a change in leadership for a new generation and a new, serious domestic threat is due. I love Nancy Pelosi, but it was time for her to nurture new leadership. She didn’t hold the Bush administration accountable for anything, because, you know, decorum. Part of the reason the lies look more real than the Bush administration’s despicable acts against the world and the world economy, is because Dems didn’t yell “outrage!” the way GOP does.
I think Ellison as DNC chair will be as big a problem. He’s not the right voice at this time, although the nutty Left likes him. We need to incorporate some of Bernie’s message but not be blinded to everything else that is inherently good in the Democratic party. Besides the nuts on the left (including Bernie) want to destroy the paryt and have given zero thought on how to rebuild it into a functioning, inclusive organization. Perez is saying what I want to hear, but he is not versed in electoral politics. So here we are.
Exactly, Judith. And he could have made a case, both have longevity in the Senate. But the Dems made choices as if the apocalypse hadn’t happened on Nov. 8.
Good Morning TOD Family! I have been thinking of you all through this past week or two as Christmas Day drew nigh and came to be. This is my family’s holiday, and a big deal for me as long as I can remember. As with everything, this year has been different, unusual, special, and mostly in ways I would change if I could. But here it is, and it was and is full of blessings and good things and comfort and joy. I hope you have enjoyed this time, if you celebrate, and that you maybe went out for Chinese food and a movie on Christmas Day if you don’t! To good times and good things and getting together with good people or finding good times alone, for all of us. Happy Hannukah to you who celebrate the Festival of Lights. I know it is far from the highest and most meaningful of Jewish holidays; I do love the spirit of lighting candles, remembering when Not Enough turned out to be More Than Enough, and spreading the celebrations and joys out with sweet home rituals and celebrations for eight days. Brilliant. And candles. Always a lovely thing. Kwanzaa Greetings and Blessings to you who celebrate this festival. I am thinking of the meaning of each day’s word — a rich, worthy focus as this year ends and I think of how to proceed. Embracing the past while gathering together and envisioning the future, with candles, food, lessons — it’s all good. I am so grateful that the longest darkest night of the year has come and gone and that we are now moving toward longer daylight and shorter nights. I can’t see it yet but I know it is true and I am counting on it. I love and bless and cherish each and every one of you TOD family. Words cannot express it. NerdyWonka, you are the shining glowing constant star in our sky. I will never ever forget the steadfast goodness and fierce beams of truth and power and generosity and honor that you have been sending forth day and night, month in and month out, always and forever. I do not deserve such work and goodness but I am grateful for it and count on it to see me through. To Miss Chips, I think of you with love and gratitude every day, every single day, and send you all good wishes and love across the miles and time and space. Because of you, we are all here, and HERE is here, to come to, to allow us to celebrate the infinitely good, holy, rich, generous, honorable and compassionate powerful season that has been the time of President Barack Hussein Obama to come to power by our hands filling in the ovals, pulling the lever, tapping the screen, in landslides and victory, TWICE. Because of you we have this place to gather and remind ourselves that this is true, real, precious, and good. My heart is a little under the weather right now, as I think many of us might say, but my heart is also full and strong and bursting with wonder and joy and love for POTUS FLOTUS and First Daughters and First Mom-in-Law and all the dear ones who love and share their lives; and celebration for First Pups, and for all the glorious never-to-be-forgotten always-to-be-remembered ways in which they have opened the doors of The White House, Their HOME for 8 great years, to the people, to ALL the People, to come in and realize that this is our place, all of us, not just those small-minded small-hearted ones, but ALL of us. Here’s to All of Us! Love and joy come to you.
Wonderful celebration, Nancie! I love this and agree with all you’ve said here. Nerdy, maybe you’d like to put this up in a thread of prominence….It’s just perfect. Thank you for these thoughts, so eloquently said. Love and hugs to you, Nancie!
Nancie, That is perfectly beautiful. Every word truth. Agree with df about putting in a prominent place. I read things like this and wish I could express myself like that, but alas, that is not a gift I have. Thankful others here do. ❤️😍💕. Thanks again, Nancie. Blessings to you and your family.
Yes Nancie…what a beautiful sentiment spoken so kindly and from the heart…..We will never forget our time here at that diary….and the people who have come thru here as well as NW…the fierce warrior…and Ms Chips…the founder….
Nancie, your writing is why I told you that your cookbooks are delicious to read. The words rival the actual desserts. Thank you for every morsel and kernel of truth. Much love to you ❤
Good morning Ms. Chips, Danny and TOD family, I hope all is well with everyone this lovely Tuesday morning. Congrats rikyrah, on being first this morning.
Nerdy, thanks so much for helping Ms. Chips and the sacrifices you are making for us TOD’ers. 💫🙏👌👊❤
To all, I hope your day is as beautiful as the sun rising, as delightful as birds chirping, and as smooth as the sound of the ocean waves today. ❤ ❤ ❤
Notwithstanding the nightmare of BuffoonTrump in the Whitehouse, I am more than ever, Thankful to God that President Obama is still the President of The United States of America. ⭐🏆 ⭐🏆 ⭐🏆
A months-long inquiry into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s affairs took a new twist on Monday, with police reportedly convinced that they will be able to open a full-blown criminal investigation against him in the next few days.
Police recently received new documents as part of a secret inquiry that began almost nine months ago, Channel 2 reported. Based on those files police have already turned to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit requesting that he allow them to open a full criminal investigation. The report stated that among the suspected offenses are bribe-taking and aggravated fraud.
A Manhattan woman stabbed a transgender man who had offered her a seat on a Harlem subway Christmas night after declaring, “I don’t want to sit next to black people,” police sources said.
Stephanie Pazmino, 30, was riding a southbound No. 4 train with her cousin by 125th St. and Lexington Ave. at about 11:05 p.m. when Ijan DaVonte Jarrett, 44, who is black, offered to give up his seat. She refused, then told her cousin in Spanish that she didn’t want to sit next to a black person, sources said.
“I got up anyway and said to her that she didn’t have to sit next to me,” said Jarrett, a hairstylist on his way home from a Christmas Day job in Bayonne. “I took a seat across from her and just forgot all about it.”
When Pazmino got up to leave the train, she started punching him, he said. He didn’t realize he was being stabbed, he said, until another man rushed in to help.
MOBILE, AL (AP) –
A naval program that has become a target for critics is preparing to commission a new vessel named after a well-known shooting survivor.
Constructed by Austal USA in Mobile, Alabama, the USS Gabrielle Giffords has completed testing in the Gulf of Mexico and is scheduled to be commissioned in mid-2017. The company handed over the $475 million ship to the Navy on Friday.
Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman who was shot in the head during an assassination attempt in 2011, helped christen the ship in 2015. It’s part of a hotly debated program that congressional critics slam as flawed and too expensive but that Navy leaders defend as a critical new step in naval warfighting.
Morning, Tnmtngirl….I thought this comment from this piece was spot on!
Stuart Levine // Dec 26, 2016 at 11:37 am
This points up something that I’ve come to believe: That the Democratic Party is, in fact, the conservative (with a small “c”) party. That is, the Democratic Party does not, willy-nilly, jettison norms of practice and observes formalities.
On the other hand, the GOP has become a radical reactionary party, essentially ceding the government to the billionaire class, infecting the intellectual world with ideological “think tanks,” using rhetoric that was previously outside of the pale of normal political discourse, etc.
No, the Democratic Party, when in control of the Senate for a brief moment, will not approve the nomination of Judge Garland. That would be a violation of political norms. However, the Trump nominee, whomever that may be, will, when on the SCOTUS bench, regularly violate traditional norms of judicial conduct and constitutional interpretation. He or she will trample long established legal interpretations in order to reach ideological goals.
Sigh – I fear that is a fantasy! The damn Senate GOP have cheated we the people by taking frequent breaks from any work but having someone gavel in so they never officially recess, including this Christmas break, entirely to prevent President Obama from doing any recess appointment. It’s a horrendous power grab that has stolen a SCOTUS seat and about 100 seats on the federal bench from President Obama and us.
Saw the discussion on this from yesterday’s thread, and Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz responded that “I’m not sure any of that is in the works…” in response to Brooke Gladstone’s question — are these the things being asked on The People View? (Based on Sherijr’s recommendation, I glanced at that blog, but didn’t see the Merrick Garland discussion 😦 ).
Interesting audio (you can pretty much skip the first 2 1/2 minutes of the interview, which consists of Brooke Gladstone [being pretty bitchy, IMHO, know nothing about her, but she could have been reading script from Glenn Greenwald or some other dudebro] grilling @Schultz44 about drones and such.
Ask what GOP would have done: no question they would get their nominee on the bench. But Dems are still afraid the GOP won’t be nice to them if they push back.
Newsflash: GOP doesn’t like you. They are not going to like you for a good many years. Fight for what’s right. Give your excellent POTUS the duty he is entrusted with, and appoint Garland.
Keeps me up at night. He has no business in that place. He is incapable of making wise, intelligent decisions. It terrifies me. I trust my children more than I trust this POS.
Stephen Colbert is Kennedy Center Honored to host the 39th Annual #KCHonors. Don't miss a star-studded event Dec. 27th at 9/8c on CBS! pic.twitter.com/phdYPfzJtH
Donald Trump’s inaugural committee is having no problems finding celebrities to attend his inauguration because that’s not who the committee is looking for, Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn said Tuesday.
“Not at all,” Epshteyn, the inaugural committee communications director, told CNN. “You know, this is not Woodstock. It’s not Summer Jam. It’s not a concert. It’s not about celebrities. As Donald Trump tweeted himself, it’s about the people. That’s what we’re concentrated on.”
I suggest that we adopt “This Is Not Woodstock” as the unofficial name of Trump’s inauguration and associated balls. It works on every level that we need it to work on, and you can probably make a killing if you print up a bunch of hats, pins, and t-shirts and sell them in D.C. during the festivities.
The mouth-breathers will embrace it for its explicit rejection of patchouli and Birkenstocks and all the values associated with modernism. The rest of us will get the joke that this will be the unhippest, uncoolest, least worthy celebratory gathering in national history.
The joke will still be on us, unfortunately, but at least we’ll get a laugh out of it.
they can’t get the glamourous to attend, so why not just pretend that this was their plan all along …. lies is all they do, even on trivial matters that require no lying
This is what #Truth and Reconciliation looks like….
will it ever happen between the sons and daughters of African Slaves and America…i hesitate to say NO when i never thought that there would be a Barack Obama in the WH…
but the question is ..does America have the WILL to make it so…
Thank you so much for posting those! Also love to see Caroline Kennedy connected to President Obama’s event (and administration) … love seeing those two cherished families connected.
I have often wondered what would have happened if Sen. Teddy Kennedy had not been stricken and taken so soon after PBO’s inauguration.
it is more likely that he certainly would have been very vocal against the racists who attacked & obstructed PBO at ever turn … and maybe brought additional dem senator voices with him.
….. but then scot brown’s election interrupted the legislative agenda … ;
no one knows how fate will intervene in the coming days … that is why all this chest-thumping from the right may be premature.
I don’t think so. Nope, not after how the GOP treated Obama as they did. Fox News. Trump himself went birther. I will show Donald Trump all the respect the racist bankrupt and crooked real estate shyster shows Muslims, Islam, Mexicans, immigrants and others simply not as white and (allegedly) wealthy as he.
Chicago Tribune
But no president in our nation’s history has ever been castigated, condemned, mocked, insulted, derided and degraded on a scale even close to the constantly ugly attacks on Obama. From the day he assumed office — indeed, even before he assumed office — he was subjected to unprecedented insults in often the most hateful terms.
He has been accused of being a “secret Muslim” and born in Kenya, of being complicit with the Muslim Brotherhood, of wearing a ring bearing a secret verse from the Quran, of having once been a Black Panther, of refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, of seeking to confiscate all guns, of lying about just about everything he has ever said, ranging from Benghazi to the Affordable Care Act to immigration, of faking Osama bin Laden’s death and of funding his campaigns with drug money
The director of a West Virginia nonprofit agency who called first lady Michelle Obama “an ape in heels” in a Facebook post has been fired and the institution put under outside management, state officials said on Tuesday.
Pamela Taylor, director of the Clay County Development Corp (CCDC), which provides services to poor and elderly residents, drew international condemnation after her comment last month about Obama went viral.
She resigned in November but was reinstated last month, prompting West Virginia to review its contracts with the nonprofit.
Democratic Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s office said the state had secured an agreement under which the Appalachian Area Agency on Aging will manage the CCDC for six months.
“Following the state’s request for specific assurances that the CCDC is following anti-discrimination policies, we have been assured that Pamela Taylor has been removed from her position as CCDC director,” Tomblin’s office said in a statement.
So glad he’s around to enjoy another birthday and hopefully many more. Always enjoyed anything he was in, a highly skilled athlete and actor. He was nineteen years younger than Ester Rolle who played his wife on Good Times. I am glad he made lots of noise to try and change the show from being a downer all the time. I liked the show but the family seemed could never catch a break.
Yes, neighbors, the aroma you are perhaps enjoying is my roasted turkey breast. Yes, I know I seldom cook and you may be surprised. Just wanted you to know my house is not on fire. It’s just my nicely roasted turkey breast. The urge to cook seldom appears, so I am also enjoying it. Thank you for asking.
Ha! Although she still denies it, one of my granddaughters said to another one year when they were swapping visits, around the holidays: “I hope you like chicken. That’s all she ever serves.”
I don’t know why, but, yesterday when the news stations reported on Carrie’s condition, I just felt that she had already transitioned and they were not aware or were not allowed to say.
May she join the others who have passed on – to rest in eternal peace.
questlove, the drummer for the Roots wrote this instagram comment regarding the passing over of a comedian, Ricky Harris who also transitioned over the holiday…”Ricky Harris showed us so much love man. 2016 man keeps taking and taking and taking. I’m not joking at all when I wonder aloud about is this the rapture happening and maybe my life isn’t right and I’m stuck on earth w ol orange crush at the wheel. Do we have the strength to even…hang on? Cause who are we kidding is 2017 all that safe? Hold on be strong y’all. Seriously.”
Stuck on earth with ol orange crush at the wheel– that’s just how I feel. I shudder, push the dread aside, continue with my daily activities (husband had knee replacement surgery so I’m the queen of doing everything for now), and plot the resistance.
This ugly situation would be intolerable without the Obama Diary ohana here, and I thank you all again for making this place so humane, so honest, so righteous, and so fun! Chips, wherever you are, blessings on your path– we all hover like angels beaming love to you, every day. Nerdy, stay strong, as your strength lifts so many. Gratitude is overwhelming me right now and leaking out my eyes.
I am glad we have so many TOD’ers still with us to get through the ‘ol orange satan at the wheel. I read that PBO is going to go silent for awhile I guess until they piss him off when no one defends him (DEMS) and start telling lies about his record which they are already doing.
The black man who became #US president is a totem of the demographic threat that Israeli leaders constantly discriminate/ legislate against. https://t.co/FVGaODFQ0s
The tenure of a First Lady who leaves the White House as one of the most popular political figures in recent memory.
The reason why I said yes was because I am tired of being afraid,” Michelle Obama told a crowd in Council Bluffs, Iowa, during the State Fair, in August of 2007, explaining why she had signed on to a long-shot campaign to elect her husband, Barack Obama, President of the United States. She stood in a middle-school gym, surrounded by a mostly white audience that was only beginning to know her husband and had an even vaguer idea of who she was. The stage was a small, low platform, but Obama, dressed in black pants and T-shirt, with her hair pulled back in a bun, occupied it like a dancer, punctuating her seven-minute address with appealing turns and pauses, as her listeners responded. The decision to run, she said, had not been an easy one, particularly with two young daughters, and as she and her husband discussed it with others she had noticed a common theme. “They were afraid,” she said. There was “fear that we might lose. Fear that he might get hurt. Fear that this would be ugly. Fear that it would hurt our family.”
Nine years later, Michelle Obama ends her time as First Lady as one of the most popular political figures in recent memory. So it’s worth looking back on those fears, both to take the measure of her accomplishments and as a reminder of a certain national capacity for blindness. In a recent interview with Vogue, she said that, as a teen-ager on the South Side of Chicago, she had been told at school that she wasn’t “Princeton material.” During that first campaign, Obama, a graduate of Princeton and of Harvard Law, heard that she was not First Lady material. She was “angry,” “abrasive,” “nontraditional,” too big, too black, not someone Americans were “ready” for—not a lady, like Cindy McCain, the wife of her husband’s eventual Republican rival. When, in February of 2008, in a rare misstep, Obama said that her husband’s success in the early primaries had meant that “for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country, because it feels like hope is really making a comeback,” Mrs. McCain let it be known that she would never say such a thing. Following an event at which Michelle joked about Barack’s breakfast-making skills, Maureen Dowd wrote, in the Times, “Many people I talked to afterward found Michelle wondrous. But others worried that her chiding was emasculating.”
Sometimes, the message came in the form of a hint, but often it came in an outright slur. Future scholars of American conspiracy theories may be puzzled by the bizarre case of the “Whitey tape.” In the spring of 2008, there were widespread, and false, rumors of a video in which Michelle, furious (or whining, or scheming, or smug), used that word to incite a black audience and promised racial revenge. Referring to the tape, the Republican operative Roger Stone told Fox News, “I believe a network has it.” Stone later became an adviser to Donald Trump. While the birther movement, which Trump championed, painted Barack Obama as foreign, there was an effort to confine Michelle to a very American place: the ghetto.
There were echoes of that assumption even when the intent was to praise her. “Michelle Obama is by now so well assimilated that she can wear a dress and pearls that are photocopies of the clothes and jewels worn by Jackie Kennedy—and pull it off with grace and panache,” Newsweek observed in March, 2008, as if being a facsimile would, for someone like Obama, be the pinnacle of success. After eight years in which she has been acclaimed as an author of style, that sounds absurd……
Her success in the White House has had as much to do with her comfort with herself as with what might be her central precept: never believe that there is a room you have no right to walk into. It’s a message that she has delivered in speeches at historically black colleges and in her mentorship of girls. It has also come across in her work, with Jill Biden, to support military families. As the stages got bigger, Obama’s oratory became more dominant and yet, at the same time, more intimate. In one of her enduring speeches, given at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, she revisited her fears that the Presidency would change her husband. What she had realized, she said, was that power doesn’t change who you are—“it reveals who you are.”……..
Her iconoclasm gains strength from its fusion with irreproachability. She has been cheerfully scrupulous about White House traditions and rituals, including such niceties as designing what will be known as the Obama China. The trim color is Kailua Blue, an homage to the waters off Honolulu, where her husband grew up. She brought out the new china for tea with Melania Trump, two days after the election. “Melania liked Mrs. O a lot!” President-elect Trump tweeted afterward. Indeed, Melania, in her Convention speech, had photocopied Michelle.
Friendly reminder that Leia has lost her adoptive parents, entire planet, father, husband, son and been abandoned by her brother and yet has never been tempted by the dark side even once.
…
Take notes, Skywalker boys.
Y’all weak as shit.
The Obama Diary 
Morning Everyone 🙂
Congratulations, Rikyrah! I echo your thanks to Nerdy for her work to keep TOD going when we most need it.
NW,
As always, thank you for all that you do here at TOD.
Good West Coast morning NW & TOD family.
NW, you have my unending love and respect. Thank you for keeping TOD going ❤
Morning everyone…Many, many thanks Nerdy:) Hugs to you, my dear:)
DF, I must confess that traffic is so light without teachers and school children (bus) not on the road. I can leave home 15 minutes later to arrive at work on time 😎
🙂 Definite benefit to winter break! Of course, I’m so glad that I’m not on the road with THEM, either:) My “commute” is ridiculous though. I can walk to work. Have a delightful day!
Lucky you!
Enjoy your winter break 😘
I saw where some parts of AZ received a blast of snow recently. Has your temperature dropped?
N. AZ got lots of snow…resorts are open for skiing. Here in the desert, the morning temps are in the 40’s and 70’s during the day. Beautiful! We had a boat ton of rain and everything is just saturated…I’m over the rain. Always need it, but not for days on end. Sunny today:) You all situated in your new place? Pain to move….
Yes, I’m lucky that I now have a second bedroom in which to store the boxes and empty them one by one. 🙂
The place is taking shape and I can see the little items that I will need to compliment what I have.
Still looking forward to you visiting us TOD So Cal Peeps ❤
Nesting sounds like a fun way to spend your free time right now. Enjoy your new place, GGail!
Thank you Judith ❤
Enjoy your new surroundings! I love to move to a new place – must be some itinerant blood in me, from way back!
Hi J’OB. While I don’t relish the actual, physical move, I do have a modicum of excitement about being in a “new” place. I have that wonderous excitement about starting at a new company, which is why I want to be a Temp when I retire. The first 6-12 months is the honeymoon period at any company and that is as long as I want to stay in any assignment. LOL!
I hope you and your family enjoyed the holiday time together. Please give Steve a gentle hug from all of us at TOD ❤
Thanks so much, GGail, especially on the “gentle hug” for Steve part! He loves it when I pass those along from TOD! And I like your idea of being a Temp when you retire – and why. I was only a Temp once, but I was in my late 30s and I kept thinking “I want my own desk and my own things on my own desk.” Ha. How things change over time!
Yes, at this point, I don’t want nuttin permanent…except a paycheck 🙂
Usually takes me an hour to get to work in the morning. Took me 22 minutes today.
Hi 57 ! ❤
I played too long this morning on TOD and left the apartment 7 minutes later than I had planned and I still got to work on time.
It was glorious!!!
My inbox is being flooded from organizations seeking Year-end donations.
I wish I had a money tree in the backyard…so many worthy causes to fund…
Yes, especially the ones that I know do make a difference in people’s lives.
Morning read. h/t to Nancy LeTourneau for the head’s up:)
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/12/19/yes-there-shame-not-knowing/FgRfohT2d17oKRle9LbiSM/story.html?event=event25
Netanyahu Brought This on Himself
by Martin Longman
December 26, 2016 12:30 PM
Donald Trump can change our nation’s foreign relations with Israel, but he can’t undo the latest UN Security Council Resolution condemning Israel’s settlement activity in East Jerusalem and the West Bank as “a flagrant violation under international law” that is “dangerously imperiling the viability” of a two-state solution. The Security Council voted unanimously, 14-0 with the United States abstaining, and then broke out in self-congratulatory applause.
Nancy Pelosi gently criticized the vote, while Chuck Schumer said, “It is extremely frustrating, disappointing and confounding that the administration has failed to veto this resolution.” But their discomfort won’t change the result, either.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should look in the mirror before he criticizes anyone else. It would have been one thing if he had limited himself to playing the role of bad cop to Obama’s good cop as the U.S. negotiated a nuclear agreement with Iran. But he came to Washington and addressed Congress in an attempt to sabotage the negotiations. That was an extraordinary display of disrespect, and it removed any leg he had to stand on as he accuses the president of betrayal.
More broadly, Israel needs to consider the unanimity of global opinion now arrayed against it.
This is Schumer’s major weakness that Trump will exploit. I hope I’m wrong, but I am worried about what Trump will be able to extract from Schumer in exchange for “Israel is always right, about everything” foreign policy.
I’m a 67 year old Jewish woman, but I believe Israel behaves abominably and has nurtured the discord in the ME. I’m no idiot – I know how the Arabs treated the formation of Israel. It was ugly, bloody and outrageous. But it is long past time to find a solution that doesn’t support apartheid conditions and a virulent Jewish Religious Right.
But Schumer, DWS and others – Israel is untouchable. I think Schumer is capable of selling us out easily if Trump continues to support Israel’s and the Christian Right’s positions.
This is another reason I thought he was a bad choice for Minority Leader. But it was “his turn” and apparently the Dem leaders have no clue that a change in leadership for a new generation and a new, serious domestic threat is due. I love Nancy Pelosi, but it was time for her to nurture new leadership. She didn’t hold the Bush administration accountable for anything, because, you know, decorum. Part of the reason the lies look more real than the Bush administration’s despicable acts against the world and the world economy, is because Dems didn’t yell “outrage!” the way GOP does.
I think Ellison as DNC chair will be as big a problem. He’s not the right voice at this time, although the nutty Left likes him. We need to incorporate some of Bernie’s message but not be blinded to everything else that is inherently good in the Democratic party. Besides the nuts on the left (including Bernie) want to destroy the paryt and have given zero thought on how to rebuild it into a functioning, inclusive organization. Perez is saying what I want to hear, but he is not versed in electoral politics. So here we are.
Exactly why so many of us wanted Dick Durbin.
Exactly, Judith. And he could have made a case, both have longevity in the Senate. But the Dems made choices as if the apocalypse hadn’t happened on Nov. 8.
Good Morning TOD Family! I have been thinking of you all through this past week or two as Christmas Day drew nigh and came to be. This is my family’s holiday, and a big deal for me as long as I can remember. As with everything, this year has been different, unusual, special, and mostly in ways I would change if I could. But here it is, and it was and is full of blessings and good things and comfort and joy. I hope you have enjoyed this time, if you celebrate, and that you maybe went out for Chinese food and a movie on Christmas Day if you don’t! To good times and good things and getting together with good people or finding good times alone, for all of us. Happy Hannukah to you who celebrate the Festival of Lights. I know it is far from the highest and most meaningful of Jewish holidays; I do love the spirit of lighting candles, remembering when Not Enough turned out to be More Than Enough, and spreading the celebrations and joys out with sweet home rituals and celebrations for eight days. Brilliant. And candles. Always a lovely thing. Kwanzaa Greetings and Blessings to you who celebrate this festival. I am thinking of the meaning of each day’s word — a rich, worthy focus as this year ends and I think of how to proceed. Embracing the past while gathering together and envisioning the future, with candles, food, lessons — it’s all good. I am so grateful that the longest darkest night of the year has come and gone and that we are now moving toward longer daylight and shorter nights. I can’t see it yet but I know it is true and I am counting on it. I love and bless and cherish each and every one of you TOD family. Words cannot express it. NerdyWonka, you are the shining glowing constant star in our sky. I will never ever forget the steadfast goodness and fierce beams of truth and power and generosity and honor that you have been sending forth day and night, month in and month out, always and forever. I do not deserve such work and goodness but I am grateful for it and count on it to see me through. To Miss Chips, I think of you with love and gratitude every day, every single day, and send you all good wishes and love across the miles and time and space. Because of you, we are all here, and HERE is here, to come to, to allow us to celebrate the infinitely good, holy, rich, generous, honorable and compassionate powerful season that has been the time of President Barack Hussein Obama to come to power by our hands filling in the ovals, pulling the lever, tapping the screen, in landslides and victory, TWICE. Because of you we have this place to gather and remind ourselves that this is true, real, precious, and good. My heart is a little under the weather right now, as I think many of us might say, but my heart is also full and strong and bursting with wonder and joy and love for POTUS FLOTUS and First Daughters and First Mom-in-Law and all the dear ones who love and share their lives; and celebration for First Pups, and for all the glorious never-to-be-forgotten always-to-be-remembered ways in which they have opened the doors of The White House, Their HOME for 8 great years, to the people, to ALL the People, to come in and realize that this is our place, all of us, not just those small-minded small-hearted ones, but ALL of us. Here’s to All of Us! Love and joy come to you.
Wonderful celebration, Nancie! I love this and agree with all you’ve said here. Nerdy, maybe you’d like to put this up in a thread of prominence….It’s just perfect. Thank you for these thoughts, so eloquently said. Love and hugs to you, Nancie!
Nancie, That is perfectly beautiful. Every word truth. Agree with df about putting in a prominent place. I read things like this and wish I could express myself like that, but alas, that is not a gift I have. Thankful others here do. ❤️😍💕. Thanks again, Nancie. Blessings to you and your family.
Here’s to All of Us! Love and joy come to you.
Yes Nancie…what a beautiful sentiment spoken so kindly and from the heart…..We will never forget our time here at that diary….and the people who have come thru here as well as NW…the fierce warrior…and Ms Chips…the founder….
as the First Lady says…God Bless
Nancie, your writing is why I told you that your cookbooks are delicious to read. The words rival the actual desserts. Thank you for every morsel and kernel of truth. Much love to you ❤
Nancie – you are a wordsmith indeed. Thanks for this beautiful statement!
Good morning Ms. Chips, Danny and TOD family, I hope all is well with everyone this lovely Tuesday morning. Congrats rikyrah, on being first this morning.
Nerdy, thanks so much for helping Ms. Chips and the sacrifices you are making for us TOD’ers. 💫🙏👌👊❤
To all, I hope your day is as beautiful as the sun rising, as delightful as birds chirping, and as smooth as the sound of the ocean waves today. ❤ ❤ ❤
Notwithstanding the nightmare of BuffoonTrump in the Whitehouse, I am more than ever, Thankful to God that President Obama is still the President of The United States of America. ⭐🏆 ⭐🏆 ⭐🏆
Huh. You don’t say.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/report-netanyahu-to-be-investigated-for-bribery-fraud/
A months-long inquiry into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s affairs took a new twist on Monday, with police reportedly convinced that they will be able to open a full-blown criminal investigation against him in the next few days.
Police recently received new documents as part of a secret inquiry that began almost nine months ago, Channel 2 reported. Based on those files police have already turned to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit requesting that he allow them to open a full criminal investigation. The report stated that among the suspected offenses are bribe-taking and aggravated fraud.
If he was removed it would be a blessing to Israel and the world.
They seem to vote in the RW nuts no matter what. Fear sells.
Woman charged with hate crime after stabbing transgender man who offered his train seat in Harlem
A Manhattan woman stabbed a transgender man who had offered her a seat on a Harlem subway Christmas night after declaring, “I don’t want to sit next to black people,” police sources said.
Stephanie Pazmino, 30, was riding a southbound No. 4 train with her cousin by 125th St. and Lexington Ave. at about 11:05 p.m. when Ijan DaVonte Jarrett, 44, who is black, offered to give up his seat. She refused, then told her cousin in Spanish that she didn’t want to sit next to a black person, sources said.
“I got up anyway and said to her that she didn’t have to sit next to me,” said Jarrett, a hairstylist on his way home from a Christmas Day job in Bayonne. “I took a seat across from her and just forgot all about it.”
When Pazmino got up to leave the train, she started punching him, he said. He didn’t realize he was being stabbed, he said, until another man rushed in to help.
http://www.azfamily.com/story/34135015/navy-to-commission-uss-gabrielle-giffords?autostart=true
MOBILE, AL (AP) –
A naval program that has become a target for critics is preparing to commission a new vessel named after a well-known shooting survivor.
Constructed by Austal USA in Mobile, Alabama, the USS Gabrielle Giffords has completed testing in the Gulf of Mexico and is scheduled to be commissioned in mid-2017. The company handed over the $475 million ship to the Navy on Friday.
Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman who was shot in the head during an assassination attempt in 2011, helped christen the ship in 2015. It’s part of a hotly debated program that congressional critics slam as flawed and too expensive but that Navy leaders defend as a critical new step in naval warfighting.
❤🌹🙏🏻🌹❤ Back with New Moon stats after I find my glasses! 😹
Ain’t that the hardest thing? I always need my glasses to find my glasses! It’s quite a conundrum. Although usually Nickelby is sitting on them.
We’ve talked about this from time to time here….
http://election.princeton.edu/2016/12/25/constitutional-hardball-can-democrats-confirm-merrick-garland-on-january-3rd/
If only. If only. If only. 😉💕😉💕
Morning, Tnmtngirl….I thought this comment from this piece was spot on!
Stuart Levine // Dec 26, 2016 at 11:37 am
This points up something that I’ve come to believe: That the Democratic Party is, in fact, the conservative (with a small “c”) party. That is, the Democratic Party does not, willy-nilly, jettison norms of practice and observes formalities.
On the other hand, the GOP has become a radical reactionary party, essentially ceding the government to the billionaire class, infecting the intellectual world with ideological “think tanks,” using rhetoric that was previously outside of the pale of normal political discourse, etc.
No, the Democratic Party, when in control of the Senate for a brief moment, will not approve the nomination of Judge Garland. That would be a violation of political norms. However, the Trump nominee, whomever that may be, will, when on the SCOTUS bench, regularly violate traditional norms of judicial conduct and constitutional interpretation. He or she will trample long established legal interpretations in order to reach ideological goals.
Sigh – I fear that is a fantasy! The damn Senate GOP have cheated we the people by taking frequent breaks from any work but having someone gavel in so they never officially recess, including this Christmas break, entirely to prevent President Obama from doing any recess appointment. It’s a horrendous power grab that has stolen a SCOTUS seat and about 100 seats on the federal bench from President Obama and us.
GM DF.
Saw the discussion on this from yesterday’s thread, and Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz responded that “I’m not sure any of that is in the works…” in response to Brooke Gladstone’s question — are these the things being asked on The People View? (Based on Sherijr’s recommendation, I glanced at that blog, but didn’t see the Merrick Garland discussion 😦 ).
Interesting audio (you can pretty much skip the first 2 1/2 minutes of the interview, which consists of Brooke Gladstone [being pretty bitchy, IMHO, know nothing about her, but she could have been reading script from Glenn Greenwald or some other dudebro] grilling @Schultz44 about drones and such.
Here’s link to the audio:
Ask what GOP would have done: no question they would get their nominee on the bench. But Dems are still afraid the GOP won’t be nice to them if they push back.
Newsflash: GOP doesn’t like you. They are not going to like you for a good many years. Fight for what’s right. Give your excellent POTUS the duty he is entrusted with, and appoint Garland.
Not expecting it, of course.
Keeps me up at night. He has no business in that place. He is incapable of making wise, intelligent decisions. It terrifies me. I trust my children more than I trust this POS.
HE IS SWINE AND EVEN THAT PARTICULAR LABEL IS TOO GOOD FOR HIM!..NAZI!
Good Read
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/12/27/lin-manuel-miranda-on-president-trump-i-know-what-i-m-going-to-fight-for-in-the-years-to-come.html
Hello everybody.
Thank you, Nerdy for all your hard work
((((((((((((((Chips))))))))))))
Hope everyone had a blessed Christmas, and here’s wishing for a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
This Is Not Woodstock
by Martin Longman
December 27, 2016 10:59 AM
The guy would be named Boris.
I suggest that we adopt “This Is Not Woodstock” as the unofficial name of Trump’s inauguration and associated balls. It works on every level that we need it to work on, and you can probably make a killing if you print up a bunch of hats, pins, and t-shirts and sell them in D.C. during the festivities.
The mouth-breathers will embrace it for its explicit rejection of patchouli and Birkenstocks and all the values associated with modernism. The rest of us will get the joke that this will be the unhippest, uncoolest, least worthy celebratory gathering in national history.
The joke will still be on us, unfortunately, but at least we’ll get a laugh out of it.
they can’t get the glamourous to attend, so why not just pretend that this was their plan all along …. lies is all they do, even on trivial matters that require no lying
#ThisIsNotWoodstock
GM/GA TODville.
Hope everyone had a marvelous Christmas, and enjoys the festive last week of this year, PBO’s final full-year in the White House. 😦
Susanne posted a link to this article on the previous thread, which has some great photos:
Link to article:
Photos:
more…
Tweets:
This is what #Truth and Reconciliation looks like….
will it ever happen between the sons and daughters of African Slaves and America…i hesitate to say NO when i never thought that there would be a Barack Obama in the WH…
but the question is ..does America have the WILL to make it so…
Thank you so much for posting those! Also love to see Caroline Kennedy connected to President Obama’s event (and administration) … love seeing those two cherished families connected.
Maybe the country can come together around this?
GM DF.
Didn’t read the wapo article, but here’s another:
Gee…if what’s his face denies climate change and acts accordingly, we have some diseases to think about…Probably “helps” that facts are optional.
http://blogs.plos.org/speakingofmedicine/2016/12/22/2017-global-infectious-diseases-threats-to-the-united-states/
I have often wondered what would have happened if Sen. Teddy Kennedy had not been stricken and taken so soon after PBO’s inauguration.
it is more likely that he certainly would have been very vocal against the racists who attacked & obstructed PBO at ever turn … and maybe brought additional dem senator voices with him.
….. but then scot brown’s election interrupted the legislative agenda … ;
no one knows how fate will intervene in the coming days … that is why all this chest-thumping from the right may be premature.
Facing Down Laughably Hypocritical Demands We Respect Republican Donald Trump
By Unshaken Defiancerss
POLITICS
I don’t think so. Nope, not after how the GOP treated Obama as they did. Fox News. Trump himself went birther. I will show Donald Trump all the respect the racist bankrupt and crooked real estate shyster shows Muslims, Islam, Mexicans, immigrants and others simply not as white and (allegedly) wealthy as he.
Chicago Tribune
RIP Carrie Fisher 😦
OH NO!! 😦 😦
Listening to the Star Wars soundtrack.
RIP Carrie Fisher 😥😥😥
Walk with the Angels, Carrie Fisher. Thank you for all your courage. You will
be loved always. ❤🌹🙏🏻🌹❤
She had a challenging life!
Hope you are enjoying your holiday season, MightyPamela!
Good.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-west-virginia-firstlady-idUSKBN14G1HH?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social
The director of a West Virginia nonprofit agency who called first lady Michelle Obama “an ape in heels” in a Facebook post has been fired and the institution put under outside management, state officials said on Tuesday.
Pamela Taylor, director of the Clay County Development Corp (CCDC), which provides services to poor and elderly residents, drew international condemnation after her comment last month about Obama went viral.
She resigned in November but was reinstated last month, prompting West Virginia to review its contracts with the nonprofit.
Democratic Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s office said the state had secured an agreement under which the Appalachian Area Agency on Aging will manage the CCDC for six months.
“Following the state’s request for specific assurances that the CCDC is following anti-discrimination policies, we have been assured that Pamela Taylor has been removed from her position as CCDC director,” Tomblin’s office said in a statement.
Good – and good riddance!
Good news!
I’m glad that wrong has been righted!
Happy Birthday, John Amos!
So glad he’s around to enjoy another birthday and hopefully many more. Always enjoyed anything he was in, a highly skilled athlete and actor. He was nineteen years younger than Ester Rolle who played his wife on Good Times. I am glad he made lots of noise to try and change the show from being a downer all the time. I liked the show but the family seemed could never catch a break.
Coming to America
Yes, neighbors, the aroma you are perhaps enjoying is my roasted turkey breast. Yes, I know I seldom cook and you may be surprised. Just wanted you to know my house is not on fire. It’s just my nicely roasted turkey breast. The urge to cook seldom appears, so I am also enjoying it. Thank you for asking.
Ha! Although she still denies it, one of my granddaughters said to another one year when they were swapping visits, around the holidays: “I hope you like chicken. That’s all she ever serves.”
I don’t know why, but, yesterday when the news stations reported on Carrie’s condition, I just felt that she had already transitioned and they were not aware or were not allowed to say.
May she join the others who have passed on – to rest in eternal peace.
questlove, the drummer for the Roots wrote this instagram comment regarding the passing over of a comedian, Ricky Harris who also transitioned over the holiday…”Ricky Harris showed us so much love man. 2016 man keeps taking and taking and taking. I’m not joking at all when I wonder aloud about is this the rapture happening and maybe my life isn’t right and I’m stuck on earth w ol orange crush at the wheel. Do we have the strength to even…hang on? Cause who are we kidding is 2017 all that safe? Hold on be strong y’all. Seriously.”
Stuck on earth with ol orange crush at the wheel– that’s just how I feel. I shudder, push the dread aside, continue with my daily activities (husband had knee replacement surgery so I’m the queen of doing everything for now), and plot the resistance.
This ugly situation would be intolerable without the Obama Diary ohana here, and I thank you all again for making this place so humane, so honest, so righteous, and so fun! Chips, wherever you are, blessings on your path– we all hover like angels beaming love to you, every day. Nerdy, stay strong, as your strength lifts so many. Gratitude is overwhelming me right now and leaking out my eyes.
Hugs to you, susanne. That was beautiful. And rapid recovery to your husband, following his surgery!
I am glad we have so many TOD’ers still with us to get through the ‘ol orange satan at the wheel. I read that PBO is going to go silent for awhile I guess until they piss him off when no one defends him (DEMS) and start telling lies about his record which they are already doing.
New post.
https://theobamadiary.com/2016/12/27/president-obama-delivers-remarks-with-prime-minister-abe/
January 2, 2017 Issue
Michelle Obama and Us
The tenure of a First Lady who leaves the White House as one of the most popular political figures in recent memory.
The reason why I said yes was because I am tired of being afraid,” Michelle Obama told a crowd in Council Bluffs, Iowa, during the State Fair, in August of 2007, explaining why she had signed on to a long-shot campaign to elect her husband, Barack Obama, President of the United States. She stood in a middle-school gym, surrounded by a mostly white audience that was only beginning to know her husband and had an even vaguer idea of who she was. The stage was a small, low platform, but Obama, dressed in black pants and T-shirt, with her hair pulled back in a bun, occupied it like a dancer, punctuating her seven-minute address with appealing turns and pauses, as her listeners responded. The decision to run, she said, had not been an easy one, particularly with two young daughters, and as she and her husband discussed it with others she had noticed a common theme. “They were afraid,” she said. There was “fear that we might lose. Fear that he might get hurt. Fear that this would be ugly. Fear that it would hurt our family.”
Nine years later, Michelle Obama ends her time as First Lady as one of the most popular political figures in recent memory. So it’s worth looking back on those fears, both to take the measure of her accomplishments and as a reminder of a certain national capacity for blindness. In a recent interview with Vogue, she said that, as a teen-ager on the South Side of Chicago, she had been told at school that she wasn’t “Princeton material.” During that first campaign, Obama, a graduate of Princeton and of Harvard Law, heard that she was not First Lady material. She was “angry,” “abrasive,” “nontraditional,” too big, too black, not someone Americans were “ready” for—not a lady, like Cindy McCain, the wife of her husband’s eventual Republican rival. When, in February of 2008, in a rare misstep, Obama said that her husband’s success in the early primaries had meant that “for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country, because it feels like hope is really making a comeback,” Mrs. McCain let it be known that she would never say such a thing. Following an event at which Michelle joked about Barack’s breakfast-making skills, Maureen Dowd wrote, in the Times, “Many people I talked to afterward found Michelle wondrous. But others worried that her chiding was emasculating.”
Sometimes, the message came in the form of a hint, but often it came in an outright slur. Future scholars of American conspiracy theories may be puzzled by the bizarre case of the “Whitey tape.” In the spring of 2008, there were widespread, and false, rumors of a video in which Michelle, furious (or whining, or scheming, or smug), used that word to incite a black audience and promised racial revenge. Referring to the tape, the Republican operative Roger Stone told Fox News, “I believe a network has it.” Stone later became an adviser to Donald Trump. While the birther movement, which Trump championed, painted Barack Obama as foreign, there was an effort to confine Michelle to a very American place: the ghetto.
There were echoes of that assumption even when the intent was to praise her. “Michelle Obama is by now so well assimilated that she can wear a dress and pearls that are photocopies of the clothes and jewels worn by Jackie Kennedy—and pull it off with grace and panache,” Newsweek observed in March, 2008, as if being a facsimile would, for someone like Obama, be the pinnacle of success. After eight years in which she has been acclaimed as an author of style, that sounds absurd……
Her success in the White House has had as much to do with her comfort with herself as with what might be her central precept: never believe that there is a room you have no right to walk into. It’s a message that she has delivered in speeches at historically black colleges and in her mentorship of girls. It has also come across in her work, with Jill Biden, to support military families. As the stages got bigger, Obama’s oratory became more dominant and yet, at the same time, more intimate. In one of her enduring speeches, given at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, she revisited her fears that the Presidency would change her husband. What she had realized, she said, was that power doesn’t change who you are—“it reveals who you are.”……..
Her iconoclasm gains strength from its fusion with irreproachability. She has been cheerfully scrupulous about White House traditions and rituals, including such niceties as designing what will be known as the Obama China. The trim color is Kailua Blue, an homage to the waters off Honolulu, where her husband grew up. She brought out the new china for tea with Melania Trump, two days after the election. “Melania liked Mrs. O a lot!” President-elect Trump tweeted afterward. Indeed, Melania, in her Convention speech, had photocopied Michelle.
Found this at BJ