I have completed The Good Place. I am disappointed as I was with Xena because a Warrior fights to the end. There will be no concessions, I want every vote counted. Only Tahani and Gabriel are doing that, though it’s a very Buddhist finale.
I told you it’s a Philosophy, not a Religion.
Or, you you can go out like the Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi.
Of course given the choice punching a Diamond Mountain for 14 Billion Years doesn’t seem so bad and the Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance. I’m thoroughly Midwestern, can until can’t. When you can’t run, you walk. When you can’t walk, you crawl. When you can’t crawl you ask your friends to carry you. You’ll need 4. Up to you to decide what justifies your existence.
Closing arguments in the Senate trial of the impeachment of Donald Trump from the House managers and Trump lawyers begin at 11 AM ET. Although Trunp’s acquittal is all but certain, some Republican senators have started to acknowledge that Trump’s pressuring of Ukraine for political investigations that would benefit him politically was inappropriate, or even wrong. But most say his actions, even if improper, do not clear the high bar for ejecting a president from office. In the end of this, what matters is that Trump will go down in history as the third president to be impeached.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
The ‘day the music died’ during early rock ‘n roll; the Luna 9 probe lands on the Moon; the first woman to pilot a Space Shuttle; painter Norman Rockwell and composer Felix Mendelssohn born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
This is the lesson that history teaches: repetition.
This is a really rare palindrome for dates that has not occurred in over 900 years
A palindrome is any sequence, phrase or word that reads the same backward as forward. And 02/02/2020 is considered a “universal palindrome” because it reads the same whether written as “Month/Day/Year” as the United States does, or “Day/Month/Year” as many other countries do.
The last universal palindrome occurred on 11/11/1111. The next one won’t come until 12/12/2121. [..]
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Mathematicians and geeks everywhere celebrated a rare occurrence Sunday, 02/02/2020, a kind of 8-digit palindrome that hasn’t happened for more than 900 years.
A palindrome is any sequence, phrase or word that reads the same backward as forward. And 02/02/2020 is considered a “universal palindrome” because it reads the same whether written as “Month/Day/Year” as the United States does, or “Day/Month/Year” as many other countries do.
The last universal palindrome occurred on 11/11/1111. The next one won’t come until 12/12/2121.
“It’s possible to live your entire life without ever having gone through a universal palindrome, so it’s pretty cool to have one in your lifetime,” said Heather Pierce, a mathematics lecturer at Emmanuel College in Boston.
The date was cause for celebration on Twitter, where even those who don’t specialize in math got a kick out of the rare global palindrome.
“Another one won’t happen for 101 years, so make the most of this one! ” tweeted actor Mark Hamill of “Star Wars” fame.
“Are you guys pumped? The big day is finally here!!” tweeted musical comedian “Weird Al” Yankovic.
“Right now people all across the country are getting together with friends and loved ones to celebrate – so exciting. Anyway, from my house to yours, Happy Palindrome Day!”
Ok. 9ers. They have a female Offensive Co-ordinator (what we used to call a Coach or an Assistant Coach).
Plus, they are likely to win.
So the Chiefs have Mahones. He’s arguably the best there is at the moment and while he’s going up against one of the premier Pass Rushes in the NFL it’s not particularly suited to thwart his game if he throws short and quick.
On the other hand the 9ers Kyle Shanahan (he’s a Coach, not a Quarterback) is going to destroy the Chiefs’ Defense and it’s hard to say how good Jimmy Garoppolo is because anyone can make a Mercedes look racy but only Fernando Alonso can make a brick of a Ferrari seem so.
Metaphor too Formula One for you (don’t get me wrong, Hamilton is better and nicer than most but he doesn’t exceed the iron the way Alonso does)? Football is a sport you play with your feet, Brazilians call it “O Jogo Bonito”. This is why I expect “Throwball” to go viral any day now and instead of the CFL and NFL we’ll be talking about the CTL and NTL (the NBA wouldn’t change because “Bouncy” has the same initial letter as “Basket”. Where are the Baskets Varus?).
Truth told though, were I a Coach I’d spend any amount of money on a Kicker who could nail it from our 25. More points are scored by Kickers than Quarterbacks.
There are certainly a lot of reasons to hate on the NFL as an institution from CTE to Domestic Violence to Steroid Abuse and Firearms Felonies (not unlinked to the Domestic Violence) to Kaepernick (who Started the Superb Owl in 2012 for the 9ers, just saying), and the new Pass Interference Rules but perhaps the saddest thing about it is this-
It’s highly unlikely we’ll see another Superb Owl in Miami ever again because it will be underwater from Global Warming.
The San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs will face each other in the Super Bowl on Sunday in Miami. The game will only last a few hours, but Florida is just beginning a decades-long war with a foe that can’t be beat: sea-level rise. If emissions continue to rise unchecked, Miami’s football stadium could be flooded with standing water and America’s holiest championship game will have to be played somewhere else.
For a sneak peek at what Miami Garden’s Hard Rock Stadium, the venue for Super Bowl LIV, could look like in a few decades, look no further than Florida’s coastline. Nearly 600,000 people in South Florida face “extreme” or “high” risk from sea-level rise, according to the Trump administration’s 4th National Climate Assessment. Already, the sea level around Florida is 8 inches higher than it was 70 years ago. Over the past decade, the rate of acceleration has sped up. Florida seas are now rising an inch every three years. Floods are inundating low-lying cities like Miami even on sunny days.
A new report from Climate Central — an organization that analyzes how climate change affects the public — shows that Hard Rock Stadium, between 4 and 6 feet above sea level, is likely to experience some of this flooding in the coming century. It’s not just the football field that’s at risk of getting swamped by climate change. Local roads, the stadium’s $135 million training facility, the tennis center, and parking lots will face higher odds of being submerged.
Developers recently completed a three-year-long, $500 million renovation of the stadium. But the stadium’s state-of-the-art canopy and high-definition screens won’t save it when the floods come. The Hard Rock Stadium property has at the very least, a 1 percent chance of being submerged by rising seas every year by 2070 if the world continues emitting greenhouse gases business-as-usual. By 2090, the risk of the stadium experiencing serious flooding each year rises to 10 percent.
Remember, this is likely an underestimate. A 2019 U.N. report found that the kind of floods this report is talking about will occur in Miami every year as soon as 2050. Plus, the Climate Central analysis didn’t account for rain-induced flooding, seepage, backed-up storm drains, or other reasons why water might make its way into low-lying areas.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
Wait, that’s the one I always think of. You might have been expecting this-
I’m afraid it’s not much more cheerful if you listen to the lyrics though the tune is catchy. Yes I have Genuine People Personality (® Sirius Cybernectics Corporation, “Share and Enjoy”), I was a prototype.
It’s that time of year again where we learn that all 96 puppies from over 61 shelters and including 5 Special Needs dogs have already been adopted.
Sorry.
Some people are under the impression I don’t like dogs which is not at all true. Most of them like me too though there is this one, Luna, that my activist brother occasionally has to look after that barks every time she sees me.
She has abandonment issues due to mistreatment and my lifestyle, which consists mostly of cursing at the computer and wandering to the refrigerator at odd intervals for food, means I’m only available intermittently for emotional bonding and that’s what dogs want, all the time.
Take your neediest girlfriend ever, triple it, and that’s what Dogs are like. Yeah they’re also a pain in the ass in other ways, you have to walk them for one, but that excited door bouncing is not just, “I need to pee.” Dogs genuinely like their humans and miss you when you’re away.
And if that’s the kind of experience you’re looking for (along with the knowledge they’ll be dead in 15 years despite your best efforts and all your money) then you should have one. Emily has deeply regretted it ever since her last one died, yet I can’t persuade her to just get another one. Our pets tend to find us, we don’t go looking for them.
We also go for hyper imaginative names like “Terry” for a Terrier and “Dally” for a Dalmatian. Yep, we have a lot of fun in Stars Hollow but to make up for it the Winters are long, dark, and cold. Now walk that damn dog before they pee on the carpet.
In truth we set up a dog run which is what you do when you don’t want to strap a Taser to your dog’s neck and opt for the more civilized solution of wrapping them in chains. It’s still there, vacant, and I can never mow that part of the lawn without checking my shoes.
I could certainly make Luna love me, or at least obey me, because I know all the Caesar Milan tricks, but the question is how committed am I to that relationship? She’s not my dog, or even my brother’s, simply a stranger who sleeps over every so often.
Perhaps she senses that and it’s the source of her discontent.
The other things you should know about dogs is they like to play, practically all the time unless they’re sleeping in which case they make good footrests and bed warmers if you can stand the hair and dander. They can do amusing stuff like chase non-existent Tennis Balls but I think that a cruel trick. You can dress them in costumes and they don’t seem to mind, unlike Cats where there is always this seething resentment. Of course Cats pretty much resent everything (not unlike a teenager) which is why I like them. You don’t have to walk them either which is bonus.
Alas I am completely pet free at the moment but when I consider my sketchy attention to details perhaps it is for the best.
Puppy Bowl will repeat in a continuous loop on Animal Planet until about 6 am tomorrow and it was filmed 3 months ago. Sorry (not sorry) to ruin your illusions.
And don’t forget your Booties because it’s cold outside today.
What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?
That about sums it up for me.
Ned? Ned Ryerson?!
Don’t Drive Angry!
You like boats, but not the ocean. You go to a lake in summer with your family up in the mountains. There’s a long wooden dock and a boathouse with boards missing from the roof, and a place you used to crawl underneath to be alone. You’re a sucker for French poetry and rhinestones. You’re very generous. You’re kind to strangers and children, and when you stand in the snow you look like an angel.
How are you doing this?
I told you. I wake up every day, right here, right in Punxsutawney, and it’s always February 2nd, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
How appropriate
It’s the Mind
I’ll tell you 3 things- You have to keep doing it until you get it right and if in the First Act you introduce a Gun, by the Third Act you have to use it.
Oh, and Phil didn’t see his shadow this year, predicting an early Spring.
For many in the Lower 48, it’s been a year without a winter. Temperatures have stayed well above average, while snow has been scarce. The calendar says it’s the season’s midpoint, but will winter finally take control during its second half or remain in hibernation? According to groundhog Punxsutawney Phil, it’s the latter, and we’ll have an early spring.
Just after 7:25 a.m. Sunday, with a record crowd on hand to witness the spectacle, Phil emerged from his den in Punxsutawney, Pa., amid a steady light snow and temperatures near 30 degrees, The marmot did not see his shadow, signifying early spring, according to folklore. Had he spotted his shadow, it would have meant six more weeks of winter.
Since his first prediction in 1887 through this year, Phil has seen his shadow 104 times, while he has failed to spot it on just 20 occasions. Ten years are missing from the record, but Phil has issued forecasts without exception. It is the second year in a row Phil has not seen his shadow and the first time on record in consecutive years.
Pondering the Pundits: Sunday Preview Edition” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
On Sunday mornings we present a preview of the guests on the morning talk shows so you can choose which ones to watch or some do something more worth your time on a Sunday morning.
This Week with George Stephanopolis: The guests on Sunday’s “This Week” are: 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates: former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and busindessman Andrew Yang.
The roundtable guests are: ABC News Political Analyst Matthew Dowd; former Gov.Chris Christie (R-NJ); former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel; Republican Strategist Sara Fagen; and Democracy for America CEO Yvette Simpson.
Face the Nation: Host Margaret Brennan’s guests are: Representative Adam Schiff (D=CA); National Security Adviser Robert Obrien; 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg; and RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel,
Her panel guests are: Anthony Salvanto, CBS News Elections & Surveys Director; and Ed O’Keefe, CBS News Political Correspondent.
Meet the Press with Chuck Todd: The guests on this week’s “MTP” are: 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg; and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN).
The panel guests are: Cornell Belcher, progressive pollster; O. Kay Henderson, Radio Iowa News Director; Rich Lowry, conservative jerk; and Anna Palmer
State of the Union with Jake Tapper: Mr. Tapper’s guests are: 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg; and Sen. Joni “Hog Castrater” Ernst (R-IA).
If you’re gonna look at yourself, really look in the mirror, you gotta admit who you are. But not just to yourself, you gotta admit it to everybody else. – Francis Castiglione
Hours after the Senate voted against seeking new evidence in the impeachment case against President Trump, the administration acknowledged in a midnight court filing Friday the existence of two dozen emails that reveal the president’s thinking about withholding military aid to Ukraine.
The Department of Justice filed a response to a lawsuit seeking access to unredacted copies of those communications. Heather Walsh, a lawyer for the Office of Management and Budget, wrote to the court that 24 of those emails were protected under “presidential privilege.”
“Specifically, the documents in this category are emails that reflect communications by either the President, the Vice President, or the President’s immediate advisors regarding Presidential decision-making about the scope, duration, and purpose of the hold on military assistance to Ukraine,” Walsh wrote.
Heavily blacked out versions of the emails were released in two batches in December in response to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Public Integrity. The filing Friday asked the court to deny the organization’s request for unredacted copies.
The earliest correspondence redacted to protect presidential privilege is from June 24, 2019 between Pentagon officials and has the subject line: “POTUS follow up.”
The crux of the impeachment case against Trump is whether he used the $391 million in military aid to Ukraine and a coveted White House meeting for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as leverage to force the foreign leader to conduct political investigations, including one focused on former vice president Joe Biden. In a July 25 call, Trump had asked Zelensky to “do us a favor.”
The Senate voted 51-49 on Friday to block witnesses and other new evidence, clearing the way for Trump’s likely acquittal next week. Trump and administration officials had stonewalled the House impeachment probe, refusing to allow some witnesses to testify and to provide requested documents.
Why Trump wanted Congress-approved assistance to Ukraine delayed is the central question of his impeachment and was the greatest point of tension in the Senate trial.
Many of the witnesses who did testify in the House impeachment investigation hadn’t been given an official reason.
William B. Taylor Jr., the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, recalled during his Oct. 22 deposition that he first learned of the hold on a July 18 conference call, when an OMB aide said the security assistance was being held, but couldn’t say why.
“All that the OMB staff person said was that the directive had come from the president to the Chief of Staff to OMB,” Taylor said. “In an instant, I realized that one of the key pillars of our strong support for Ukraine was threatened.”
During the Senate trial, House Democratic managers argued there was sufficient evidence to conclude that the president was using the money as leverage to pressure the Ukrainian government to launch a public investigation into Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
But White House defense lawyers argued during the Senate trial that Democrats couldn’t prove motive, and suggested it was possible Trump had mixed motives in placing a hold on the aid, both personal and in the public interest.
The House managers said that was why they wanted the Senate to subpoena additional documents and witnesses with firsthand knowledge of the president’s thinking, such as acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), who led the House prosecution case, warned Friday that the contents of such emails will eventually be public.
“The facts will come out in all of their horror,” Schiff said in closing remarks. “The documents the president is hiding will come out. The witnesses the president is concealing will tell their stories.”
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