January, 2017 archive
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Enjoy it while it lasts.
Key Points
- Jobless claims declined by 15,000 to 234,000 (forecast was 252,000) in the week ended Jan. 14
- Previous week’s claims revised to 249,000 from 247,000
- Continuing claims dropped by 47,000 to 2.05 million in the week ended Jan. 7
- Unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits, also reported with a one-week lag, was unchanged at 1.5 percent
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Practice makes polite.
Just another day in NRA Paradise.
One Thing Is Not Like the Other Thing 0
I’ve found that many persons don’t understand that “compromise” means you don’t always get what you want.
QOTD 0
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
Men show their character in nothing more clearly than by what they think laughable.
Palate Cleanser 0
I think I’ve finally shaken that case of the flu.
Outside Agitators 0
They aren’t who you think they are.
Ryan’s Derp 0
Francis Wilkinson wonders whether the Republican Party’s presidential victory may turn out to be Paul Ryan’s comeuppance. Here’s a key bit from his column:
(snip)
Like others before him — students at “Trump University,” investors in bankrupt Trump casinos — Ryan thought he could piggyback on Trump’s self-interest. Trump would get the White House. Ryan would get his ambitious agenda: large tax cuts for the wealthy, huge spending cuts in anti-poverty programs, such as food stamps and Medicaid, and the replacement of Obamacare with a less-regulated system that reduces subsidies for the needy, leaving millions without reliable access to health care.
The tax cuts still seem certain. But Trump keeps mucking up the Obamacare business so profoundly that it’s hard to see how Ryan can extricate himself from the mess.
However this plays out, it’s going to be a long four years. I suspect that this is the best we can hope for.
Rewrite! 1
As a Southern Boy, from when I first became aware, I have watched as racists rewrite history so as to blame the victimized for being victims. Hell, from my first lessons in Virginia history in elementary school in the 1950’s, where the arrival of the first African slaves at Jamestown in 1619 was taught as part of “the Red Letter Year,” I was subjected to such rewritten racist propaganda–it was only later that I started to winnow out the lies (a process which, by the by, continues).
Consequently, I can say from first-hand experience that this is nothing new.
Your Lyin’ Ears 0
The Seattle Times’s Donald Westneat offers a strategy for avoiding a Trumpling. A snippet (emphasis added):
I’m not saying don’t be engaged. I’m also not saying one can’t pause to celebrate that Friday’s inauguration is yet another peaceful transfer of democratic power.
I’m saying only this: Don’t listen to what he says.
I realized this when his own spokesperson of all people recently advised that we shouldn’t judge Trump by “what comes out of his mouth.”
Breathe Easy 0
The country is safe until Monday.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness is a family affair.
“Every interview we do, every piece of evidence we gather, really just seems to further indicate that this was an accident,” said Dagnan.
You’re Lyin’ Eyes 0
The things that you’ve seen
A-flickerin’ on that screen,
They ain’t necessarily so.
