My own version of an Advent Calendar. Feel free to contribute a favorite video each day amid all the political upheaval and miscellaneous world conflagrations.
JAMIE’S PLACE FOR STUFF
A Stroll Though Memory, Time and Politics With Stops Along The Way
Tis The Season
- October 2026
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About Me
Retired great grandmother living in the Northwest US. Former radio Public Service Director and National Accounts Manager.
I’m a hair-dishevelled heilan’ coo,
Hamish McKay be ma name;
Welcome tae this dreichet glen
I’m cursed tae ca’ ma hame.
Depending on the mood I’m in
I’ll raise ma horns on high,
An’ if I like the look o’ ye
I’ll likely let ye by.
But should I dinnae like the look
O’ ye, then tak great care,
I’ll raise ma horns on high again,
Go on, get oot o’there!
So whether welcome yae or nae,
I’ll raise these horns sae mean,
Then ye shall ken ma meaning
By the twinkle o’ ma een.
Courtesy of
MARION GRAY Wollaton Road Wollaton Park Nottingham
62 responses to “Tis The Season”
Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett
They are also do this Barnes and Noble commercial
I didn’t know who she was in the commercial.
https://youtu.be/k04K8mND5GU
Jack
Lady Gaga and Tony did a number of old numbers, Lady Gaga is good but as youtube reminds me she is no Ella
https://youtu.be/2Gn9A-kdsRo
https://youtu.be/CHIx6ViBplo
Sweet Harmonies
https://youtu.be/L1nQpoAvTSg
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Endure as Ben Carson Recedes, Poll Says
By Alan Rappeport
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/12/02/donald-trump-and-hillary-clinton-endure-as-ben-carson-recedes-poll-says/
“For Democrats, this appears to be good news. Quinnipiac’s poll shows both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders beating Mr. Trump handily in head-to-head matchups. At the moment, Mrs. Clinton appears to be the clear favorite, having widened her advantage against Mr. Sanders: The poll shows her ahead by a margin of 60 percent to 30 percent among Democratic voters.
Mr. Sanders lost some momentum after the Democratic debates, where Mrs. Clinton performed well. While voters still have doubts about her honesty, questions about Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state have subsided for the time being.
Mrs. Clinton’s momentum has improved her standing in face-offs against all the leading Republican contenders, the poll shows. However, Mr. Rubio, who has been rising steadily, fares the best against her, trailing by just one percentage point.”
The Lazy Persons Guide to Saving the World http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/takeaction/
Donald Trump is a bigot and a racist
Dana Milbank
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-is-a-bigot-and-a-racist/2015/12/01/a2a47b96-9872-11e5-8917-653b65c809eb_story.html
yep and he has a lot of company in the Republican Party. It is an issue they need to deal with. Imnsoho.
Jack
She’s a rich girl, wears diamonds on the souls of her shoes.
https://youtu.be/-I_T3XvzPaM
Absolutely love the Graceland album. My favorite song “Under African Skies” because of the tributes to Joseph Shabalala, of Lady Smith Black Mambazo and Linda Ronstadt
https://youtu.be/4soNdasI7_s
https://youtu.be/H-WXEWbPMYc
A Christmas carol performed on beer bottles by party-goers. For more information, visit the Bowen Beer Bottle Band
lol good stuff there
and back atcha
https://youtu.be/sWEfszb9h8Q
Jack
KumCho and I used to enjoy immensely our occasional visits to Cambridge. They were never complete without a stop at the incomparable King’s Chapel at the university.
https://youtu.be/QnYwMOwqZ-k
Beautiful
While Trump is in the lead at a steady 25-30%. The pack is starting to shake itself out. The battle is for second, where the goal is to eliminate any of the nontrump competition. The 70% that Trump can’t get will decide the winner.
And toward that end
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/02/politics/cruz-rubio-2016-smackdown/
Jack
Trump on Top and the Man the GOP Desperately Wants to Stop
Taylor Marsh
http://www.taylormarsh.com/2015/12/trump-on-top-and-the-man-the-gop-desperately-wants-to-stop/
“Let’s not mince words: Donald Trump is a bigot and a racist. – Dana Milbank [The Washington Post]
ON THE pages of The Washington Post today, Dana Milbank asks Republicans a question: Shouldn’t Republicans take that time before they nominate a racist? As Ben Carson tumbles out of contention, the Republican establishment is openly venting and very worried about Donald Trump being nominated.
Chris Christie, who got the big New Hampshire state paper endorsement, is still likely looking at defeat. Can Christie play for second and be called the next “comeback kid”?
“Right now, Trump’s going to win New Hampshire,” said Dave Carney, a longtime GOP strategist in the state who is not connected to any of the 2016 contenders. “It’s a jump ball for second.” [Politico]
Trump’s “bigot and a racist” persona will serve him well through the swing south. No one wants to put it like that, but let’s face it. The white man is down and out in America, and many see Donald Trump as their guy, the man who can bring new gravitas to being white.
Republicans know what that means in a general election. Senate goes Democratic, and governors tumble, but it will take a lot for Democrats to make a comeback in state legislatures, but it has to start somewhere.
Maybe Trump will finally level things out after President Obama and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, et al. allowed two midterms to turn America red state by state.
From Jonathan Martin
That has led to a standoff of sorts: Almost everyone in the party’s upper echelons agrees something must be done, and almost no one is willing to do it.
With his knack for offending the very constituencies Republicans have struggled with in recent elections, women and minorities, Mr. Trump could be a millstone on his party if he won the nomination. He is viewed unfavorably by 64 percent of women and 74 percent of nonwhite voters, according to a November ABC News/Washington Post poll. Such unpopularity could not only doom his candidacy in November but also threaten the party’s tenuous majority in the Senate, hand House seats to the Democrats and imperil Republicans in a handful of governor’s races.
Yet the clamor for a “Stop Trump” effort has become pervasive at the Senate’s highest levels, where members up for re-election are realizing that they can no longer dismiss as strictly theoretical the possibility of his capturing the nomination. Mr. Trump’s persistent ranking at or near the top of the polls is prompting urgent calls for an advertising assault to try to sink his campaign.[…]
In my estimation, Donald Trump is the candidate today’s Republicans deserve, so he’s welcome on the stage. I can’t get enough of watching him. He is the culmination of right-wing radio’s work, helped along by tea party bigotry and racism, with well-meaning conservatives stuck on the sidelines trying to find a legitimate candidate who can take Trump out.
Right now, every Republican woman and man running for reelection has to work to distance themselves from a Trump candidacy, which may be their only hope.
Donald Trump had a Reagan moment, but he’s now turned the corner to something else. There are GOP machinations at work, including trying to push Trump off the ballot, which was discussed on “With All Due Respect” recently.
Republicans are talking right now like they won’t allow Trump to win, which means an independent candidacy is still a possibility.
Maybe Trump voters don’t turn out to vote. That might be the GOP’s only hope.”
Why do people take an instant dislike to Ted Cruz? It saves time.
Anybody But Cruz
This could get interesting … Suspect in shooting (still little info) named Sayeed Farouk. They make it very clear that he is (not announced if dead or alive) a US citizen.
from http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/breakingnews/authorities-identify-couple-who-they-believe-killed-14-at-san-bernardino-holiday-party/ar-AAfWxUk?ocid=spartanntp
Late Wednesday night, San Bernardino police Chief Jarrod Burguan identified the people killed in the gun battle with police as Syed Rizwan Farook, a 28-year-old American citizen, and 27-year-old Tashfeen Malik. Police did not know where Malik was born or where she had lived.
Burguan said police are “reasonably confident” that Farook and Malik, who may have been married or engaged, were the same two people who opened fire at the holiday party Wednesday morning.
Farook, who had worked for the county health department for five years, left the party “under some circumstances that were described as angry.”
so now will the “round ’em all up and put ’em in camps” crowd join the anti-refugee gopers?
jack, on that rubio/cruz fight you mentioned above, my theory is that foremost in marco’s mind is to 1st become veep (which means he has to vanquish bush — same state problem- from being prez nominee). he’s betting on goper establishment dumping both trump and cruz in the end due to their yuck factor and settling on a kasich/romney type.
https://youtu.be/x46Mn5O8Q0g
I’m Voting for Hillary Clinton Because She’s a Woman
Jillian Gutowitz
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jillian-gutowitz/im-voting-for-hillary-clinton-because-shes-a-woman_b_8684910.html
“When a little girl in the United States opens her history textbook to view the past presidents of our country, she is confronted with an overwhelming barricade of testosterone. She is reminded every day of her gender, because every day, a textbook points out that her gender plays no part in the history of her government. This little girl is ambitious. She proudly says to her classmates, “I want to be the president of the United States of America.” Her classmates can then laugh at her, call her names and remind her that girls can’t be president. The heartbreaking truth is that even as kids, they have the evidence to back this up. To me, that is a strong enough reason to vote for a qualified woman for president.”
At least things have changed to bring this about. Once upon a time many, many decades ago I actually heard the sentence, “It’s a shame you weren’t a boy, you could have been anything.” Damn right I’m voting for Hillary.
https://youtu.be/cbecKv2xR14
Hillary Clinton’s infrastructure plan, explained
by Matthew Yglesias
http://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9826668/clinton-infrastructure-plan-explained
more on the ca shooters reveal he was a citizen born in the usa, she was pakistani, and they visited saudia arabia. …
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/12/03/they-were-a-couple-the-striking-difference-between-the-san-bernardino-suspects-and-other-mass-shooters/
yet we fear syrian refugees?
Or even worse think it is okay to damn 1.6 billion co-religionists for the outrageous violence of a small percentage. Maybe we should hang all Christians by their thumbs after the next theater/school/clinic shoot out?
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/trevor-noah-gives-trumps-insults-the-reality-show-treatment-they-deserve/#ooid=k4OXU4eToKsS6TpJChpIYB0zSXTT2jiB
Kings College Cambridge with more beauty
https://youtu.be/l7eHtDtZ7hs
from jamie’s sublime to monty’s ridiculous
https://youtu.be/QmZYIyySxPE
optional python carol available on youtube titled “ho, ho, f**king ho” risked a banning from blog –
DIY
CNN/ORC Poll: Trump alone at the top again
By Jennifer Agiesta
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/04/politics/donald-trump-poll-cnn-orc-national/index.html
Poll: Clinton expands favorability lead over Sanders
By Nick Gass
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/poll-democrats-2016-hillary-clinton-216422#ixzz3tM86tAQ5
Chris Matthews slams Donald Trump & tells supporters ‘You should be ashamed’
Video
By Egberto Willies
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/12/3/1456672/-Chris-Matthews-slams-Donald-Trump-tells-supporters-You-should-be-ashamed
One yuuuuuge mistake: Donald Trump just delivered an anti-Semitic speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition
The GOP front-runner prattled off a series of offensive stereotypes about Jews before a room full of nothing but VIDEO
http://www.salon.com/2015/12/03/one_yuuuuuge_mistake_donald_trump_just_delivered_an_anti_semitic_speech_to_the_republican_jewish_coalition/
Gay Sex-Obsessed Pastor Loves on Donald Trump
Olivia Nuzzi
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/12/03/gay-sex-obsessed-pastor-loves-on-trump.html
“James David Manning—otherwise known as the ‘Stone the Homos’ guy—is busy preaching his bromance with the GOP frontrunner.
Pastor James David Manning sat in front of a microphone at his cherry-red desk, a cartoon rendering of Harlem serving as the backdrop in his makeshift TV studio. He wore a gray windowpane three-piece suit, a purple shirt with a white collar that his double chin spilled onto, and a shiny, gold tie.
“I wanna take the time to address those who are supporters of one Mr. Donald Trump,” he said into the camera for his latest installment of The Manning Report. “One of the wisest, most patient, humble, gracious—yet strongest leader I have ever encountered in all the days of my life.”
Manning likes Trump, in case he didn’t make it clear, and it’s not hard to understand why.
Manning likes Trump for the same reason Alex Jones and his ilk like Trump. Manning likes Trump for the same reason white supremacists like Trump.
Manning likes Trump because Trump hates, just like he does. “
Renee, the Maya Angelou that you linked yesterday was so nice, thank you.
Hanukah is early this year beginning sundown on Sunday: Light One Candle https://youtu.be/StB_ehpZyN4
that time of year already
https://youtu.be/KX5Z-HpHH9g
Chanukah, dammit.
http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2009/top10_hanukkah/spell_hanukkah.jpg
Tim Pannell / Corbis
When I spell it Chanukah, Google asks me if I’m looking for Hanukah, dammit!!!! 😳
who cares as long as there are latkes
Traditional Potato Latkes
Makes approx. 20 pancakes
Ingredients
• 4-5 potatoes
• 2 white onions
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste
• vegetable/canola oil, for frying
• sour cream, garnish
• apple sauce, garnish
Directions
1. Peel potatoes and place with onions in food processor. Pulse with fitted knife blade until smooth and creamy.
2. In a large bowl, combine the potato mixture with eggs, and season with salt and pepper. Add (enough) flour so that everything stays together and doesn’t fall apart.
3. In a large frying pan or deep skillet, carefully heat 1 inch of oil on medium-high heat.
4. Gently place 1/4 cup of latke mixture into the oil and flatten a little so that it will cook evenly. Cook each side until cooked through and golden brown, then transfer onto paper towels to drain. Continue with the rest of latkes.
5. Serve latkes hot, with sour cream and apple sauce.
Is Donald Trump a Fascist?
Ross Douthat
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/opinion/campaign-stops/is-donald-trump-a-fascist.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
At Donald Trump Rally in North Carolina, the Protesters Just Keep Coming
By Nick Corasaniti
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/12/05/at-donald-trump-rally-in-north-carolina-the-protesters-just-keep-coming/?src=trending&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Trending&pgtype=article
““Be very nice to the protester,” Mr. Trump said after he was interrupted just five minutes into his speech. He then paused to discuss the demonstrators, making sure to criticize the way the news media covers the protests at his events.
“When I’m rough and I say ‘Get them out of the room,’ they say, ‘Oh, that’s terrible,’ ” Mr. Trump said, mimicking media reports. “Then when I’m nice, I say, ‘Be very careful, be very gentle, don’t hurt the protester,’ then they say, ‘He was very weak tonight.’ So you can’t win. So I’ll try and cut it right down the middle. Make sure that young lady is in beautiful shape, and if she’d like us to let her back in, do we invite her back in? I don’t know.”
The left’s absurd Hillary hate: Why this ridiculous anti-Clinton crusade needs to stop
There are many reasons to be wary of Clinton, but a subset of Democrats seem to be motivated by something else
NICO LANG
http://www.salon.com/2015/12/05/the_ridiculous_left_wing_crusade_against_hillary_clinton_needs_to_stop/
“If America as a whole has a complicated relationship with the former First Lady, one segment of the population stands out. Research from the Wall Street Journal this November showed that Hillary hysteria is coming from one major sector of the population — white men. “Sixty-four percent of white men hold an unfavorable view of Mrs. Clinton, compared with just 26 percent who see her in a positive light,” the Journal’s Aaron Zitner noted. “That’s a gap of 38 points.”
Zitner explains:
It’s about as poor a rating as Mr. Obama received at one of the lowest points of his presidency: In December 2013, amid the troubled rollout of healthcare.gov and after the government shutdown that year, Mr. Obama was viewed unfavorably by 67% of white men and favorably by 29% — a 38-point difference that matches Mrs. Clinton’s gap today.”
Oh yes, white males losing their stranglehold on America, too bad!
TheFreeDictionary ‘word of the day’ is Scaremonger. How appropriate.
And today would have been KumCho’s 79th b’day. Martha Washington better watch out; KumCho’s catching up!
Before I went to Vietnam in ’65, we took an extended trip to Washington where we visited all the places of importance in our nation’s history. The docent was shocked, when at the pleasant vault housing the Washingtons, I asked which individual had the telephone?
from http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article48171080.html
One of Florida’s biggest conservative Republican moneymen — and a billionaire backer of Jeb Bush — is so disgusted by Donald Trump’s candidacy that if he has to, he’ll do the unthinkable:
“If I have a choice — and you can put it in bold — if I have a choice between Trump and Hillary Clinton, I’m choosing Hillary,” Miami healthcare magnate Mike Fernandez told the Miami Herald on Friday. “She’s the lesser of two evils.”
Outraged by Trump’s unimpeded ascent, Fernandez is taking on the GOP frontrunner himself. He purchased a full-page ad in the upcoming Sunday edition of the Herald calling Trump a “narcissistic BULLYionaire with a hunger to be adored.” He also likened him to some of history’s bloodiest demagogues.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/trevor-noah-goes-after-asshole-ted-cruz-on-san-bernardino/#ooid=U1NmJieTqU-VqTrtCAAf9ngt4GKSTcN9
Conservatives Failing America on Guns
by Taylor Marsh
http://www.taylormarsh.com/2015/12/conservatives-failing-america-on-guns/
“THE NAMES are minutia. Their personas are meaningless. They were daesh cultists on a murder spree. As President Obama said so perfectly in his weekly address, “and we will not be terrorized.”
What’s trending and getting our attention, however, is a different story. A page one editorial on guns in The New York Times, the first since 1920.
The last time The Times ran an editorial on the front page was in June 1920, when it lamented the nomination of Warren G. Harding as the Republican presidential candidate. It was a move, The Times wrote, that would “be received with astonishment and dismay by the party whose suffrages he invites.”
Congress is feckless, no doubt about it. However, on gun safety, it’s not both parties that are the problem, it’s Republicans. Democrats continue to offer solutions, while all conservatives can do in the face of mass slaughter is say “no.”
A conservative in Australia, John Howard, managed to change that country’s gun culture. But then, he wasn’t in the pocket of the N.R.A.
Pushed through by John Howard, the conservative prime minister at the time, the National Firearms Agreement prohibited automatic and semiautomatic assault rifles and pump shotguns in all but unusual cases. It tightened licensing rules, established a 28-day waiting period for gun purchases, created a national gun registry and instituted a temporary buyback program that removed more than 20 percent of firearms from public circulation.
We don’t make conservatives like this anymore.
On guns, that’s our problem. Blaming both parties for some “fair and balanced” posture is dishonest. It’s not Democrats who are unwilling to address the challenge of guns in America.
The problem is American conservatives.”
Amen! I am so tired of hearing that both sides are guilty. There is no comparison and the media should be ashamed for continuing to trot out that ‘both sides’ bullshit.
now what? not only being “rare prime time address” but even more rare to be made at the beginning of a politically non-partisan-wise holiday. sumptins up.
from http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/obama-to-deliver-rare-oval-office-address-sunday-on-terrorism/ar-AAg3J9L?ocid=spartanntp
President Obama will discuss the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings and the broader threat of terrorism on Sunday night in a rare prime time address from the Oval Office.
The address at 8 p.m. will hit on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and how the terror threat has “evolved, and how we will defeat it,” according to the White House.
https://youtu.be/D8yI2A0QUtM
https://youtu.be/lO5MheI0A8o
Sunday Serendipity.
My musical Advent Calendar for the Second Sunday in Advent.
Enjoy the music and enjoy the day.
beautiful. thank you, jace;
also for your second sunday of advent
https://youtu.be/f_RjlIPuqyc
Oh Patd,
Thank you!
Good read here from Bill Moyers if you have the time. the GOP (Goofy Old Party) may indeed be on the eve of destruction, sadly not enough voters realize it.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/gop-eve-destruction
Pat and Jace, you two really did well this morning. I just don’t know how to keep up. Maybe this:
https://youtu.be/ukDAfF0-8q8
https://youtu.be/JqOqo50LSZ0
A few of u have me in your email address books, so just wanted u to know that my email was hacked. If u get something from me in spam, it wasn’t from me. Sorry.
“I went to the doctors this week for the second time,” Carter said in a video posted on Twitter by NBC News. “The first time I went for an MRI of my brain, the four places were still there but they were responding to the treatment. And when I went this week, they didn’t find any cancer at all. So I have good news.”
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-jimmy-carter-cancer-20151206-story.html
“My most recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones,” Carter said in a statement on Sunday. “I will continue to receive regular 3-week immunotherapy treatments of pembrolizumab,” he added, referring to a common cancer drug.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/06/jimmy-carter-says-he-is-cancer-free
NEW THREAD