Rebecca Ferguson asked to sing at Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony & will accept if she can sing Strange Fruit https://t.co/ufPvfuGA5B pic.twitter.com/u4Jxg5YXXZ
— BBC Newsbeat (@BBCNewsbeat) January 2, 2017
Good for the X Factor star.
A note from commentor O. Felix Culpa:
Speaking of ethics and collective action, the League of Women Voters is supporting a “Call-In Day” to Congress today to challenge Trump’s conflicts of interest:
The League is joining with allied organizations for a Hill Call-In Day urging Congress to address President-elect Trump’s unprecedented and unconstitutional conflicts of interest. The calls will support a forthcoming bill from Senator Elizabeth Warren that will require the President to divest ownership of businesses and disclose all business dealings in order to avoid severe unconstitutional conflicts of interest…
To participate, call the below numbers to connect with your two Senators and your one Representative between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm EST [today], Wednesday, when congressional offices are open. You will be automatically connected to your appropriate congressional offices based on the zip code you provide.
Senate – 1-866-985-2543
House – 1-866-948-8977Script:
President-elect Trump has conflicts of interest that are unprecedented for an American president. He could violate the Constitution and the law on his first day in office because of prohibited payments to him from his foreign and domestic businesses. Every other President and cabinet official before him has acted to avoid these types of conflicts of interest.Mr. Trump has not fully disclosed how he will resolve these dangerous conflicts. Americans have been given little more than vague pledges about transferring operations and nothing about transferring ownership. Bi-partisan ethics officials from Republican and Democratic administrations agree this is completely inadequate and does not resolve his dangerous conflicts.
Congress must act to protect the interests of the American people and the integrity of the presidency. President-elect Trump must resolve his conflicts of interest and Congress must require that he disclose his finances and divest his business conflicts.
House call: Ask your Representative to call for a congressional investigation to review Mr. Trump’s business dealings in order to identify and protect against conflicts of interest.
Senate calls: Ask your Senators to call for an investigation to review Mr. Trump’s financial arrangements. Urge Senators to support Senator Warren’s new bill that will require the President-elect to divest ownership and disclose all business dealings in order to avoid serious and unconstitutional conflicts of interest.
***********
Apart from fighting back however we can, what’s on the agenda for the day?
SiubhanDuinne
Good morning, everyone! ???
(Pre-emptively, Good morning, Rikyrah! ???)
Have not managed to fall asleep at all, but feel utterly fatigued from the effort. So back to bed I go for a few hours, I hope.
NobodySpecial
Morning.
First day back at the gym today. Finally will have a workout buddy several days a week. That will help.
Also hoping to plan out playtesting an RPG with friends. Fingers crossed.
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
rikyrah
@SiubhanDuinne:
Hope you get some sleep
geg6
Good morning! The good news is that it seems that a lot of my FB friends have been sharing tips about contacting their congresscritters and also sharing their experiences doing so. Most of these people have never been politically active beyond voting and it’s quite heartening to see people waking up and taking action. Makes me feel a little better about things.
gene108
@SiubhanDuinne:
Good luck. Insomnia sucks.
Baud
@rikyrah: Morning.
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: I agree.
GregB
Talk about hubris. On the very first day Republican Congress convenes after getting elected by bunch of fools calling Hillary Clinton crooked, the Congress votes to gut oversight of corruption.
Meanwhile Trump has appeared in public with two different felons.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: The past week or so Arthur Itis has been visiting day and night. On the other not so swollen hand, I realize that I no longer notice the stench of pig shit on my boots. Not sure that is a good thing.
BillinGlendaleCA
Meet my feathered little friend!
OzarkHillbilly
@GregB: House Republicans drop rule change gutting ethics watchdog For the moment anyway.
GregB
@OzarkHillbilly:
I know they scuppered it, but still, the hubris is astonishing.
Meanwhile today the shitheel who murdered paritioners in SC begins sentencing. Those murders prompted Trump’s top adviser to tell his readers to hoist their Confederate flags with pride.
GregB
Spelling clean-up up on 14.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: Handsome fellow.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Been there, done that, got the nightshirt.
The more the decades have passed, the more sleep has become a suggestion. Getting rest is key, and naps have become increasingly essential for that. Since got the Roku, have found playing the ‘Electronic – Ambient Electronic’ channel (of all things) on the AccuRadio service conducive to helping as regards relaxing and drifting off.
NotMax
Comment either poofed or in moderation. Please liberate if the latter.
OzarkHillbilly
@GregB: It’ll be back. Trump told them the timing was all wrong.
@GregB: I knew what you meant.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Since Betty got her new camera, this blog has gone to the birds. I just thought I’d join in.
OzarkHillbilly
I hereby promise to obliterate the first robot that tries to “improve my shopping experience”.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: It would improve my shopping experience if a robot could do my shopping for me.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: Birds of a feather flock together.
NotMax
@GregB
Still funny 20 years later. Vowels for Bosnia (starts about 0:50).
Fester Addams
Trump inauguration flunky: “Wait, what. She’s black?”
bemused
Plans for today and next few days, stay warm. Going into a deep freeze here with windchill factor predicted to be -40 tomorrow.
Kay
Trump will be distracting like crazy from these confirmation hearings but this should be an interesting one.
Sessions is more vulnerable than the rest because they have his 1986 questionnaire and they can see how he changed it.
gene108
@Baud:
It would improve my shopping experience, if the robot could pay my bills for me, while I do the shopping.
NotMax
@Kay
“Youthful indiscretions.” Until he blurts out that it takes both the white keys and the darkies to play the Star Spangled Banner.
Baud
@NotMax: A very special rendition of Ebony and Ivory.
debbie
@Kay:
Similarly. More than 1,100 legal scholars from 48 states. Impressive!
Baud
@debbie: That’s like all of them, no?
Kay
Here’s a genuine question I have. Republicans have no qualms suppressing voting at the state level. They have whole pundits and cable channels devoted to making shit up about voter fraud. Trump literally ran on a series of lies about voter fraud. So why bother pretending Sessions supports voting rights or will defend voting rights? Why put on this charade now? Who is this for?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I know I am being more than a little bit of a Luddite, but I really despise the replacement of human beings with technology, especially technology that they try to humanize. In addition to my (un?)natural loathing, they layer it over with a HAL creepiness that runs right up my spine.
NotMax
@Baud
Today, on Punky Brewster, a very special episode….
;)
debbie
@Baud:
If you round up (which I do).
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: I suppose I’m the opposite. I have yet to meet a robot who has treated me as poorly as humans have.
Kay
@NotMax:
Republicans have been very open about their opposition to voting rights. What’s more disturbing about Sessions as AG is the dishonesty:
I was aware he opposes voting rights. I was not aware he’s also a liar. He knows what “personally litigated” means. That’s not an innocent error. He lied on the questionnaire.
NotMax
@Baud
Tried to call your cable company or credit card company recently?
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: You mean we can compare his new sworn lies with his old sworn lies? Should be fun.
JPL
There’s a possibility that it might snow Saturday in the Atlanta area, which means the stores will be packed. I could never understand why everyone buys bread. All you really need is hot chocolate.
Baud
@NotMax: To be honest, I’ve seen a significant improvement in that area over the last few years. Luckily, I haven’t had to call that often.
NotMax
@JPL
Toilet paper always the first to sell out.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I have yet to meet a robot that has treated me as anything other than a brick.
satby
? ☕ morning rikyrah and everyone! And thanks to everyone who made camera recommendations yesterday morning, I got called into work and had to drop everything to leave, but read the thread when I got home last night.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
Kay…. He’s a Republican.
rikyrah
@Kay:
People are already doing a sit-in at his office in protest
Elizabelle
Good morning all.
Had never heard of Rebecca Ferguson. She is beautiful. And we share a birthday too.
NotMax
@satby
Vigorous internet sleuthing tracked down that elusive newspaper comic strip, a little remembered one called Kelly & Duke.
Just FYI, for closure.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: I would love to be treated as a brick. That would be a significant improvement.
satby
@NotMax: thank you! I like closure ?
satby
@Elizabelle: I saw that yesterday about her response to the invitation, and I immediately became a fan.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Hmmmm. I think maybe Sessions does NOT make it to Attorney General. Trump got the benefit of nominating someone who pleases his white supremacist fans, and can look “precedential” regretfully pulling down the nom.
Maybe they’re hunting now for someone just as bad, without the paper trail.
Elizabelle
@satby: Hope you are feeling better today.
May get a flu shot later today, in your honor.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: The same reason Putin still holds elections, I guess. So the media can pretend everything is business as usual; so the spineless among the Democrats can pretend their former colleague isn’t a Jim Crow throwback who threatens the very foundations of democracy; so voters who don’t pay attention won’t be unduly alarmed.
The way the MSM credited Trump for supposedly stopping the GOP House effort to gut the ethics office is a preview of what we’re up against. They aren’t just going to normalize the human shit stain; they will valorize him. We’re on our own.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: You wouldn’t perchance be related to a guy named Charlie Brown, would you?
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Yeah. That was chilling. MSM is right in step with fascism. Enthusiastic, even. It’s “the narrative.”
satby
@Elizabelle: I think Another Scott was right, this should last about a week. I feel a bit better, but that’s because I’m taking OTC symptom relievers. And the Typhoid Mary who gave this crud to everyone in the office was out sick yesterday, so that’s why I was called in early. I’m off for the next three days, so other than basic critter care, I am cocooning in my house with hot tea and honey and Kleenex.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Only in spirit.
satby
@Betty Cracker: It should be stunning (but it isn’t) how quick the MSM is to just go with his grabbing credit as if it’s true. He Tweeted and stopped it? We’re looking forward to government by Tweet?
OzarkHillbilly
@satby:
Yes.
Betty Cracker
@BillinGlendaleCA: Lovely!
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud: But you are a brick, old bean, in the British sense, that is:
I don’t know about food, but you bring humor, wit, and humanity to the daily BJ party. You’re a brick!
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: About a week sounds right. I’m finally feeling like I could muster the energy to get dressed and take the dog for a walk. Take good care of yourself!
P.S. Any word on son’s employment opportunity?
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Trump set his First Celebrity News Event for January 11th to distract from confirmation hearings on his terrible nominees. That will work.
Kay
@O. Felix Culpa:
Baud is a brick. Resilient. Gritty, like a brick. I’ll stop now :)
satby
@O. Felix Culpa: still waiting, yesterday would have been the first business day back from the holiday shut down. I hope he gets it because he wants it, but part of me thinks it wouldn’t be bad for him to look for a job around here, stay with me a few months and build up some savings, and then move somewhere. The kid has changed states four times in the last 6-7 years and he’s tired of moving, so the next place he lands could be permanent. I’d hate for it to be Kentucky.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@NotMax:
Forbidden drug name in ambient.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@OzarkHillbilly:
That should be the statement to any conservative who tries to defend him
“Look, we understand by now it’s ok when it’s a Republican being a lying sack of shit, that’s why you all voted for Trump after all”
satby
@O. Felix Culpa: a perfect description!@Baud: you know you’re everyone’s favorite, right?
Kay
Here’s a good formula for writing out what Trump says: “citing no evidence, Trump says…”
That seems easy enough, doesn’t it? It leaves the possibility he might not be lying and puts the burden on him, which is where it belongs.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: Madame talked to the kid today, she has the flu. Yes, due to her work, she had a flu shot.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: ☺ Glad ya like it.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: Thick as a brick?
MomSense
Day two of my medical trip with my Mom. Her surgery went well yesterday and there were several other women waiting with me who are just as furious about the ochre ogre. Ranting makes waiting time go much faster. Today we drive in to Boston for a follow up with the surgeon.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Not mine.
@Kay:
It sounds like an ‘out’ to me. Just like his “proof” of this that or the other is always going to be released “Wednesday or Thursday” but never is, or he’s going to do a “press conference” on “Monday” which he later “postpones” or just turns out to be a “media event” at which “reporters” are not allowed to ask “questions”.
satby
@MomSense: Good to hear! Best luck fir a quick recovery for her.
rikyrah
@Kay:
He literally was TOO RACIST to become a judge in the REAGAN years.
He’s had NO ‘ come to Jesus’ moment since then. Nothing to indicate that anything has changed.
It is NO coincidence that the case which gutted the Voting Rights Act, came from HIS STATE.
And, the thought that he’d just LEAVE OUT WHOLESALE, HUGE CHUNKS OF HIS RECORD…
Phuck that shyt.
There is absolutely nothing that can be pointed to in his record that would make someone say that he isn’t a racist in word AND PROFESSIONAL DEED.
And, THIS is who they put forth to be the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of this country?
PHUCK.OUTTA.HERE.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
I hear ya. I considered Louisville as a retirement destination for a nano-second, and then remembered – it’s in effin’ red state Kentucky. Ditto for Asheville – because North Carolina. New Mexico was a much better choice for me.
Good luck to your son! I hope he finds the right thing in the right place and can settle down for a spell.
O. Felix Culpa
@rikyrah: So, how do you really feel about Sessions? :)
And a-fucking-men to everything you said.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Republicans always wanna pull the Robert Byrd card, when we talk about racists.
But, Robert Byrd.
Robert Byrd APOLOGIZED for his previous actions.
Robert Byrd had that ‘ come to Jesus’ moment and repented for his previous sins.
Hell, George Wallace had a ‘ come to Jesus’ moment.
There is absolutely NOTHING to indicate that Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III has EVER had his ‘ come to Jesus’ moment.
And, people are pulling receipts on his racist ass.
rikyrah
@satby:
Sounds like a good plan :)
rikyrah
@Kay:
Trump set his First Celebrity News Event for January 11th to distract from confirmation hearings on his terrible nominees. That will work.
Yeah, he’s gonna actually answer questions…uh huh
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah:
But what about all those Sunday mornings he went to church?
.
.
.
.
.
.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…..
Sometimes I just crack me up.
rikyrah
Do we even want to begin on the two documented WIFE BEATERS that Trump is putting forth to be in his cabinet?
Where are the women’s groups on this?
rikyrah
About the protest at Sessions’ office:
This protest is likely a 1st for the office of @SenatorSessions, who called @NAACP un-American & Communist years ago
— Lee Hedgepeth (@ALPolitics) January 3, 2017
rikyrah
ummm
ummm
I got nothing.
Newly elected sheriff charged with stealing meth from evidence room:
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 4, 2017
Betty Cracker
@MomSense: “Ochre ogre” — I’m so stealing that! Hope your mom recovers fully and quickly.
Just yesterday when hubby and I were discussing the latest Ochre Ogre outrage, I said I wish I could hear what my mom would have had to say about the absurdity/obscenity that was the Trump campaign and is the incoming Trump admin. He said, “The same thing you and your sister are saying.” True!
manyakitty
@rikyrah: You mean other than traitor-in-chief elect himself?
rikyrah
Patrick steps forward to renew old rivalry with Sessions
By Annie Linskey
GLOBE STAFF
JANUARY 03, 2017
WASHINGTON — The Alabama case seemed hopeless.
It was 1985, and a white federal prosecutor named Jefferson Beauregard Sessions had brought voter fraud charges against three black civil rights leaders in the Deep South.
Defending the trio was a team of NAACP lawyers who didn’t fit in with the local culture — including a 28- year-old, black, Harvard-educated attorney who listed sailing and squash as hobbies. His name was Deval Patrick.
Against all odds, Patrick and the NAACP won that case.
He came away with not only a hard fought victory, but also with an enduring distrust of Sessions, whom he saw as an example of the dangers of overly zealous and unfettered prosecutorial power.
On Tuesday, that feeling played out in a national arena once again, as Patrick sent a sternly worded letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, recommending against Sessions’ nomination as the US attorney general.
Patrick called the Alabama native “the wrong person to place in charge of our justice system.”
He recounted his experience against Sessions in the 1985 trial, saying the prosecutor should never have pursued the case.
“To use prosecutorial discretion to attempt to criminalize voter assistance is wrong and should be disqualifying for any aspirant to the nation’s highest law enforcement post.”
This is not the first time Patrick has moved to stop Sessions’ nomination to higher office. He did the same in 1986, testifying against Sessions’ nomination for a federal judgeship. Sessions was rejected for the job.
It remains to be seen if Patrick and the Democrats can stop Sessions again. Now a senator from Alabama, Sessions was an early supporter of President-elect Donald Trump and among the very first to be rewarded with a job offer in his administration. He’s also been for two decades a member of the Senate, part of the country’s most exclusive club whose members are loath to turn on one another.
The confirmation hearings have been set for next week, despite several pleas by the Democrats on the committee who want more time to investigate Sessions. The hearing is likely to be one of the most contentious, since Sessions will oversee the implementation of some of Trump’s most controversial proposals, including unconventional positions on torture and racial profiling. The Alabama branch of the NAACP is already protesting by staging a sit-in in the senator’s Mobile office.
Kay
100% true, that. Megyn Kelly spread propaganda about that for months. The role of the multimillionaire celebrity cable news entertainers in promoting racist voter suppression is under-reported. Maybe Kelly can do a special on it.
Kay
@rikyrah:
It’s bad enough the FBI are on Team Trump. Now the Justice Department will be too? Can we maybe hire contractors to work for the majority of Americans who aren’t on Team Trump?
rikyrah
@Kay:
Uh huh
Uh huh
Brachiator
@OzarkHillbilly:
Please don’t ask anyone to tell you about the industrialization that began in the 19th century. You won’t like how things turned out.
Maybe you would like a Kirobo Mini
In the future, you will love your robot neighbor as yourself.
.
Shana
@debbie: I don’t know why no one from whatever Dakota it was didn’t sign on, but Alaska has no law schools so that’s why they didn’t have any participants.
J R in WV
@rikyrah:
Thanks for the facts on Senator Byrd. Yes, he did belong to the KKK a very long time ago. My Uncle published the letter in his own handwriting that proved he had been a KKK member.
But, as you say, he did publicly and profusely apologize for that. Yes, he did work with the Civil Rights community for most of his professional life. Yes, he became a liberal leader in the Senate, and worked hard for his home state.
So not like Jeff Sessions even a tiny little bit.
NW Phil
@Brachiator:
Does anyone else foresee a problem there?