Notes to Readers, plus Tweets

by | Feb 10, 2018 | Tweets | 21 comments

So far today I’ve been trying to complete a post with the working title of ‘The Rob Porter Scandal’. Things aren’t going well, so I have to revert to a tweets post in the meantime. I’ve also got a half-completed post about the Nunes memo that has to be changed every day due to developments. At this rate by the time I get them done the rest of the world will have moved on!

I don’t have time to write a proper homily because of all the time I spent on the post. Also, there are few housekeeping out matters I have to get out of the way (below). However, I recommend instead ‘National Prayer Breakfast was Eye-Opening – In Unintended Ways‘ by Annie Laurie Gaylor. Gaylor is co-president of the US Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Here are the housekeeping issues.

Firstly, it is my practice to personally thank those who are kind enough to donate to this site if they are able. However, there was one today where my thank you was undeliverable: “Message rejected due to blacklist policy.” This happens due to a problem between a particular server with my own provider and one at Hotmail. It’s happened once before with another correspondent and I’ve already spent hours trying to get it sorted and don’t want to go through that again today. So I’d just like to say thank you very much to that person for your kindness. Your generosity is much appreciated. I’m very sorry I was unable to contact you directly.

Secondly, please take special note of the “Economics Tweets” section. There was a fake tweet in my last post. I sucked the kumara big time. It turns out that the Trump tweet that everyone on Twitter was re-tweeting about the Dow Jones/Joans was Fake News. Real Fake News, not Trump-style Fake News. I should have known better and checked. It didn’t look right to me; whatever I think of Trump, those words aren’t ones I would normally attribute to him. Trump’s apparently incorrect spelling of “Dow Jones” should have stopped me from using it for starters. I ignored my doubts because, quite honestly, the tweet was anti-Trump and my conditioning led me to believe it.

Thirdly, perhaps it’s old age, or just years of living alone. But I’m turning into a “get off my lawn” person in some ways. On the “Comments Guidelines” page there is now a list of banned words and phrases. They just piss me off. If they’re included in a comment, the comment will be deleted. So far there are only two: “abortion industry” and “lame-stream media.” I suspect there will be more.

Back to normal transmission.

A few snippets to keep you going:

  • A White House speechwriter, David Sorensen, has resigned today. There are abuse allegations against him too. There may be to be at least two more people in the same situation, but there are no other names being released at this stage.
  • 30-40 people in the Trump Administration still do not have full security clearance. (The situation Rob Porter was in because of the abuse allegations against him.) Some will probably get it, but many never will because of things they’ve done in the past. It is apparently an unusual situation for there to be so many this long into an administration. Most of those who can’t get a full security clearance are asked to leave.
  • As I write, the South Korean prime minister and the sister of Kim Jong Un, who is a senior aide in his administration, are meeting in the Blue House (the South Korean version of the White House).
  • On Fox News‘s ‘The Five’ today, Geraldo Rivera postulated that Steele didn’t write the so-called dodgy dossier. Instead, he said, maybe the Clinton campaign fed Steele the info for the dossier!!! This, the conspiracy further went, was so the dossier could be used in a dodgy FISA application. (My upcoming post will show that this is even more ridiculous that it sounds here.)
  • There were 300 people at the National Prayer Breakfast from 100 countries. 50 were Russians. Just sayin’.

Political Tweets

Turns out Donald Trump isn’t the only one with a history of defending sexual predators.
(Via Ann German.)

 

I saw on Fox New‘s ‘The Five’ that the Democrat response to the Nunes memo would be released. (Actually, it won’t be.) Maybe this is what they were talking about?
(Via Ann German.)

 

Or this?

 

#NoMore Tweets

The words on the left in this gif are the words Trump used re Rob Porter. He did not mention the women at all.
(Via Ann German.)

 

A great message for young girls.
(Via Ann German.)

 

Economics Tweets

As stated above, I got this wrong in my last post. Here’s a link to the Politifact story about it.

 

Human Rights Tweets

Good man!!!
(Via Ann German.)

 

Excellent way to highlight the issue.
(Via Ann German.)

 

The Trump Effect in full force. This is completely shocking to me. All my life I’ve seen the US as a racist country. (I’m not saying we’re perfect because we’re not. Far from it.) However, on the election of Obama in 2008, I thought there was hope. I even wrote about my feelings. I soon discovered I was wrong because a black man in the White House seemed to be too much for a lot of people. The election of Trump appears to have emboldened them.

 

Religion Tweets

Why does Ken Ham keep exposing himself in this way?

 

And Ken Ham’s not the only one …

Healthcare Tweets

Cool demonstration of what you all probably already know.

 

Space Tweets

Very cool.

 

More cool-ness
(Via Amy Carparelli.)

 

Flora Tweets

Because why wouldn’t you want to look like a stone? (Actually, why would you? Does anyone know?)

 

Creepy-Crawlies Tweets

This one is named after the tweeter!

 

Just wow!

 

Marine Tweets

Once again, octopuses prove their cool-ness!

 

Other Animals Tweets

Hedgehogs are cute!

 

This is lovely. Hugs all ’round.

 

Bird Tweets

New Zealand has the best birds.
(Via Ann German.)

 

Just following Mum!

 

I didn’t see this coming, though you might guess given the section I put it in!

 

Dog Tweets

A happy ending!

 

Another dog rescue!

 

Cat Tweets

This is majorly adorable! Kittens and baby bunnies!

 

All cats need their own mascara!
(Via Ann German.)

 

Apparently that’s the fruit basket!

 

And you thought you’d seen a black cat before …

 

Natural playmates???

 

Oh wow! Lion king.

 

Good night!

 

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21 Comments

  1. Diane G.
    Diane G. on 10th February 2018 at 9:50 pm

    Love the hatching octopus!!

    Reply
    • nicky
      nicky on 12th February 2018 at 5:57 am

      Me too 🙂

      Reply
  2. Mark R.
    Mark R. on 11th February 2018 at 11:50 am

    That was a touching dog rescue…man, that dog was in horrible shape; amazing how good he looked after human caring.

    When Obama got elected, I too thought we’d rounded a corner. Unfortunately, it just intensified the racism and Trump is part of the backlash. I know a lot of people thought the “tea party” was a reaction to Obama’s policies (deficit hawks). I always knew it had an undercurrent of racism; now that they’re gone and/or quiet when the Republicans plan to raise the deficit more than Obama, I can confirm that it was based on racism, not policy.

    John Kelly needs to go (as does POTUS for the same reason)…lying, degenerate misogynist and bigot.

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 11th February 2018 at 12:45 pm

      The rumours being reported are that Jared and Ivanka are pressing for Kelly to go. The trouble is, there’s no other obvious candidate. iirc, Kelly didn’t really want to do it in the first place, and spoke of it as, “serving his country.” when the rumours he got the job started surfacing.

      Reply
  3. nicky
    nicky on 11th February 2018 at 11:13 pm

    Why would you ‘want’ to look like a stone? There are 2 reasons I can think of:
    – These ‘stone plants’ occur in deserts. In a dry climate a close to spherical stone-shape will reduce evaporation (small surface to volume ratio) and hence minimise loss of water.
    – Stones are not heavily preyed upon, so it is also a kind of camouflage.
    These 2 reasons appear not mutually exclusive.

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 12th February 2018 at 8:54 am

      I like the second reason in particular. I agree with the first, but I think the same could probably be achieved without the look, though I have no ideid of my own!

      Reply
      • nicky
        nicky on 12th February 2018 at 5:25 pm

        I did not formulate that very well. I mean desert-plants have the tendency to become somewhat ‘fatty’ and rounded for the first reason, From there, it is ‘easy’ to camouflage as a stone. The first reason predisposes as it were for the second one.

        Reply
  4. nicky
    nicky on 11th February 2018 at 11:31 pm

    I like the FFRF’s response to Mr Ham.
    They could have added child-rape: Numbers 31: 17-18
    17 “Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.”
    18 “But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.”

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 12th February 2018 at 8:56 am

      Yes, one of the many absolutely disgusting parts of the Bible. I remember it just being glossed over as if it was no big deal when I was a kid.

      Reply
      • nicky
        nicky on 12th February 2018 at 5:36 pm

        Well, as a kid I was kinda happy that at least they spared the girl children. The ‘known a man by lying with them’ did not really register. I was innocent, say ignorant, about sex, let alone child rape and sexual slavery.
        I think I was about 13 when I found out about sex, and I remember that at first I could not believe it.

        Reply
        • Heather Hastie
          Heather Hastie on 13th February 2018 at 9:48 am

          I knew about sex quite early, but it took quite a while before I worked out what, “she knew him” meant. I was suspicious, but I thought if that was what it meant my grandmother, the vicar, my Sunday School teachers, the RI teacher at school etc wouldn’t be saying it so calmly because they always portrayed sex as something dirty and disgusting and sinful.

          I was very surprised when I realized that was what “knew” meant.

          Reply
  5. nicky
    nicky on 12th February 2018 at 6:07 am

    Seen that kittens ‘n bunnies somewhere before. Isn’t it amazing that these kittens imitate/learn that hopping behaviour?
    Note, hopping is not really unnatural for kittens, but here they do it systematically.

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 12th February 2018 at 9:27 am

      That’s what I thought too – that they were hopping like that copying the bunnies because they thought that’s what they were supposed to do, while still engaging in their other natural behaviours.

      Reply
  6. nicky
    nicky on 12th February 2018 at 6:41 am

    That Jordon is not just a good man, he is courageous too. How many of us would give up their livelihood on principle?
    I’m not sure I would.

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 12th February 2018 at 9:29 am

      Me either. Not without finding another job first anyway.

      Reply
    • j.a.m.
      j.a.m. on 12th February 2018 at 2:53 pm

      Public officials have a duty to the put-upon taxpaying citizens who pay their extravagant salaries to uphold the democratic rule of law and to do their damn jobs. If you don’t like a law, then campaign to change it — and by all means fault the politicians for failing to address the underlying issues. But nobody in a democracy gets to unilaterally pick and choose the laws they obey or enforce. At least this clown did the right thing to quit if he wasn’t going to do the job. And if he’s actually going to take some action to help bring about a solution, fine. But sanctimonious twittering doesn’t cut it.

      Reply
      • j.a.m.
        j.a.m. on 12th February 2018 at 3:59 pm

        If you take a look at his Twitter feed, there’s nothing about actually solving the illegal immigration crisis, helping people or anything remotely constructive — just a lot of histrionic Trump derangement (surprise!).

        Reply
        • Heather Hastie
          Heather Hastie on 13th February 2018 at 9:33 am

          He hasn’t left his job yet. Give him a chance. He’s entitled to his opinion about Trump. Merely criticizing Trump isn’t necessarily evidence of Trump Derangement Syndrome. There are plenty of valid things Trump can be criticized for.

          Reply
        • nicky
          nicky on 14th February 2018 at 8:40 am

          Why are you always so negative, jam? This guy did not agree to what the new regime wanted him to do. He took a principled and courageous decision and handed in his resignation. Is that not something to be admired?
          Note, I work for tha S.A. government, because I think I make a difference. In private I would make about four times more. Most public servants do not have fat salaries at all, where did you get that nonsense?

          Reply
      • Heather Hastie
        Heather Hastie on 13th February 2018 at 9:29 am

        There was nothing sanctimonious about the tweet.

        And public servants don’t receive extravagant wages, and as a former underpaid public servant it pisses me off when people make such ignorant statements. Those who do never have any understanding of how hard we work at frequently thankless tasks for the good of our country.

        This guy did the right thing, unlike the disgraceful Kim Davis. You didn’t have a problem with her public campaign. You suggest this guy campaign to change things, then attack the first thing he does as part of his public campaign.

        This was an ad hominem attack. That is not arguing the issues.

        Reply
        • Steven in Tokyo
          Steven in Tokyo on 13th February 2018 at 3:42 pm

          I don’t know why you persevere, Heather. This j.a.m. person only ever sees what it wants to see.

          Reply

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