Sunday, July 31, 2016

Saturday, July 30, 2016

The Donald Trump rebuttal to the Democratic Convention

By Jack Brummet, National Affairs Ed.

We could go on and on about this, but suffice to say, he has come close to hitting a new low, after a couple of weeks of scraping the bottom of the barrel.


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Friday, July 29, 2016

Bernie Sanders departs the Democratic Party

by Jack Brummet, National Affairs Ed. 


We knew he was just using the Dems as a vehicle. Now he gets to go back to where he was and have the benefits of being a Dem (he's always caucused with them) And still be able to walk away when it suits him. I'm OK with that because, in fact, he's more Democrat than most Democrats.
Note from Politifact:  "By 1997, [Jack note: Bernie did not move from the House to the Senate until 2007] Sanders was still not a member of the House Democratic Caucus nor a Democrat. But he voted with the party more often than the average Democrat (95 percent of the time opposed to 80 percent)"
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drawing: 1498 — the letdown

By Jack Brummet

[4B pencil on birch panel]

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Thursday, July 28, 2016

BHO's skilled and moving speech for Hillary Clinton

By Jack Brummet, National Affairs Desk



I thought BHO's speech was an amazing, funny, and warm takedown. No President has really done this in modern times...the last time a president was on stage with a hoped for successor was generations ago. And The President got down. I felt like he was operating at the level he was in this 2008 campaign photo.
We need him to be on the campaign early and often.
And don't forget Smilin' Joe's speech. I'm sorry we couldn't have fit him in as POTUS.He has a heart of gold and is a gifted politician and operator.
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drawing: faces 1477/78 — agree to disagree

By Jack Brummet

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Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Videos and lyrics: At The Hop





AT THE HOP

-bah-bah-bah
Bah-bah-bah-bah
Bah-bah-bah-bah
Bah-bah-bah-bah, at the hop

Well, you can rock it you can roll it
You can stop and you can stroll it at the hop
When the record starts spinnin'
You dance when you chicken at the hop
Do the dance sensation that is sweepin' the nation at the hop

Let's go to the hop
Let's go to the hop (oh baby)
Let's go to the hop (oh baby)
Let's go to the hop
Come on, let's go to the hop

Well, you can swing it you can groove it
You can really start to move it at the hop
Where the jockey is the smoothest
And the music is the coolest at the hop
All the cats and chicks can get their kicks at the hop
Let's go!

Let's go to the hop
Let's go to the hop (oh baby)
Let's go to the hop (oh baby)
Let's go to the hop
Come on, let's go to the hop
Let's go!

Well, you can rock it you can roll it
You can stop and you can stroll it at the hop
When the record starts spinnin'
You go dancin' when you chicken at the hop
Do the dance sensation that is sweepin' the nation at the hop

You can swing it you can groove it
You can really start to move it at the hop
Where the jockey is the smoothest
And the music is the coolest at the hop
All the cats and chicks can get their kicks at the hop
Let's go!

Let's go to the hop
Let's go to the hop (oh baby)
Let's go to the hop (oh baby)
Let's go to the hop
Come on, let's go to the hop

Bah-bah-bah-bah
Bah-bah-bah-bah
Bah-bah-bah-bah
Bah-bah-bah-bah, at the hop!
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Thursday, July 14, 2016

Watching the earth go round can be a little like watching sleeping kittens

By Jack Brummet, Ground Control 


There is something calming about watching the earth from near-space. No matter what chaos, madness, sadness, and joy happens on the surface, the world just placidly turns like it has for a long, long time.  Check out some beautiful earth (they are not always live, but you can watch streams of some pretty amazing views.  Go here.  
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Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Donald Trump: Don't ask, don't tell

By Jack Brummet, National Affairs Ed.


The Candidate, Donald J. Trump, keeps naming VP candidates and convention speakers he has never actually asked in person. Many of them decline. Tim Tebow's statement today had to be  a nice sucker punch.  








 This week they also leaked Condoleezza Rice as a Veep pick (Trump rang her up himself), although she politely said "no way" months ago.  Tim LeBow, Don King, and Mike Ditka were also named and ducked out.







By STEVE PEOPLES and JILL COLVIN
CLEVELAND (AP) - Thursday morning he was among the biggest stars featured on Donald Trump's convention lineup. Thursday night, Tim Tebow declared his attendance at next week's Republican National Convention wasnothing more than "a rumor."
"I wake up this morning to find out that I'm speaking at the Republican National Convention," Tebow said in a video posted on Facebook. "It's amazing how fast rumors fly. And that's exactly what it is, a rumor."
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to questions about Tebow's departure from a convention program that the New York billionaire's team had long teased would be an extraordinary display of political entertainment. But instead of sports stars and celebrities, as promised, the campaign is relying heavily on the party's establishment for the four-day convention, which begins Monday.


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Monday, July 11, 2016

Head Transplants

by Jack Brummet, Replacement Parts Ed.



Does the United States suffer from transplant envy? From the New York Times, 6/11/2016:
"A leading Chinese orthopedic surgeon continues to believe that 'full-body' transplants are the next big thing in medicine, despite worldwide skepticism about both the science and the ethics. The plan for Dr. Ren Xiaoping of Harbin Medical University calls for removing both heads (the deceased donor's and the live recipient's), connecting the blood vessels, stabilizing the new neck, and "bath[ing]" spinal-cord nerve endings chemically so they will connect. (Critics say it is impossible to 'connect' spinal-cord nerves.) According to a June New York Times dispatch, doctors regularly denounce China's ethical laxities (though Chinese officials term such denunciations "envy" at China's achievements)."
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The C.I.A. makes a movie

By Jack Brummet, Spooks & Spies Ed.


Are there auteurs at the CIA? Probably not in the classical definition, but they did make a movie.  From the New York Times, March 18, 2000:
"Many people remember reading George Orwell's Animal Farm in high school or college, with its chilling finale in which the farm animals looked back and forth at the tyrannical pigs and the exploitative human farmers but found it "impossible to say which was which."
"That ending was altered in the 1955 animated version, which removed the humans, leaving only the nasty pigs. Another example of Hollywood butchering great literature? Yes, but in this case the film's secret producer was the Central Intelligence Agency.
"The C.I.A., it seems, was worried that the public might be too influenced by Orwell's pox-on-both-their-houses critique of the capitalist humans and Communist pigs. So after his death in 1950, agents were dispatched (by none other than E. Howard Hunt, later of Watergate fame) to buy the film rights to Animal Farm from his widow to make its message more overtly anti-Communist."

You can view the film for free (with ads) at Hulu.
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Wednesday, July 06, 2016

First toast, and now, finally, diapers as a sign from God

In May, Katy Vasquez, a devout resident of Winter Park, FLA, posted on Facebook (and told Huffington Post in an interview) that she had just seen a "sign from God"--a cross--as a smudge in her infant's soiled diaper. "I prayed to God for a sign that everything would be okay," she gushed to the reporter. "It might not be the prettiest sign, but he put it where he knew I'd see it." 

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Ann Coulter: I'm A Grateful Dead Fan For Life

By Jack Brummet, Grateful Dead Ed.


Is this a mindf***er or what?  Ann Coulter is a serious DeadHead.  Read her full piece in Billboard here.  Among other observations, she names some of her favorite songs:
“Tennessee Jed, Althea, Stagger Lee, Eyes of the World, Loose Lucy, Franklin's Tower, Deal, Sugar Magnolia, Unbroken Chain, Cassidy, Pride of Cucamonga, Uncle John's Band, Ripple, Casey Jones, I Will Take You Home, Passenger, Mississippi Half-Step, Good Lovin' and of course, the famous Mickey Hart rap version of Fire on the Mountain. It breaks my heart that the band never played Pride of Cucamonga in concert.”


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