Posts from — December 2017

The seventy-sixth anniversary of “a date which will live in infamy…”

The official US Navy site on the Pearl Harbor attack.

There will be a memorial service aboard NAS Pensacola that normally features local survivors of the attack. Obviously there are fewer of them every year.

If you have ever wondered what would bring together the Pope, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Russia, China, Nato, the Sunnis and the Shiia, Arabs & Persians, the Turks and Turkic people, essentially everyone on the planet who didn’t vote for Netanyahu or Trump: from Crooks & Liars – Consensus: Trump’s Jerusalem Decision Is A Terrible Idea or the BBC – Jerusalem: Trump move prompts negative world reaction.

Of course this means that the US is out of the Mideast peace process, US embassies in much of the world will probably be attacked, there will be travel warnings up for US citizens for most of the world, but Drumpf got to hold a signing ceremony….

Yes, it is the day that kindly old Saint Nicholas fills the footware of good little girls and boys with treats [or his assistants beat the evil out of bad children, depending on the local customs – they didn’t just leave the sticks – in some places they use them.] Don’t forget the carrot if he rides a horse in your area.

He is the patron saint of Russian merchants and pawnbrokers (three gold balls are one of the symbols associated with him).

In the Alabama Senate race Doug Jones drops ‘Mr Nice Guy’ and lays into Roy Moore.

Spelunking through the Senate Tax Bill it appears there are no more corporate deductions. The corporate tax rate was lowered to 20% and the Alternative Minimum Tax was retained and is also 20%. Essentially, you can declare all the deductions in the tax code, but you still have to pay 20%, just as you would with no deductions.

Eric Schneiderman, the Attorney General of the State of New York is investigating fake comments sent to the FCC during the Net Neutrality comment period. He has established a web site that allows you to see if your name was used.

The BBC has an interesting perception test. They have a silent GIF that causes some people [me included] to hear sounds: Can you hear it?

Happy NODWISH Greetings

As a service to my readers I have compiled a list of useful terms for our modern global village.

It is time to wish family and friends: [select one]

Happy NODWISH
Merry Solstice
Happy Holiday
Happy Hanukkah
Happy Kwanzaa
Happy Hogwatch
Merry Christmas
С Рождеством Христовым
성탄 축하
Vrolijk Kerstfeest
Nadolig Llawen
Fröhliche Weihnachten
Joyeux Noël
Buon Natale
Feliz Navidad
God Jul
Rauhallista Joulua
Happy Christmas
Happy Holidays

[Read more →]

… and how can Santa Claus visit every house, go down chimneys, leave toys, all over the world in one night?

One of the answers is found on European Christmas trees.

Read about Finland’s version of the Julbock, Joulupukki.

Note: Don’t try this at home unless you have the kidneys of a reindeer. It also explains why gnomes are so cheerful. [This is one of my most searched for posts, almost as big as the Shi’ia oil map, or the Alaska-Russia border. It is a bit disconcerting to see the number of people around the world whose interests are as weird as mine, but they are all hits on the counter.]

Trump’s lawyer claims responsibility for president’s problematic tweet

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer took responsibility Sunday for a tweet that Trump sent the previous day, in which the president said for the first time that he knew his former security adviser, Michael Flynn, had lied to the FBI before he fired Flynn in February.

The tweet caused an uproar in Washington because it implied Trump knew Flynn had committed a felony — lying to the FBI — when he told then-FBI director James Comey to go easy on Flynn the day after the firing.

Interfering in the FBI’s investigation could be construed as obstructing justice, potentially creating legal jeopardy for Trump. Within a few hours, Trump’s personal lawyer, John Dowd, stepped in to say that he wrote the tweet, not the president.

Dowd told NBC News that he drafted the tweet and then sent it to White House Social Media Director Dan Scavino to publish. When asked for the original email he sent to Scavino, Dowd said he dictated it orally.

There is no way anyone with a couple of working neurons is going to buy this huge mound of bovine excrement as being in the same universe as the truth. The gratuitous reference to “lying to the FBI” screams blow dried comb over, not bald lawyer.

This is one of three charts prepared with data from the Congressional Budget Office in the PBS article: How the Senate tax bill affects rich and poor, in three charts. They show what we already knew: the rich get richer and the poor and middle class get poorer.

Congressional Republicans will now create a joint committee of Republicans to meld the House and Senate versions of into an even worse bill to ram down the throats of Congress. If Doug Jones wins in Alabama, this could get interesting.

It’s the first Sunday of Advent and Why Now? is pleased to present the Fiftieth-first version of the Gävlebocken, The biggest Christmas Goat in the world [now on Twitter @Gavlebocken].

From Steve Bates of Yellow Doggerel Something in the comments from 2006:

Why build a giant goat of straw,
Which most of us would scarcely note?
Some, though, defy the very law,
To vandalize the Gävle Goat.

In some years, they used wayward cars;
In others, flaming arrows smote.
This year’s survives, although with scars…
A fact that gets some people’s goat.

A webcam and some watchful eyes,
A flame-retardant second coat,
Should save it… unless Dubya spies
The thing, and claims it’s his pet goat!

– SB the YSS

Today is the First Sunday of Advent which means you should have made your Christmas Pudding so it would have time to age, and the Gävlebocken is standing tall in Castle Square.

The NPR coverage of the Flynn Guilty plea includes a copy of the Plea Agreement at the end.

Rachel Maddow did some research on the two members who signed the deal for the Mueller team.

Brandon Van Grack is in the national security division of the Justice Department and was leading the grand jury investigation of Flynn in the Eastern District of Virginia when he joined Mueller’s team. He is an espionage specialist. Zainab Ahmad is an Assistant US Attorney in the Eastern District of New York and a terrorism specialist. Ms Ahmad is 13-0 for terror prosecutions.

This is the varsity. These are professionals with a proven record of success. Trump and family need to find some professional criminal defense attorneys and start listening to them. There is nothing that says a sitting President can’t be indicted. A President can only be removed from office by impeachment, but that doesn’t mean he/she can’t be convicted of a crime.

After being told that all of the problems that I experienced with WordPress after updating to 4.9 were problems with my theme, WordPress issued 4.91 and everything starting working again. They wanted a half dozen different people to each start their own thread on the forum because we must each have different reasons for the exact same problems. It’s my fault. I should have waited until after the first bug release. I should know better by now.

Rep. Barton won’t seek re-election. All I can say is: If you are intent on doing something stupid, don’t make a video and send it to someone else. Barton is fairly obscene dressed, so no one needed to see him undressed.

Dr. Jeff Masters presents his summary of the 2017 Hurricane Season, which is hopefully over.

While it was supposed to start on June 1st, Tropical Storm Arlene popped up on April 19th. It did end early when Tropical Storm Rina went extra-tropical on November 9th. There were 19 tropical cyclones with 17 earning names. Of the 17 named storms 10 became Hurricanes with 6 making spinning up to major hurricane status, Category 3 and above.

It will be a long time before Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands recover from Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Barbuda was depopulated and Dominica was leveled. Houston was drowned by over three feet of rain from Harvey.

As predicted, this was a very active season.