Jingle Bells is one of the best-known and commonly sung winter songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822–1893) and published under the title “One Horse Open Sleigh” in the autumn of 1857. Even though it is commonly thought of as a Christmas song, it was actually written and sung for Thanksgiving.[1] It was mistakenly branded as a Christmas song because being extremely popular at Thanksgiving, it was sung again around Christmas.
Luvvie looks fantastic!
https://mobile.twitter.com/Luvvie/status/809915861721116673
About that ‘meeting’ with Silicon Valley tech execs..
“…The leaders of tech were closemouthed about their meeting with President-elect Donald Trump yesterday in New York, saying little about it — before and after, in public and online. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos called the confab “very productive” — the verbal equivalent of dead air — but execs including Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Alphabet CEO Larry Page, Apple CEO Tim Cook and SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk did not comment about what was said in the room, and most of the press reports afterward were very vague.
Thank goodness, you have Recode to tell you who said what in the room immediately after Trump did a decidedly odd little handshake with investor Peter Thiel (who rounded up the Silicon Valley potentates for Trump), talked about a stock market “bounce,” and noted how smart those gathered were. (It was def a collection of smarties, all wearing their fancy clothes!)
But after the press left and the doors were closed, the visitors from the digital world actually did try to bring up a number of substantive major issues with Trump and those gathered there. Trump’s three eldest kids were present, which most sources close to the execs (no, I am not saying which ones) thought was inappropriate on a number of levels.
“They took up three seats that should have gone to key tech people,” said one source, pointing to the odd absence of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Another source said that the conflict of interest seemed clear, while another just laughed and joked, “The U.S. is now a family business, I guess.”
One Trump family member did rise to a level of interest for the group: Son-in-law and chief whisperer Jared Kushner, who kicked off the session and seemed more engaged than any other administration member there.
“It was clear that Kushner was the one thinking about this stuff and framing it,” said one source with knowledge of the meeting.
Schmidt then suggested to Trump that he be the “software president,” a phrase Trump misheard as “soft” president. Trump was not going to be soft! Laughs all around!
What else? Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was apparently very voluble, and aimed many of his points at how U.S. companies had a hard time succeeding in China, and what the government could do about it. Oracle CEO Safra Catz talked about the cloud, which she characterized as a little hyped (not a surprise from a database company). IBM CEO Ginni Rometty talked about job creation, having earlier penned an op-ed promising that the company would bring 25,000 more jobs to the U.S.
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Musk also participated in a number of discussions, and later brought up one of his key issues, climate change, in other meetings at Trump Tower.
“We definitely gave up a little stature now for possible benefit later,” said one source, noting that it was the price of being a public company with a tweet-happy new U.S. leader. “It’s better to be quiet now and speak up later if we have to, and save our powder.”
http://www.recode.net/2016/12/15/13976806/immigration-maternity-leave-grid-software-president-trump-tech-meeting
This bitch right here; .blame white racist, bigots foulness on the black Prez
Claim your shit, Sarah
One would assume that the burden would be placed on the Clintons …you know…that star couple the Democratic Party has kowtowed to and sacrificed the party and winning for, all these years…the supposedly most qualified, most knowledgeable and savviest of politicians …the ‘policy wonks’ who have all the answers and know the ins and outs of politics and government, so much better than every one else…
Where are they and their endless swathe of loyalists and other supporters they’ve cultivated all these years…
Why so quiet…
Where’s David Brock and all of his opposition research…
Why’s everyone so quiet and pointing fingers and looking for who to blame…instead if fighting back hard at the real enemies…the buffoon and the republicans…
Hard to believe that this group of folks now acting all shy and tongue-tied suddenly, are the very same folks who couldn’t stop yapping and vindictively plotted and planned and insidiously undermined their fellow party mates – the Obamas…for 8 long years…and even as the President indulged their every whim…including going against convention as sitting POTUS – and dragging the First Lady along, onto the campaign trail …and putting themselves and their credibility and everything on the line for these folks…
uhuh Boo.
WHITE PEOPLE turned this country over to White Supremacist Kleptocrats
http://static.quotes4sharing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/201512141329244785.jpg
Uh huh
https://mobile.twitter.com/insanityreport/status/809879524146114561
Blaming PBO for Hillary’s debacle?
Now that makes me mad. I know I’m a broken record, but Hillary lost because Trump flipped blue states that could have been won despite every obstacle real and imagined. The votes were there, the billion dollar campaign failed.
Apparently, Hillary’s big time donors want answers.
There are many reasons why Hillary lost, but PBO isn’t one of them. He showed the Democrats how to win an election in 2008 and 2012, but as usual, they didn’t learn. And, of course, Hillary was not an inspirational candidate. But the hell of it is, despite every obstacle, the votes were there. Hillary and her astonishingly flawed campaign gave it away. PBO supported Hillary, but he could not magically turn her into a better candidate nor could he fix what was wrong with her campaign. He did what he could.
Bernie could have won. And God knows who else might have won if they had only been allowed to compete.
Furthermore, I do not believe that Hillary Clinton and her faithful (mostly white) followers will ever, not in ten thousand years, do anything other than blame someone else for her failure.
The reason, of course, is that this failure is so enormous, and the consequences are so dire, that they cannot allow themselves to accept responsibility. They refuse to take their rightful place behind those who have failed so badly that the course of history was altered and not for the better.
keep on telling the truth
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/809876873954152448
LOL
As it should be…
I read that Ted Nugent and Kid Rock are available.
Won’t be much of a show.
LOL REDNECKS, how APROPOS
Uh huh
Uh huh
https://mobile.twitter.com/LemieuxLGM/status/809861555361841156
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/809873132135874565
Folks are disappointed in the President. they wanted him swoop down to save America from trump…#WeThePeople had a chance on NOV 8… https://t.co/8sxxA1zr4M
— Pretty Foot (@PrettyFootWoman) December 16, 2016
So.. the first black president had to put on his cape and save white people from voting against their own interests. gotcha. https://t.co/PV4JicKxJA
— GEEZY (@GRYKING) December 16, 2016
President Obama is a true statesmen and seems we’ll never know the depth of decisions he made to govern well in such uncertain time. Bravo 👏
— ♻️ Christopher Zullo (@ChrisJZullo) December 16, 2016
Duck and Cover Won’t Save Us
by Martin Longman
December 16, 2016 2:35 PM
The American electorate made a pretty bad mistake on November 8th, as becomes more and more obvious everyday. In fairness, most of the people who showed up to vote expressed a preference for the person who didn’t win, but that doesn’t change the outcome. And I have to agree with Jonathan Chait that the most troubling aspect here is that a lot of people are going to die, and that a likely source for the bloodshed is forming around Michael Flynn and his national security staff.
Simply put, the outlook doesn’t seem good:
……………………………..
Unfortunately, the record since then is clear, and the guy is a full-on nutter who is staffing up with fellow tinfoil hat travelers. When I saw her name mentioned on Twitter, I thought maybe Trump had offered the job of Press Secretary to Monica Crowley, which was a bad enough thought for me to have. When I realized that she’d been hired to serve as senior director of strategic communications of the National Security Council, I immediately loaded up a relevant video starring Bert the Turtle..
Repeal of Obamacare Helps Ryan’s Plan to Privatize Medicare
by Nancy LeTourneau
December 16, 2016 10:36 AM
Back in 2014, Zachary Goldfarb made the case for why President Obama should be given credit for reducing income inequality.
In addition to getting rid of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, Obamacare had a redistributive effect: it levied additional taxes on upper-income Americans and provided health insurance to those with lower incomes via Medicaid expansion and subsidies to purchase insurance on the exchanges.
The Republican plan to repeal Obamacare eliminates that redistribution. As I noted yesterday, Howard Gleckman crunched the numbers on how that would affect people at various income levels.
………………..
If that is the thinking, here’s what the process would look like:
1. Give the one-percenters a big tax break by eliminating the funding mechanism for Obamacare – thus causing the whole system to collapse.
2. In the process, Medicare’s trust fund is robbed of the savings included in Obamacare, expediting it’s insolvency.
3. Promise to fix all of that by privatizing Medicare and block-granting Medicaid to the states.
Of course the whole thing would be based on lies about how it would affect low-income Americans and the elderly. But that is something Speaker Ryan has been doing for a long time now.
We’re not ‘delegitimizing’ Trump. He was never legitimate to begin with.
Spandan Chakrabarti December 16, 2016
At the start of this week, Joseph Murray II, a conservative columnist for The Hill, wrote that Democrats – particularly President Obama – were merely using “claims” of Russian hacking to delegitimize Donald Trump’s upcoming occupancy of the Oval Office.
By using the term “delegitimize”, Murray quite consciously is legitimizing Trump. He and his right wing friends are implying that Trump is a legitimate winner in a legitimately conducted election, and therefore the rightful and legitimate claimant to the presidency once Barack Obama’s term ends.
There is no need to ‘delegitimize’ Trump, of course, because Murray’s implication is fiction. Donald Trump does not need to be ‘delegitimized’, because he and his election was never legitimate to begin with.
To hunt for proof, one need not sift through any greater a body of evidence than the fact that Trump has himself questioned the legitimacy of this election – both before and after its conclusion. Before the election, Trump himself boasted that the election would be rigged. After the election, Trump demanded that millions of votes be discounted in order to falsely claim himself the winner of the popular vote, because he claimed millions of votes were cast illegally.
Our founders held that the power of our government is derived from the just consent of the governed. When a public office-holder raises doubts about even a single vote’s legitimacy without the full willingness to prove such claims in a court of law, that office-holder cannot be considered to have the legitimate consent of the governed, and is therefore himself illegitimate.
A Legislative Coup in NC? Rev. William Barber on GOP Stripping Power from New Democratic Governor
STORY DECEMBER 16, 2016
Rev. Dr. William Barber
president of Repairers of the Breach and head of the North Carolina NAACP.
Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are being accused of waging a legislative coup by attempting to strip power from the state’s incoming governor, Democrat Roy Cooper. Cooper narrowly beat Republican Governor Pat McCrory by 10,000 votes last month. In an unprecedented move, Republicans filed dozens of new bills this week during a special session of the General Assembly called to consider relief for Hurricane Matthew victims. The Republican lawmakers are attempting to impose measures to slash the number of state employees appointed by the governor, require Senate approval for all of the governor’s Cabinet picks and strip the governor of the power to appoint University of North Carolina trustees. Another bill aims to weaken the governor’s control over the state Board of Election. Yet another Republican bill would strip some power away from the Democratic governor and give it to the lieutenant governor, who happens to be a Republican. None of the bills were being considered until after Republican Governor Pat McCrory conceded defeat. We speak to Rev. William Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach and head of the North Carolina NAACP.
Watch or read…
https://www.democracynow.org/2016/12/16/a_legislative_coup_in_nc_rev
Uh huh
https://mobile.twitter.com/LawyerRogelio/status/809799759947067392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Good afternoon 3Chics,
SG2 – MN Lottery isn’t sharing either. Punks.
Ametia – With a foot of snow coming down, do you think BLM will bumrush MOA this year? Or will they chill since Nekima Levy-Pounds is running for Mayor (of Minneapolis?)
LOL Hi Tyren. Either way BLM gonna CHILL.
Heh that’s cold.
Read this heinousness . Put them UNDER THE JAIL
https://mobile.twitter.com/kurteichenwald/status/809820002929049600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
I’ve been tied up with trials every week and then the Dylann Roof trial wrapped up yesterday with a guilty verdict until….I don’t know how to act….
Enjoy the Christmas season.
Fix some homemade soup for the sick sweetheart
Yes! Our baby must be well for Christmas.
You’re doing a YEOMAN’S JOB on all these pathetic trials, SG2. I don’t know how you do it. Thank you!
Take care of you.
Thank you. We’re all in this together.
AMEN to that. SG2, thank you so much for your work on these trials. I know that they are draining. But, keeping us up on the latest and most recent happenings in the courtroom – we appreciate it.
Thank you. I get overwhelmed sometimes after seeing facts that would lead to a conviction and still no justice. But we have to “Keep on Pushing”.
You’ve been ON IT with the trial coverage! My thanks.
Thank you, Tyren! Merry Christmas to you and your family.
My thanks too for following those trials and sifting through all that information, SG2.
I hope you are going to have a well deserved rest for a few weeks.
The Dylann Roof trial practically lasted all day for about 2 weeks and before that, Michael Slager and Ray Tensing. This break feels so good.
I can start dusting and cleaning for guests coming for Christmas. They’re going to spend the night.
Thank you for all your caring and hard work great lady..
Much appreciated beautiful lady. Thanks for all y’all do for 3chicspolitico. Thank you for keeping us informed and giving us the 411 on issues, people etc.
Thank you for creating and sustaining this wonderful space…thank you especially for letting me be a part of it…
You guys help make 3chicspolitico. Love y’all for what you do to help get information out and inform
The genial transition from Obama to Trump gets a lot less friendly
12/16/16 12:48 PM
By Steve Benen
There are a variety of ways Donald Trump and his team can respond to allegations that Vladimir Putin’s Russian government attacked the American political system in order to help Trump win. Making it a test of patriotism, however, is a very bad idea.
This morning on Fox News, Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to the president-elect, complained bitterly that President Obama and Hillary Clinton haven’t sided with Trump and shut down all conversation about Russia’s alleged crimes. “If you want to shut this down and you actually love the country enough to have this peaceful transition in our great democracy between the Obama administration and the Trump administration,” Conway said, “there are a couple people in pretty prominent positions, one’s named Obama, one’s named Hillary Clinton, since it’s people want to fight for her election, they can shut this down.”
I’m hard pressed to imagine how anyone could take such an argument seriously. To hear Conway tell it, Team Trump thinks it has the patriotic high-ground in this scandal. Donald Trump appears to have benefited from illegal Russian intervention into our political system – intervention that the Republican publicly encouraged during the campaign – but if Democrats “actually love the country,” they’re supposed to look the other way.
For the good of the country, Conway seems to believe, it’s best to ignore and stop all conversation about an attack on the country.
It’s been ‘genial’ only and entirely on and from one side…while the buffoon and the evil that surrounds him, take us for fools…brazenly sticking their satanic plans and the Putin-owned white supremacists who will implement them, in our face…and daring us to say something …and whining about not being patted on the back and feted…even as they continue to stoke their racist supporters to keep attacking …
@NYDailyNews 57 minutes ago
Trump suggests Russian election hacking was justified because it targeted Hillary Clinton
Senate to consider Trump nominees who haven’t been fully vetted
12/16/16 11:21 AM
By Steve Benen
It’s been about six weeks since Election Day, and Donald Trump’s cabinet selections are still coming together, slowly but surely. The president-elect seems to enjoy making a spectacle of the process, but looking past the drama in the Trump Tower lobby, the truth is choosing the right nominees takes time – and the vetting process alone can be quite slow.
But that assumes Trump and his team are scrutinizing his choices closely, which may not be entirely true. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that some of the president-elect’s picks “have been named without extensive reviews of their background and financial records.”
The article added that Trump, in some cases, is making decisions “based on gut instinct and his chemistry with people.” At times, he’s even “revealed the name of a nominee before his transition team was ready for the announcement.”
#ImNotAMillionaireBecause The @TexasLottery WON’T LET ME WIN.
Our Pooh is sick today. They took her to doctor in Katy. Parker is inside Josh’s jacket.
awe…..feel better.
I’m sorry she’s sick but I do love her pairing of the leopard skin hat with the hot pink jacket.
Get well, little one.
Thank you
She’ll get better quick with all that love Daddy’s showering upon her.
Parker has so much fun when she’s here, taking my walnuts out of the basket, putting them back, then bringing them to me and saying “thank you”. LOL
Nana to the rescue with loads of love snuggles, kisses and souls laden with love..
Soups not souls..
Auto-correct does do much – unsolicited too..
Putin turns political power into extreme wealth
Rachel Maddow explains how Russia, under Boris Yeltsin, privatized its national assets to a few powerful bank oligarchs, and how Vladimir Putin learned to take advantage of that system to make himself, according to US intelligence, the richest man in the world.
Here you go, SG2!
<
Awe..so nice and warm. I’m loving it.
North Carolina Republicans launch a legislative ‘coup’
12/16/16 08:00 AM—UPDATED 12/16/16 08:07 AM
By Steve Benen
Once Republicans took over North Carolina’s state government, they not only pursued a relentlessly far-right agenda; they also abandoned all subtlety. Gov. Pat McCrory (R) ran as a pragmatic former mayor and business leader, but governed as a conservative crusader, imposing outlandish voting restrictions, creating new limits on civil and reproductive rights, and cutting tax and unemployment benefits on struggling families.
And so, this year, McCrory became the only incumbent governor in either party to lose re-election – which apparently drove North Carolina’s GOP-led state legislature to become even more reckless.
……………………
But hurricane victims are not foremost on GOP lawmakers’ minds. Rather, they’re focused almost entirely on curtailing the governing abilities of Gov.-elect Roy Cooper before he takes office on Jan. 7. Republicans disagree with the voters’ choice, so they’re taking steps to prevent him from governing before he can even begin.
As Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern explained, this is, in effect, a “legislative coup.”
Yep, RETHUGS are poised to usurp and broaden their POWER nationwide.
Crazy..
Who taught her that? LOL!
Parker’s Mannequin Challenge
Thanks for sharing this, SG2. It’s good to see a happy child especially now. It’s amazing what kids are capable of doing when they are nurtured and loved.
that is simply adorable. Just gave me a smile this morning. Thank you. :)
Trump’s false claims about U.S. murder rate raise questions
12/16/16 09:29 AM
By Steve Benen
As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump’s standard stump speech included a very specific claim about crime in the United States.
The reason “they” – he never said who “they” are – didn’t want to talk about the murder rate reaching a 45-year high is that the claim is ridiculously untrue. In fact, as the Washington Post explained before the election, Trump actually has the entire story backwards: “Both the rate of homicides and violent crimes are back down to the levels they were 45 years ago.”
Uh huh
The truth
https://mobile.twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/809756121732972544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
THERE LET’S GET IT OUT IN FULL PRINT!
Buyer beware…
If they’ll do it with and ‘for’ you…they’ll sure do it you in the end..
Playing footsie with Putin is like playing in a poison cobra’s cage..
You’ll be dead sooner than later..
Dem senators question Michael Flynn’s security clearance
12/16/16 10:11 AM
By Steve Benen
It stands to reason that retired Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s choice to be the White House National Security Adviser, would feel some embarrassment about his recent record, but if he thinks he can simply erase it, Flynn is going to be disappointed. CNN reported the other day:
Yes, we apparently live in a time in which a major national news organization can publish the sentence, ” Incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has quietly deleted a tweet with a link to a fake news story about Hillary Clinton’s involvement in sex crimes with minors,” and no one seems all that surprised by the report.
Flynn’s deletion will not, however, have the intended effect – because we’ve all already seen it, and it’s still readily available through various archives. In fact, efforts like these tend to be counter-productive since they draw additional attention the fact that Flynn has embraced crackpot nonsense in the very recent past.
This is my President
https://youtu.be/I2jYJ3mlPJ4
Trumpism and the New Economy
by Randolph Court and Robert D. Atkinson
December 16, 2016 7:45 AM
What’s wrong with the Rust Belt? And while we’re at it, what’s wrong with the Mississippi Delta and all the places in between? Reams of post-election analyses have turned up a range of explanations for the populist furor that has steamed America’s heartland and propelled President-elect Donald Trump’s candidacy: relentless trade pressure, job losses in manufacturing, a cultural gulf between coastal elites and everyone else, and a deep, generalized despondence, to name a few.
There is truth in all of it, no doubt, but it misses a bigger picture: America is undergoing a decades-long transition from the industrial economy of the 20th century to a new economy in the 21st that is shaped more than ever before by technological innovation and globalization. Some regions are rapidly adapting to the new order of things. But in the areas that are falling behind, people are justifiably anxious. It’s time for Washington to help those places claw their way into the winner’s circle by recognizing the forces at work and retooling its approach to economic development.
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation closely monitors key markers of the innovation-driven new economy—indicators such as employment in high-tech and information technology fields, the export focus of manufacturing and services, inventor patent filings, and public and private investment in research and development. Every few years, we publish the data in a report called The State New Economy Index, which benchmarks the 50 states on the degree to which they are succeeding on these measures. The most recent edition came out in 2014, and it is striking to see that the states reaping the fewest rewards so far from the new economy are the same ones that were most likely to swing to Trump in 2016.
Quick Takes: A Cabinet of Rich White Men
by Nancy LeTourneau
December 15, 2016 6:30 PM
POLITICAL ANIMAL BLOG
* I noted earlier that the 17 people Trump has nominated to cabinet-level positions have a combined worth more than that of over one third of the 126 million households total in the US. So this comes as no real surprise:
Neither does this:
Unless Trump picks a diverse Secretary of Agriculture, the line of succession to the presidency would be 12 white guys — via @maddow
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) December 14, 2016
Kay from BJ made this excellent point:
This is fantastic!
https://twitter.com/thaG5/status/809469951933292544
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfZoMPB2w-g
LOL…
My FLOTUS…
She’ll hold her nose if she has to – only to support her husband…but playing along with the buffoon and his cronies, is a bridge too far…
She’s won’t go along with the devil…not even if it earns her the never-ending ire of those who’ve always hated her any way..
Still don’t trust Oprah…
Curious the decision to release the most ‘sensitive’/’contentious’ clips from this interview…and not necessarily in context…
This is probably all the right wingers are ever going to see…and all they are going to run with…
…Out of context too…and demanding the First Lady ‘unite’ the country behind the buffoon, while denigrating and insulting her and calling her names…
Uh huh
Uh huh
https://mobile.twitter.com/michaelianblack/status/809604191115218945
It’s 11 degrees outside.
Yeah. Above zero.
It’s going to get up to 23 degrees today 😊😊
Yes; an actual HEATWAVE, just in time for 11 inches of snow starting today into tomorrow.
LOL..
You poor things…
Move to California…
We bundle up once temperatures drop to 58..
We’re spoilt…
Probably not as much as Liza in Arizona though..
LOL Aw, c’mon now, SG2. Wassamattau?!!!!
BWA HA HA AH HA HA HA HA
Morning Everyone 😐😐😐
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone. Stays safe & warm.