Monday Open Thread | Christmas Jams

beautiful-christmas-candles-24It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” is a popular Christmas song written in 1963 by Edward Pola and George Wyle. It was recorded and released that year by pop singer Andy Williams for his first Christmas album, The Andy Williams Christmas Album. However, the song was not released as a promotional single by Williams’ record label (Columbia Records) that year, as they instead opted to promote his cover of “White Christmas” as the official promo single from the album.

The song is a celebration and description of activities associated with the Christmas season, focusing primarily on get-togethers between friends and families. Among the activities included in the song is the telling of “scary ghost stories,” a Victorian Christmas tradition that has mostly fallen into disuse,[2][3] but survives in the seasonal popularity of numerous adaptations of Charles DickensA Christmas Carol. Other activities mentioned include hosting parties, spontaneous visits from friends, universal social gaiety, spending time with loved ones, sledding for children, kissing under the mistletoe, roasting marshmallows, sharing stories about previous Christmases, and singing Christmas carols in inclement weather.

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
This entry was posted in Christmas Songs, Current Events, Music, News, Open Thread, Politics and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

57 Responses to Monday Open Thread | Christmas Jams

  1. rikyrah says:

    So, Ferret Head doesn’t want big celebrities because they would not be appropriate for a solemn occasion…
    BWA HA HA HA H AH HA HA HA

    http://www.tmz.com/2016/12/19/donald-trump-celebrities-inauguration-parties/

  2. eliihass says:

    Please study this photograph…it is one more example of how pictures are used to shape stories to desired effect…to twist narratives…and more importantly, to misleadingly and dishonestly warp and gloss over and revise events as wittingly and unwittingly documented for posterity…

    Look at the older white man in the bow tie standing next to FLOTUS…recognize him…? That is Joe ‘you lie’ Wilson…yes, that most virulently racist white supremacist congressman from South Carolina..

    But there he is all dressed up and eager for a photo-op with the black FLOTUS and POTUS that he’s spent the past many years demonizing and stoking racist hate against…

    In the future, his children, grandchildren, great-grand children, will whip out this picture as proof that their father/grandpa/great-grand pa was not in fact a racist…and did not in fact insult the historic President…they’ll even insist – based on this photograph alone – that he was in fact a ‘dear’ friend of the Obamas..

    This is how photographs can and do distort events and narratives…yes, even in these technologically advanced times…And this is why I never make much of all those old photographs that purport to show the ‘benevolence’ of certain folks …or their ‘closeness’ to the cause…or those who were supposedly leading the cause..

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BONFvbEDfur/?tagged=flotus

    • Ametia says:

      What? No three piece & a biscuit?!!

    • eliihass says:

      The truth is that the megalomaniac buffoon is in fact a cheapskate…besides the fact that he is actually really cash-poor…really strapped for cash…and was on the verge before this sudden turn of events…something he hopes to urgently remedy as he and his brood lick their lips in their crass and desperate attempt to grab as much as this temporary fluke ‘win’will avail them…

      The KFC meals etc. are not necessarily a reflection of his simple tastes…the truth is that he is cash poor and cheap…and no amount of over-compensating with gauche displays…desperately crass, nouveau riche, pretentious, gauche and endlessly and desperately referenced and advertised perceived trappings of wealth, change that glaring fact…

      It is said that his brood also play the same slippery game as the buffoon with regard to charitable giving…

      They’ll sit at tables bought by others at charity events, and in lieu of actual donations, offer dubious sham Trump-related stuff that amount to precious little, to solicitations from charities…but they’ll talk up their participation in ‘charities’, but those charities have very little to show for it…

    • eliihass says:

      Nothing about this is kosher…or makes any sense in this paranoidly excessive high-security world we now live in…
      It’s striking how this man stands that close to the Ambassador of another country…and is the only one in the frame for quite some time..
      Do not put it past Putin to have disposed of his own Ambassador…killing two birds with one stone…getting rid of an employee that’s dispensable – or out of favor…or knows too much…or getting too big for his britches…all while creating a basis for charging forward with yet another targeted scheme…

      And Erdogan is just as dubious ..

    • eliihass says:

      As if SG..

      Even if there were some who might have done differently…the media and the rowdy groups of opportunistic enablers and ‘informal’ advisers and water carriers and spinmasters, have preemptively tried to shut down any chance to correct this crazy fluke…they’ve been busy blurring and confusing and distorting and glossing over and rationalizing …just to normalize, legitimize and elevate they buffoon…they’ve steadily emboldened and talked-up the whole crazy Trump voter will not like it and will react badly sh*t…

      That crazy, ‘passionate’ Trump supporter crap that preemptively seeks to push back on any voices of truth and dissension, by stoking and threatening them with the whole Trump’s crazy supporters won’t like that and they’ll respond badly and rabidly …utter nonsense…And folks are sadly falling for it…

      Such weak sauce…

      But if we allow this to persist, they will in fact begin to believe their own hype…and it will be only a matter of time before they indeed truly gets ugly …and they without any pushback, get so emboldened, that they hijack our country – and destroy the country as we know it..

      There’s a reason Trump is still doing and wants to keep doing his rallies…he sees those folks as fools and useful idiots…and if you watch, he tries to whip them up to push his agenda…he’s a very insecure and manipulative man…and transparently low-brow and unimpressively shallow in his pedestrian-style exploitative hijinks…

      There’s nothing he’s doing that most 2nd graders who lie, work and manipulate their audience – be it mom, dad, siblings, peers, strangers…don’t know and haven’t resorted to to try to manipulate their audience to try to use them to get their way…

      But it’s also sort of tough to push forward when Democrats are weaseling out and scuttling away and hiding …acting all scared and bumbling …bungling every opportunity they have to push back strong with a united voice…opportunities Republicans would have run with…immediately turning lemons into lemonade…

      If the tables were turned, you can bet your bottomdollar that there would be no inauguration…that everything would be halted…

      Some of those electors are thinking to themselves, we see how effectively you’ve fought the weak buffoon and his cronies…with your mealy-mouthed and scaredy cat and sucking up pilgrimages to his tower, …heck we don’t even see or hear the Clintons and their high-priced team fighting for themselves, why the heck you think we are going to play hero..

      Heck, FLOTUS who’s one of the few people refusing to normalize the buffoon, can’t even get folks to defend her when she in her very consistent manner, responds to a question in the most honest but innocuous way possible..

    • Ametia says:

      WARNING! I’m wearing this

      enhanced-buzz-17103-1291507511-9

      my_other_hat_is_made_of_tin_foil_conspiracy_theory-rb160421961cb40f78999626ca43a8c9b_v9wfy_8byvr_324

      Just like Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, before he could divulge any DIRT on whomever set him up to murder Kennedy

  3. Breaking News: Russian Ambassador to Turkey has died.

  4. Ametia says:

    Community organizations team up with Paramount to send thousands of families to see ‘Fences’

    This week, more than 3,000 families in need across 11 U.S. cities were treated to free screenings of Fences, the film starring Viola Davis and Denzel Washington. For families who might not otherwise be able to afford to see the movie, these screenings provided not only the film itself, but also a discussion surrounding its themes. Families in Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, New York, Philadelphia, and more were able to enjoy Fences on Wednesday, Dec. 14 thanks to Paramount Pictures, Ford Motor Company Fund, the Campaign for Black Male Achievement and Values Partnerships.

    http://blavity.com/community-organizations-team-up-with-paramount-to-send-thousands-of-families-to-see-fences?ct=t(Blavity_Daily_Newsletter_12_19_1612_18_2016)&goal=0_b53d5e9f25-096c2e66d1-206100893&mc_cid=096c2e66d1&mc_eid=6ca89fc2f4

  5. rikyrah says:

    Trump’s Most Dangerous Lies
    There’s an insidious strategy behind these falsehoods.

    by Anne Kim
    December 19, 2016

    Advisers to President-elect Donald Trump have given the press and the public some remarkable advice: to take “seriously” but not “literally” the words of the next leader of the free world.

    This formulation – first articulated by reporter Selena Zito – was originally an effort to explain why so many of Trump’s obviously outlandish statements didn’t seem to bother his supporters (“he doesn’t really mean to build a wall…”). But it’s since become the mantra of Trump’s boosters to justify the mix of half-cocked 3 a.m. Twitter rants, conspiracy theories, half-truths and outright falsehoods that seem to comprise the bulk of Trump’s communications with the public. As Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager, put it: “This is the problem with the media. You guys took everything Donald Trump said so literally. And the problem with that is the American people didn’t.”
    ………………………

    Trump: “The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history.” (Trump transition team statement, Dec. 11, 2016)
    Truth: Trump’s electoral college victory ranks 46th out of 58.

    Trump: (On the hacking of the DNC) – “They have no idea if it’s Russia or China or somebody. It could be somebody sitting in a bed some place.” (Fox News Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016)
    Truth: U.S. intelligence officials know exactly which Russian officials were behind the hacking of the DNC.

    Trump: “I will be holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on December 15 to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” (Twitter, Nov. 30, 2016)
    Truth: Trump’s business empire is staying in the family.

    Trump: “Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!” (Twitter, Dec. 6, 2016)
    Truth: There is no current contract for this amount with Boeing.

    Trump: “The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you!” (Twitter, Dec. 2, 2016)
    Truth: Trump’s call with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen was months in the making with cooperation from both sides.

    Trump: “…I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally” (Twitter, Nov. 27, 2016)
    Truth: There is no evidence whatsoever of any sort of widespread voter fraud.

  6. rikyrah says:

    Hmmph

    The Republicans’ Desperate Apartheid Calculus
    by David Atkins
    December 17, 2016 7:55 PM

    …………………………………

    The Republican approach to power dynamics here more resembles asymmetric warfare than traditional political conflict: parties that expect to regain power once they have lost it don’t typically behave this way, because they know that bad behavior can become a precedent used against them that will make it difficult for them to govern when they return to power. The Republican strategy here only makes sense if they expect never to regain power once they have lost it.

    There’s a good reason for this, of course. In states like North Carolina, the demographic tide is working against Republicans. There are fewer rural angry whites, and an increasing number of more liberal, younger, browner, better educated and more urban voters moving in. The Republican Party in states like North Carolina has made it a priority to restrict access to the voting booth in a desperate play to prevent their own electoral collapse. Their attempts to disenfranchise poor and minority voters were so egregious that the Supreme Court had to step in to stop them.

    There is a precedent for this sort of political desperation: apartheid South Africa. South African whites knew that to allow true democracy in the colonial nation would mean their permanent disempowerment. Their reaction was to violate international norms and become a pariah in order to hold onto power that, once lost, would never return. Political factions with a legitimate claim on power and a reasonable argument for the majority of the public know they can temporarily give up control in a democracy and win the next time around.

    But Republicans know that absent some sea change that improves their numbers among women and minority voters, they cannot expect to regain power once states like North Carolina are lost to them. And they know that they cannot count on flukes like Donald Trump’s narrow electoral college victory for long as the map continues to shift away from them.

    That’s what makes the current incarnation of the Republican Party so dangerous. They have total control now, but they know their time is limited if elections remain fair. They’re reduced to the apartheid calculus: either implement authoritarian control, or watch everything they have worked for disappear in four to eight years, perhaps forever.

  7. rikyrah says:

    uh huh

    uh huh

    The Tillerson Reveal: Tax Evasion and a Russian Connection
    by David Atkins
    December 18, 2016 6:14 PM

    If Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson is confirmed after this latest news, it will mean Republicans have no shame at all:

    Rex Tillerson, the businessman nominated by Donald Trump to be the next US secretary of state, is the long-time director of a US-Russian oil firm based in the tax haven of the Bahamas, leaked documents show.

    Tillerson – the chief executive of ExxonMobil – has been a director of the oil company’s Russian subsidiary, Exxon Neftegas, since 1998. His name – RW Tillerson – appears next to other officers who are based at Houston, Texas; Moscow; and Sakhalin, in Russia’s far east.

    The leaked 2001 document comes from the corporate registry in the Bahamas. It was one of 1.3m files given to the Germany newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung by an anonymous source. The registry is public but details of individual directors are typically incomplete or missing entirely.

    I would feel a little bit bad about using anonymously leaked documents to discover how our new overlords are abusing us, but….well, you know.

    So, let’s see. Oil company CEO? Check. Direct ties to Russian oligarchs? Check. Using a Caribbean tax haven to cheat taxes? Check.

  8. rikyrah says:

    Over at BJ, having a discussion about how the GOP is upset that we won’t show Ferret head his ‘ respect’ due as President.

    Comment One:

    Kay says:
    December 19, 2016 at 7:55 am
    @Jeffro:

    Considering how Obama was treated from Day One and how Team Trump continues to treat Clinton, no one should be at all hesitant to let Trump know they’re unhappy. This idea that there’s two sets of rules- Republicans behave one way and Democrats are ordered to behave another way- has to end.

    Donald Trump has not made the slightest effort to “reach out”. The burden isn’t on us. It’s on him. It is literally his job to make an effort to bring in the majority who didn’t vote for him. If he doesn’t succeed that’s not on us- it’s on him.

    But, this comment was FOR THE WIN!!!

    Baud says:
    December 19, 2016 at 7:58 am
    @Kay: Too many people have taken our graciousness to mean that we are the abused spouse of American politics. Their beds are about to burn.

  9. rikyrah says:

    present temperature= -8 degrees.

  10. rikyrah says:

    Morning, Everyone😐😐😐

Leave a Reply