HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Here are some Thanksgiving quotes that will hopefully improve your day...

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.
Henry David Thoreau

Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.
Oprah Winfrey

If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share. 

W. Clement StoneThere is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.

O. Henry

To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do. 

Victor Hugo

Give thanks not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of your life. Appreciate and never take for granted all that you have. 

Catherine Pulsifer

I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land. 

Jon Stewart

I loved my mom so much because she had to work on a penny just to put food on the table... During the Depression in the United States, everybody had a tough time. And I was so hurt because she was crying that she didn't have any food for us for Thanksgiving.
Tony Bennett

I have strong doubts that the first Thanksgiving even remotely resembled the "history" I was told in second grade. But considering that (when it comes to holidays) mainstream America's traditions tend to be over-eating, shopping, or getting drunk, I suppose it's a miracle that the concept of giving thanks even surfaces at all.
Ellen Orleans

Have a great day!

Congressional members with NRA blood on their hands

Recipients of cash from the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) (1988-2016) who refuse to pass gun control laws that would save lives, as reported by The Nation magazine. Call them today!

Congressman: Sen. Don Young (R-AK)
Total amount received: $55,650

Tel. Number: (202) 225-5765

Is it time to look at Dems working with Trump

Sen. Chuck Schumer, NY

He is the President-elect, although on last count Hillary Clinton was 1.7 million popular votes ahead of him. Major consideration for getting rid of the Electoral College but that's another story and possibly already in the works. So far I have been on Trumps back because during the ugliest U.S. election in many years, he said and proposed some terrible things. Degrading everything from Mexicans to women, never once apologizing, seemingly proud of everything said and done.

It's hard as hell to vote for someone like that; I didn't. It's hard as hell to like anyone like that; I still don't. But if this country is to recover from the vicious competition of the 2016 election, someone has to make a move. And Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D-NY) has done just that. Schumer is new Dem head of the Senate and has shown how we can work with the President-elect. Here's what he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press:

“Surprisingly, on certain issues, candidate Trump voiced very progressive and populist opinions,” Schumer said. “For instance, getting rid of the carried interest loophole, changing our trade laws dramatically, a large infrastructure bill.”

There's more positive input, Schumer names helping American workers with improved trade deals, on carried interest, and rebuilding the infrastructure. It's a good start and there's also a tough side. The new Senate head draws a line on the repeal of Obamacare, not going to roll back Dodd-Frank,” the 2010 law that imposed financial regulations on Wall Street after the 2008-09 crisis, and says Dems won't help him build the wall, instead comprehensive immigration reform .

Schumer doesn't like cabinet appointee Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who Trump picked to be national security adviser for his suggestion that fearing Muslims is rational. But strangely, no mention of Trump's powder keg appointment of Steve Bannon as his chief strategist. I'm just waiting for the real fireworks.

Congressional members with NRA blood on their hands

Recipients of cash from the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) (1988-2016) who refuse to pass gun control laws that would save lives, as reported by The Nation magazine. Call them today! 

Congressman: Sen Roy Blunt, Missouri 

Total amount received: $60,550 

Tel. Number: (202) 224-5721

Trump's first one-hundred days void of substance

Donald Trump...with a sneer

Well, there is one action that deserves attention, simply because it had so much discussion during the Primary. It's the TPP trade deal to bring jobs back to this country, which Trump actually built part of his platform on. Bernie Sanders was also against the TPP but Barack Obama thought it was good for this country, hoping it would be part of his trade legacy. It's hard to fight any proposal, though, that will bring jobs back to American workers so a plus so far.

But from here on it turns into promises, vague meanderings, and complete absences of issues that were, again, a part of the Trump platform. According to CNN, "...he focused exclusively on campaign promises that would not require congressional approval." Shades of screams Obama heard from the Republican do-nothing Congress. But, then, the shoe is on the other foot now and time will tell how this plays out with the good-ole-boys who did not support Trump.

On the major issues requiring congressional approval, he backs off significantly from his vitriolic campaign rhetoric that was obviously meant to get the votes of his group of uneducated rednecks. Among other things, he called Mexican immigrants "criminals" and "rapists," then added they were killers too. "He Insisted The Mexican Government Intentionally Sends Their Criminals To The U.S." See all nine here. Didn't even mention building the Mexican wall.

Another major issue of the campaign not included in Trump's first one-hundred days is the repeal of Obamacare. You will remember his meeting with the sitting President and Obama asking him to at least keep the no preexisting conditions of the ACA, and the President hopeful he would agree. Trump released his own plan on healthcare back in March of 2016, making several vague references to what he would do. There was one high point:

"Trump would also allow prescription drugs to be imported and for full transparency of health care pricing, although he offered few details about how that — or any of the proposals — might work."

The first 100 days starts January 21, 2017. Mark your calendars for April 24, 2017, for the first evaluation of the new president that lost the popular vote by 1.7 million votes...and still counting.

"Bernie Mafia" has a request Democrats can't refuse

Bernie Sanders appeals to masses

First it was Elvis' mafia, now Bernie Sanders has his and they plan to capitalize on the strength of his popularity, which is still growing since Clinton won the primary and lost the election. Bernie has just been promoted to the Democratic leadership in the Senate and his colleague, Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, is a favorite to be the next chairman of the Democratic Party. He replaces Debbie Wasserman Schultz who brought the party down to where it is.

In effect, it is a decapitated party, as put by Alex-Seitz Wald of NBC News, that Ellison will inherit, if elected. Thanks to Debbie Wasserman Schultz. But as an example of Bernie Sander's popularity, his Facebook page grew by 100,000 followers in the 24 hours after Clinton's defeat. Which indicates to me the fact that, had the primaries not been rigged to elect Clinton, with Bernie running against Trump, we would have a different President-elect right now.

Sanders laments the fact that the Democratic Party has all but deserted the working class in the search for a moderate identity that didn't work. But he's even reached out to Clinton to the heal the wounds of a primary the latter's supporters feel did her in. What really did Clinton in was her favorability rating: 41.1% favorable, 55.3 unfavorable. For Bernie Sanders: 54.1% favorable, 37.5% unfavorable. A Bernie quote to end this on:

"I'm not here to blame anybody, not to criticize anybody, but facts are facts," When you lose the White House to the least popular candidate in the history of America, when you lose the Senate, when you lose the House, and when two-thirds of governors in this country are Republicans, it is time for a new direction for the Democratic Party."

Amen! 

Obama can still appoint Merrick Garland to Supreme Court

It is certain that Democrats will attempt to block any radically conservative nominee that Donald Trump comes up with to fill Antonin Scalia's seat. It will no doubt include a filibuster. The GOP, however, could initiate the "nuclear option" and overcome this but will they? The NO simply lets the Senate head call a vote to change the number of votes needed to stop the filibuster from 60 to a majority, which the Republicans have. Bingo, the Supremes have gone ultra conservative.

But hold on, Dahlia Lithwick of Slate says, it isn't Donald Trump's nomination to make and actually we already knew that. The Senate's token asshole, Mitch McConnell, stopped Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland. And has-been John McCain had also said that should Hillary Clinton become President, he would block all of her nominees. And he doesn't even know who they would be. This all confirms the stupidity of the current Republican Party.

The only answer now is for the Democrats to stand firm and do everything in their power to prevent Trump's Supreme Court nominations. Unless he comes to his senses and works with the Dems on a nominee, and we know that won't happen. But here's the kicker, the Advise and Consent clause of the Constitution gives the President the right to do many things, including nominate judges for the Supreme Court. The court then approves or disproves the nomination.

But what if the Senate doesn't act. The Supreme Court has said:

"No procedural principle is more familiar to this Court than that a constitutional right, or a right of any other sort, may be forfeited in criminal as well as civil cases by the failure to make timely assertion of the right before a tribunal having jurisdiction to determine it.”

The Washington Post has said:

"It is altogether proper to view a decision by the Senate not to act as a waiver of its right to provide advice and consent. A waiver is an intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege."

Although he is running out of time, Obama could "...advise the Senate that he will deem its failure to act by a specified reasonable date in the future (perhaps 30 days) to constitute a deliberate waiver of its right to give advice and consent. I know we're in the change of command but the GOP started the fight and it's the Democrats time to finish it. And that would be, if there is no action by the Senate, Obama appoints Garland to the Supreme Court. Case closed.

It happened in 1975 under Gerald R. Ford's presidency you can read here.