How much slack should we give to the democrats in Congress to cut a deal  with Trump? This week.

My guess is Donald is aiming for a two-for. Not only get his damn  fence  but also damage the Congressional Democrats by forcing them to approve an unsavory bill  as the price for preventing 700,000 DACA immigrants from being deported. Maybe even  save his majority if we're foolish enough.

Probably figures he can't lose.

-If he get's his fence in exchange for a DACA reprieve  he's got his fence.

Sunday Times photo:

Donald at the rostrum. Sort of normally dressed, shirt ,tie,jacket, trousers not visible but probably pressed.

Behind him nine men and one woman "top congressional Republicans and administration officials".Each man scuffed shoes, unpressed trousers ,tieless.  What a coincidence! Not even one of them decided to wear a tie. Or any one of the dozens of pressed trousers in his wardrobe. Imagine that.

Or wasn't it a coincidence?  Short answer "nope ".

 Excerpted* from   "For the time being"   A Christmas Oratorio                                                             

and assist * their victims to sue them , if they want. If they don't want , end of story.

The proper response to a claim of  harassment-or anything - is an orderly legal process. Not a do-it-yourself trial convened in the board room  by the CEO or the head of HR.

We've been down this path before of course. Many times . Most prominently  in  the 1950's blacklist a gratefully welcomed gift to Hollywood which got a lot excellent scripts at bargain prices from blacklisted writers using assumed names.

confederate dollars. The South Will Rise Again.

 Let's see

o only 15% of white Alabama males voted for Obama

o Roy Moore rides a horse to the polls.One horse;two horses assesses. 

o There was majority support for his posting  the 10 commandments in a court room

o And of his hostility to gays

Franken should assume all the accusations are honest and should  call each of the women  and apologize.  Some one -not his wife- should be  present  listening which he should tell each of the woman at the beginning  of the call.

No recording of course.

He shouldn't announce he's doing it. Just do it. Telling them  he d prefer them not to publicize the call but that was up to them.

And then get on with the rest of his life. In the Senate.

Roy Moore, Al Franken, Bill O'Reilly ,Charlie Rose ,John Conyers etc. etc. are guilty of the crime of being accused of sexual harassment. 

And Giles Corey was found guilty of being a witch and pressed to death...oh that was in  17th century Salem.

Having read the detailed description of the incidents, as well as the response from Judge Moore and his campaign, I can no longer endorse his candidacy for the US Senate.

5.7      9.8

5.8      9.1

5.7      8.3

5.3      8.0

4.7      6.6

4.6      5.7

5.0      4.9

5.2      4.8

"Now what? "You say. "What are these numbers Flavius has inflicted us?"

Okay, okay. If you suspend for a moment the ever popular pursuit of blaming the DNC, or Bernie, Or Comey's last minute pursuit of a Manhattan pervert (tautological?). I'll explain.

They're unemployment %s. Left column George W's annual numbers for his eight years. Right, Obama's

We should make sure he is dealing with a democratic congress for his last two years. That's up to us.

But impeachment is wrong  in principle-the person whom most of the people chose should serve and  if -as this time- that's not the case change the system. By a defect in the laws Trump occupies Hillary's office, so be it. It should be only 4 years, That's up to us.

said Alice "whether you can make words mean so many different things". "The question is " said Humpty Dumpty " which is to be master-that's all."

Another question is  how many members of the National Rapid Fire Murderous Weapon Association actually have the slightest desire to pull of the trigger of one. As opposed to those who want to show "which is to be master-that's all"..

But in the spirit of outreach and good fellowship which I go on and on about at interminable length at every opportunity I have a modest suggestion. 

  If I  had adolescents in the house I'd make sure they didn't see me reading Dagblog. A bad example.

The slanging match between Hal and a cohort of his opponents is wrong and should stop. It's not "robust" it's beneath us. Hal put his money where his mouth was-went to New Hampshire to try to help Bernie. Fine. That's what we should all do,chose the least undesirable candidate and work for her/him. Afterwards he voted for Hill, as did Bernie. Since then he's gone on a bit to much for my taste but IMHO that's because he's embittered by the violence with which he's attacked.

tonight,  I used to escape from the Cross  Bronx onto the GW at 8 something in the  morning.   Back when  Steinbrenner used to fire Billy Martin every  other weekend;  Or so it seemed, What did Reggie say? "One's a liar and the other's convicted?" Something like that.

After one of those G &B  ( I started to write S&M and thought " No") reconciliations the Y's  had the clever idea of using the enormous bill board looking down on the bridge from the Palisades: Photo of Martin from behind in uniform:  caption underneath:

but provide the full story.

Their existence is in effect a message the honoree was a brilliant performer. What's missing is that it was on behalf of an evil cause.

Leave them.Just add  the rest of the story.For example

              General Robert E. Lee

   Who struggled to keep millions in misery

I started this as a comment on Dr. Cleveland's brilliant piece but it goes in a sufficiently different direction that I decided it would be hijacking "Three Myths ".

This will be taken as an affront by many of  but my reaction to the unfairness of a "legacy" taking the spot at ,say , Tulane that should have gone to a deserving minority  is like JFK's famous remark in a different context: "Life isn't fair".

Without question everyone should have an education.

Unemployment % 

1929   3.2        2007    5.0       sub prime band was playing *

1930   8.7        2008    7.3       Paulsen kneels before Nancy Pelosi

1931 15.9        2009     9.9      GM, Chrysler,AIG and the world, saved

1932 23.6        2010     9.3      Obamacare passed in "Reconciliation"

1933 24.9        2011     8.5    

 1934 21.7       2012     7.9

1935 20.1       2013     6.7

1936 16.9       2014     5.6

1937 14.3      2015      5.0

1938  19.0     2016      4.7

the July 9 Times begins, sadly, …..”.Bret Stephens...starts off promisingly…...He cites…... Kenneth Arrow about how insurance discourages people from shopping around”

Why “Sadly” ?

Because this  demonstrates that  Stephens - the relatively  new  Times opeder  recruit, presumably intended   to bolster its insufficiently conservative bull pen-  got away with a shoddy journalistic trick.