Despite the pandemonium of 2017, your comments provided a lonely outpost of sanity and reason in a siege of Fake News and Alternative Facts. According to the Pew Research Center, 58% of Republicans and conservatives believe Colleges are having a negative impact on our country. Then factor in the Real Fact that while Americans make up 4% of the world’s population, they own 42% of the guns on this planet. The intelligence and wit of Patti, Jeff, Deb, Rick, Beth, Todd, Art, Bill, Maggie, Bob, Prashant, Sergio, Carl, Lauren, Steve, Jerry, Wolf, Stan, Dan, Michael, Elgin, Scott, Jim, John, Randy, James, Kent, and Mathew as well as all of you who make this blog a part of your day raised my flagging spirits during some very Dark Times. So I want to say thank you.
Thank you very much.
George, though I have been amiss these past few weeks, I have enjoyed reading your blog and look forward to your very timely and succinct posts on topical books and movies in 2018.
Prashant, your comments always make the blog better!
George, this is one of the few oases of sanity left these days, it seems. Plus, where else would we keep up on all the books and movies and music, not to mention the travels of Patrick, the attempts to stimulate the economy, and the exploits of Big Orange?
Keep up the good work, and Go, Bills!
Jeff, after Andy Dalton and the Cincinnati Bengals pulled off that surprising upset in Baltimore, Bills fans started donating $17 (a dollar for each year of the Playoff drought) to Andy Dalton’s Foundation for Sick Children. After just two days, Bills fans have donated $57,000 to the Foundation! Win-win for everyone! A local Buffalo restaurant is also sending pizza and wings to the Cincinnati Bengals!
I loved that story. Jeff sent a link to it (thanks Jeff, as always for keeping me in the know) and I loved how generous the Bills fans were (Andy Dalton was gracious as well)
Love the blog, glad I found it. Finally got the Alec Baldwin as trump book from the library, but haven’t started it yet. Thanks for the recommendations
Dark Times is an anagram for Stark Dime, which is about all I will have after the new Tax Bill and other schemes “help” the middle class like me. **sigh**
Luckily, as we hie away to Armageddon we will still your blog.
Jerry, more than a dozen Congressmen will benefit by million dollar tax cuts with the new Tax Reform law. Most “middle class” tax payers will get a couple hundred dollars…chump change!
Your comments on this blog always delight us!
next year, look for the gop to be concerned about the deficit and move to cut medicare and social security
still have
(Stupid fumble fingers!)
George, you are a high point of my mornings. Thanks!
Dan, your comments alway add to the discussion! Thank you for being part of our merry band!
Giving people an education and instilling critical-thinking skills=bad. Yeah, there’s Reason #7,852 that I’m not a Republican.
/Love this blog and read it every day.
Deb, you are a big reason other people read this blog. Your comments are incisive and sassy!
don’t forget the private pix of Deb that you sometimes post!!
Maggie, the GOP will have a tough time winning in Blue States like California because of the TAX REFORM bill. When people find out they will lose deductions for state and property taxes–resulting in higher taxes for them–while the Rich are getting million dollar tax cuts, something stinky will hit the fan!
I saw an article this morning about how much trouble Republicans are in here in New York trying to retake the state when Trump is so incredibly unpopular here, The tax bill even got several Republicans to vote no because of how much it hurts the state.
Jeff, no NY State taxpayer can be happy with increased taxes while the Rich and the Corporations rake in millions! There will be a Reckoning in November 2018!
Maggie, I’m not supposed to talk about Deb’s photos!
Maggie, Bills fans are over the moon with making the Playoffs with the help of Andy Dalton and the Bengals! Some fans want Andy Dalton’s name up on the Bills Wall of Fame!
Go. Bills!
Patti, Bills Mania rules in Western NY! Plenty of Bills fans are heading for Jacksonville for the Playoff Game with the Jaguars on Sunday.
Yours is a fine blog, George, and you do what was suggested (by Art?): post every day. It’s my first blog stop every morning. Thanks.
note: we don’t HAVE to have politics every day here, do we?
Rick, Bill Crider was the guy who advised me to blog every day. I took his advice. Other than some “technical problems” with the server that hosts this blog a few years ago, I’ve been posting daily from the beginning. Given our troubled times, politics seems to creep into posts and comments on a regular basis. Just a sign of the Times…
George, in these troubled times, your blog is always a highlight for me – thanks a lot!
And the same goes for the comments from all the others here.
Though sometimes I wonder who voted for Trump and the GOP – all the people from the USA that I know are on a similar wavelength like you guys here. A sane voice in the wilderness …
PS and rather OT:
There’s an American lady with Hungarian roots, retired prof in Yale, who blogs about Hungary and there’s a similar crowd of readers/commentators from all over the world there – all this gives me a little hope … 🙂
Wolf, you comments from Europe give us a more global perspective. Thank you for your insights!
Thank you, George1
The world has become so small – just saw this (was looking for pictures of the Niagara Falls):
http://time.com/5085643/i90-buffalo-crash-traffic-new-york/
News travels rather fast – especially bad news …
Wolf, with the arctic temperatures at Niagara Falls, national and international reporters and meteorologists are all flocking to the Falls. The icy effects are spectacular!
Thank you, Dr. Kelley for mentioning me in your State of the Blog! I enjoy getting to hear your thoughts and staying in contact via your blog. It has definitely been a crazy year!
Lauren, Happy New Year! Please give my regards to Patrick, too. You’re right about 2017 being a crazy year. I suspect 2018 will be even more wild!
Happy New Year to you too, Dr. Kelley! I will pass on your message to Patrick. Yeah, so many people were blown away by the craziness of 2016 until 2017 came along, and 2018 seems all set to be even more extreme. I just saw this on facebook: “If we survive this, the movies about this administration are going to be fantastic. If we don’t, the puppet shows performed in the post-apocalyptic rubble will also be pretty good, I guess.”
Lauren, if you haven’t already done so, you might want to check out STATION ELEVEN which is a dystopian SF novel based on a post-apocalyptic society. Patrick might enjoy it, too!
Thank you for the book suggestion! I tend to read exclusively nonfiction books, but a good dystopian novel does sound appealing. Have you read Yuval Noah Harari’s book SAPIENS and the follow up, HOMO DEUS, yet? HOMO DEUS, in particular, has some really interesting thoughts on some of the big issues that humans are going to have to address in the future based on where we are heading now.
Lauren, I will check out SAPIENS and HOMO DEUS. You might see them reviewed on this blog in the near future.
Awesome 🙂 I’m looking forward to your (potential) review! SAPIENS was recommend reading by Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Barack Obama.
Lauren, those are some distinguished Names! I’ll track down copies of the books as soon as the temperature gets above freezing!