Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Love and light--

all eight Chanukah candles have been lit...

Condolences to Liz Honnet's family & friends -

Liz is apart from us, but always a part of us.

Liz, we remember you

and the tireless contributions you made to Life at West

both as a student and as a teacher.

Stewart, in the bleak December cold,

you remind us you're (we're) "not getting any younger."

David, we celebrate gratitude... thanksLiving, Alive in Alaska.

Today the Peace candle, lit on the second Sunday of Advent...

Life is at hand.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Gun violence is a national epidemic that leaves no community untouched.  Each day 96 Americans lose their lives to gun violence -- that’s 35,141 lives lost annually.  This is preventable.  

Americans have reached a consensus: Over 90% of the country supports background checks for all gun buyers.  It’s well past time for Congress to act, and we need to push elected officials to enact common-sense gun safety laws to end this crisis.  

The Washington Post fact-checker created the ‘Bottomless Pinocchio’ - a new rating to call Trump on repeated false claims.  WaPo’s fact-checking team uses the Pinocchio test to rate the veracity of politicians’ statements.  Previously the test was based on a scale of one to four, with one Pinocchio meaning there’s ‘some shading of the facts’ and four meaning it’s a ‘whopper’ - Truthful comments are awarded the ‘Geppetto Checkmark.’

“Trump’s willingness to constantly repeat false claims has posed a unique challenge to fact-checkers.  Most politicians quickly drop a Four-Pinocchio claim, either out of a duty to be accurate or concern that spreading false information could be politically damaging.  

“NOT Trump.  Trump continues to claim falsehoods as facts long after they’ve been rated as ‘four Pinocchios.’

“He is not merely making gaffes or misstating things, he is purposely injecting false information into the national conversation.  

“The ‘Bottomless Pinocchio’ rating will be assigned to a claim that has already received three or four Pinocchios and has been repeated at least 20 times, according to the Post.  

“Twenty is a sufficiently robust number that there can be no question the politician is aware that his or her facts are wrong.”

Stewart Myrent

​I would also like to add my condolences to Liz Honnet's family.  I remember Liz from Lincoln Hall & then Niles West.  Janis, a couple of days ago, you had a post with an Epilogue to "The Kominsky Method".  There wasn't much there that I wouldn't disagree with, if the quotation is accurate, but there is too much there, to get into now, without repeating any of it, except to say that it makes 0 sense to me.  It was like listening to a Trump monologue, rambling, with no frame of reference, or any relation to reality.  I am having second thoughts about possibly liking this show, as it feels a little pretentious.  But, I haven't seen even one episode.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Happy Birthday, Fran.

Thanks always, for me you are a beacon.

Like Leap Day, Chanukah often takes me by surprise.

You and your birthday on December 11th, invite me forward.   

Birthday wishes to you for happiness, love, and light -

thanks for insight you share along the way.

Happy Birthday, Fran.

Janis

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Stewart, ego contributes to a lack of empathy.  Reducing our ego makes it possible to love our neighbor as ourself.  

I am a female and not a Jew.  I love “The Kominsky Method”.

It would be a shame for you to miss “The Kominsky Method” - the episodes are about half an hour each.  

It was fun seeing two old guys exercising their kegels - something I’ve been doing for almost 50 years - since I gave birth to my older daughter.  

Does this sound pretentious to you?  Sandy and Norman are real guys who share their vulnerability and friendship with the viewer.

Frances Garfield (Brown)

Thanks so much for my birthday wishes. I am sooooo old, and I hope I will be able to make it for another year. Hope all is well here in Evanston and Chicago and perhaps we can see each other soon!  ---fran

Stewart Myrent

​Janis, I thought your final line at the end of "The Kominsky Method" post, "so-o-o-o-o Me and my neighbor are Life...we are all Life.", indicated that you were as confused by it, as I was.  I wasn't sure if your follow-up post helped clarify it for me, or not, but it makes as much sense as anything else.

Marvin Irving Blusteln

Alop,

Was hoping to see an analysis or commentary from you dissecting the recent 45, Schumer, and Pelosi summit. 

Alan A. Alop

Marvin---I have a different view of that fifteen minute confab.  I think T was playing to his base and they probably ate it up.  Nancy and Chuck let T get away with murder.  This is what should have happened:

T:  We just recently captured ten terrorists coming in on that border. We need that wall. 

NP: That's bullshit. You just made that up. Mr. President, you are a liar!  And you are fat.  You are a big fat liar. By the way, your pants are on fire!

T: I am the only one who can fix this border thing. Those Caravans pose a real threat.  We need the $5 billion to build the Wall to protect America from the bad hombres.

CS: You mis-led the country by claiming the caravans were a danger----that was just an election tactic.  The caravans are no threat to our border security and you know that.  You repeatedly promised Americans that Mexico would pay for the Wall.  Not the American taxpayer.

T:  Mexico will pay. This is just a downpayment.

NP: Bullshit!  Another lie. Mexico will not pay for the goddam Wall and neither will the American public!

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Why are Republicans willing to crash and burn with ‘pants on fire’ Trump?  

About all Trump wants the government to pay for is the military and the Wall... so much for the “general welfare”.

If Trump wants the Wall, he should open a GoFundMe account and let his supporters pay for it.

Marvin Irving Blusteln

Janis,

Simple.   They are not patriots.  They are loyal to the dollar.

Donald Henry Kuehn

See if there’s a movie in here: You’ve got “The Don”; his Consiglieri “The Fixer” (now going to prison); various stooges (Giuliani, Huckabee-Sanders, Kelly-Anne, McConnell); the crooks in the family business (Jr., Eric, Ivanka and Jarred); Weiselberg, the Bag man; the enablers in Congress; and the silent wife-type (whose parents are in the country because of “chain migration”). Everybody bows to kiss his ring and no one in “the family” dares to say anything bad about the Capo de Capo.

I think we can call it “La Trumpa Nostra” . Mario Puzo where the Hell are you?

DK

Stewart Myrent

​Well...I thought the Forum had gotten a little placid, mundane & boring, as we've done a pretty good job the past few weeks, taking pains to avoid discussing politics (except for Janis to keep bringing up the whole firearms discussion, fairly regularly - I have no problem with that, Janis), but leave it to Trump to stir the pot as much as possible.  I have no doubt that his life will become a daily hell, in less than a month.  And don't forget, whatever you think you know, or are pretty sure guessing about what kind of shenanigans Trump has engaged in his whole life, Mueller KNOWS pretty much everything.  And fairly soon, we'll all know exactly what he has done.  I'm pretty sure if Trump is totally innocent of any collusion with Russia. or any obstruction of justice, we'll know that, also.  He should be glad about all the details coming out, if he's innocent.  Just got home from work, but before I left, I came across an episode of "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" titled "The Trump Presidency".  It aired on 11/12/17, last year.  I couldn't recommend it more highly.  It is uproaringly hilarious.  Steve, it's time for you to come out of your self-imposed exile & reticence.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

“La Trumpa Nostra” is perfectly cast.  Bravissimo!

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

       Sharry, thinking of you,

        with love and best wishes.

Paul Richard Hain

Interesting explanation of  the "General Welfare" clause.  https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2014/08/28/the-general-welfare-clause-is-not-about-writing-checks/

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Advent is a time of preparation, a time of alert anticipation, of holy watchfulness.  Advent is not a penitential season in the same way Lent is before Easter.  Advent is a time of watching and waiting... for peace... for presence... Advent is like the glow in the sky just before sunrise.

Today, on the third Sunday of Advent, the Joy candle is lit.

Beverlee Ann Arpan (Marshall)

A Christmas Reminder

"Dear Editor: I am 8 years old.  Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.  Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'  Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon  1897

"Virginia, your little friends are wrong.  They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age.  They do not believe except they see.  They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.  All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's are little.  In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

"Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

"Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

"You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

"No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Alan A. Alop

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a tense meeting on Monday, leading Cabinet members warned Donald J. Trump that shutting down the federal government would make it exponentially harder for them to steal from.

Led by his Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, the Cabinet members begged Trump to prevent a government showdown that would bring their brazen spree of pillaging the nation’s coffers to a screeching halt.

“Mr. President, with the federal government up and running, I was able to take seven trips on military aircraft at a cost of eight hundred thousand dollars,” Mnuchin said. “I implore you, sir: don’t make me fly coach.”

Trump’s three oldest children, Ivanka, Eric, and Don, Jr., who have piled up impressive taxpayer-funded travel bills of their own, chimed in with an emotional plea to their father. “Daddy, please don’t make us stop plundering government money,” Ivanka said. “Not right before Christmas.”

Stewart Myrent

​Alan, thanks for the link to "The Borowitz Report".  That guy is really creative AND hilarious!

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Some things never change...

I have one of these.  It leaves bed sheets smelling sooooo fresh... and there's nothing like the sun to remove spots.

Forget the HOA - I do it whenever I can, especially in the winter.

"IT DRIES THE WASHING USING THE VERY LATEST TECHNOLOGY -

A COMBINATION OF SOLAR AND WIND POWER."

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

What is Paul Ryan’s legacy?

He called himself a courageous conservative.

Paul Ryan made a Faustian bargain, he failed -

he coddled Trump thinking he could get what he wanted,

he wound up effectively capitulating total and complete control to Trump over what it means to be a Republican.

Somehow Paul Ryan believed he could orbit around the black hole that is Trump and not be swallowed by it -

instead he is walking away from Congress and the Republican Party defeated at the feet of Trump...

Trump defeated a man many saw as one of the great leaders of the Republican movement:

The deficit grew under Paul Ryan;

Trump pushes isolationism, the U.S. is not leading in the world;

Trump has not protected the family unit, he has disdain for the idea of moral leadership.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

CHAOS a’ la TRUMP!  

How long will it take to overcome the damage Trump has done to our country?

Alan A. Alop

Democrats should accept a Wall--like the one below--that currently separates Evanston from Chicago:

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

I remember the Wall.  It's hard to believe Chicago approved such a project.

The circus of erecting the Wall was done under the cover of darkness.

Complaints about the Wall came from both sides.

It took Evanston nearly 18 months to dismantle the Wall.

Alan, wherever (however) did you find a picture of Berny's Wall?