Kids, and kids at heart, race out to make a snowman after a winter storm blankets the ground. Just as every snowflake is unique, each snowman's size and accessories are limited only by its creator's imagination. Indeed, snowmen of all sorts have dotted front yards and public spaces for centuries. Yet they were not always the "jolly happy" figures immortalized in the song and animated television special "Frosty the Snowman."
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued five large TV manufacturers yesterday, alleging that their smart TVs spy on viewers without consent. read more
After dissolving several federal tech modernization units and shedding large numbers of technologists, the Trump administration has launched a new talent recruitment initiative ... read more
The problems include "leaking raw sewage, non-functional toilets, and general disrepair of facilities," according to the report
New Orleans, home of Bourbon Street revelry, has become the first American city known to have a live facial recognition network. read more
Also the MIT shooting ...
Police Identify Person of Interest in Brown-MIT Shootings
www.vanityfair.com
... Authorities say Claudio Manuel NevesValente, a person of interest in the Brown University shooting and the killing of an MIT professor, was found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility ...
@#2 ... "Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods." ...
Inflation January 2025: 3.0%
( www.nysut.org )
Inflation September 2025: 3.0%
( www.bls.gov )
@#1 ... President Trump, will be personally checking all the girls, to make sure they're really girls." ...
Will Pres trump be conducting those ~inspections~ personally?
Teen Beauty Queens Say Donald Trump Walked in on Them Changing When They Were as Young as 15 (2016)
people.com
... At least four women who competed in a Miss Teen USA beauty pageant told BuzzFeed News that Donald Trump walked into their dressing room while the contestants as young as 15 were undressing.
Mariah Billado, the former Miss Vermont Teen USA, tells Buzzfeed that the now 70-year-old Republican presidential candidate caused a panic in the dressing room of the 1997 pageant when he barged in unannounced as the young women were changing.
However, she says Trump shrugged off the intrusion, saying something along the lines of: "Don't worry, ladies, I've seen it all before." ...
@#1 ... a winter festival known as the Miracle of 1511, people in Brussels lined the streets with more than 100 lewd and satirical snow figure ...
The Raunchy, Comical, Political Snowman Invasion of 1511 (2018)
www.atlasobscura.com
... Three big balls of snow, some lumps of coal, a couple of sticks, and a carrot. Today's typical snowman is minimalist, almost abstract. It is an artistic devolution from what they once were"markedly more advanced and artistically challenging. Even Michelangelo dabbled in the medium.
Centuries ago, snowman-makers, many of whom were themselves artists and craftsmen, put considerable time and effort into their snowmanship.
One particular fluorescence in the canon of snow art was during the Middle Ages, when things were made with snow to make a statement. In some places there was a tradition among artists to populate cities with snowmen after a heavy snowfall. In a time when famine, plague, sickness, and conflict were not uncommon, snow often brought winter festivals and other officially endorsed morale boosters, which provided some moments of relief and levity to people who might otherwise be surviving on grass or dropping dead.
The thinking was that the public could blow off steam for a week or two"with erotic dancing, excessive drinking, political jokes, and public art displays"but in a somewhat supervised way.
That is exactly what took place in Brussels, then an important city in the Duchy of Brabant, during the particularly brutal winter of 1511. It was called the "Winter of Death," and the city was covered with snowmen. ...
President Trump Job Approval
www.realclearpolling.com
...
RCP Average 12/2 - 12/17
Approve: 45.5
Disapprove: 53.5
Spread: -10.0
President Trump Approval - Economy
www.realclearpolling.com
RCP Average 12/2 - 12/16
Approve: 41.0
Disapprove: 51.8
Spread: -13.8
President Trump Job Approval - Immigration
www.realclearpolling.com
RCP Average 12/2 - 12/15
Approve: 46.9
Disapprove: 49.6
Spread: -2.7
President Trump Job Approval - Inflation
www.realclearpolling.com
RCP Average 11/19 - 12/15
Approve: 35.7
Disapprove: 62.8
Spread: -27.1
President Trump Approval - Crime
www.realclearpolling.com
RCP Average 11/3 - 12/15
Approve: 47.5
Disapprove: 49.5
Spread: -2.0
@#55 ... Would you say the President of Honduras that Trump pardoned, he intended to cause mass social destruction in the United States? ...
That's a good question.
Honduran president planned to shove drugs "right up the noses of the 'gringos'," according to witness in New York drug case (2021)
www.univision.com
... A document filed Friday by federal prosecutors in New York makes new drug trafficking allegations against President Juan Orlando Hernndez of Honduras, who allegedly told a co-conspirator that he was going to "shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos." ...
The investigations into fmr Pres Hernandez seem to predate the Biden presidency.
Honduras president, others targets of DEA investigation (2019)
www.politico.com
... U.S. federal court documents show Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernndez and some of his closest advisers were among the targets of a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation.
A document filed by prosecutors on Tuesday in the Southern District of New York mentions Hernndez as part of a group of individuals investigated by the DEA since about 2013 for participating "in large-scale drug-trafficking and money laundering activities relating to the importation of cocaine into the United States".
Hernndez was elected president of Honduras in late 2013.
The document is a July 2015 application to the court to compel Apple, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL to give investigators email header information, but not emails' content, for a number of accounts. Two of the accounts are believed to be of Hernndez, the documents says. ...
David Bromberg Quartet - Mr. Bojangles (1977)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
genius.com
... And her husband, the bartender ...
I still enjoy that lyric and its context ...