It’s been a very long day and I’m very tired from setting up a new poll and from doing the research and preparing the graphics for tomorrow’s Monthly Report. Please pardon my brevity.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:29 (average 5:01). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: Commenting on Donald Trump’s first hundred days in office, Vice-President Mike Pence told Fox News on Sunday, “To tell you the truth, I really thought I’d be President by now.”
“When I agreed to run on the ticket with him, I said to myself, ‘Mike, after he’s been in the White House for a few weeks, he’ll be a total train wreck and you’ll be able to slide into the big-boy chair,’ ” Pence said. “I never in a million years thought he’d last a hundred days. My best guess was thirty.”
The former Indiana governor said that, with such seemingly fatal missteps as Trump’s failed health-care plan and travel bans, as well as any number of unhinged outbursts, “It feels like I’ve come close to getting in there maybe ten or twelve times. But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”
Calling the past hundred days “the longest hundred days of my life,” Pence said that he has no choice now but to “sit and wait for my moment.”
Andy has made it clear that impeaching Trump is not enough. We also need to dump dozens of Republicans in the Presidential succession queue simultaneously. RESIST!!
From Daily Kos: A man armed with a machete and a bag full of knives seriously injured a Kentucky student Friday morning in a politically motivated attack at a campus coffee shop….
“The day of reckoning is here,” the man said, according to witnesses.
He then approached two women at the café.
“He asked the first girl if she was a Democrat or a Republican, she said Republican, (and) he said okay, then asked some other girl,” said witness Michael Soder. “By that time, some of my friends were running out and yelling for us to leave, and I tried to stay behind to see if — I mean I didn’t know what to do, I wanted to help, but I knew I should get out of there.”
Another witness shared a similar account.
“He asked somebody what their political affiliation was, they said ‘Republican,’ and the guy said, ‘You are safe,’ and then I realized what was going on and started getting people out,” said witness Tristan Reynolds.
The assailant, who police said was a former student, then pulled out a machete and attacked a woman in the café. [emphasis original]
I guess I need to retire the term Al Dubya after all these years. Al Drumpfenfarten is a greater terrorist threat to America and the World than al Qaeda or the Daesh ever were. RESIST!!
From NY Times: Congressional leaders reached a bipartisan agreement on Sunday to fund the government through September, effectively ending any suspense about the possibility of a government shutdown next weekend.
The agreement, which still must be voted on by lawmakers, includes increased funding for the military and for border security. But it does not include funding for the wall that President Trump wants to build along the border with Mexico, one of his major campaign promises.
The deal increases funding for the National Institutes of Health, despite the Trump administration’s request that its budget be reduced for the rest of the fiscal year. And it provides millions of dollars to reimburse costs incurred by local law enforcement agencies to protect Mr. Trump and his family — a boon to New York City, which has had the costly task of helping to protect Trump Tower.
The spending package would be the first significant bipartisan measure approved by Congress during the Trump presidency. Republicans, despite having control of both houses of Congress and the White House, were unable to pass any marquee legislation in the president’s first 100 days.
I’ll reserve judgment until I have more info, but it appears we got as much as we gave up or more, and the compromise appears better than a government shutdown. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
11 Responses to “Open Thread – 5/1/2017”
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Andy is so awesome!
4:35 A flower as fuzzy as a pootie. Oh My.
TNY – Yeah, no kidding. One wonders whether Pence actually did think like that. I'm not sure he is astute enough, myself. But maybe he is. On the other hand, he has fallen for an awful lot of bullshit from Trump and his "advisors" already.
DK – Thank you for publicizing this. It didn't make much of the MSM because "nobody died." A sad commentary, that, on the state of the nation today.
NYT – What you said. And I'm pretty confident it's better than a shutdown.
Cartoon – OK, my rant will be off topic, but it is an open thread, after all. I never get used to the fact that because many cultures consider elephants "lucky," Republicans can easily collect elephants, many of which are quite lovely to look at, while the only jackasses the Democrats can easily collect are the Republicans themselves, and who the heck wants THEM around the house? Donkeys, arise! Maybe if we put a single horn on one?
WRT your Cartoon "rant" on GOP elephants and Democratic donkeys– I've always felt that we should make an honest effort to reach out in a bipartisan spirit.
With that goal, I've always agreed to hug GOP elephants – as long as they agree to kiss my ass!
LOL!
A couple of days ago, it was Montana, now it's Maine – denied Upward Bound because the application was not doub;e spaced. Petition here:
https://petitions.signforgood.com/king_umpi_linespacing?code=jtk322-ja
I signed the petition yesterday and did some checking on Upward Bound as well. What a great programme which is why DeVos is throwing a spanner in the works. She is a legalistic, brain dead billkionaire who has no business holding the position she is in.
I read today that Drumpf has cancelled Michelle Obama's pet project "Let Girls Learn" effective immediately. It was part of USAID.
All this while the Congress allocates over $120 million to protect the Drumpfs in New York and Florida, and while travelling.
No sense of priorities!
NYer: Yeah, that would be great, for ALL of them to just go!
DK: How frightening!!! Horrible!!! Un.Believable!! Is this what it has come to, now???
NYT: That's good news! Why am I not jumping up and down? Oh, that's right, he's (dt) still there.
Cartoon: No one should ride elephants, leave them be. Are you listening, Repugs?
Happy May Day everyone! Boy, time flies by, doesn't it? I hope that you have a good rest of your day, get some rest! Take care, and Thanks, Tom.
New Yorker: Pence could be more dangerous than the Empty Orange, should the latter resign, or be impeached! People will be exhaling, many will be celebrating, and Pence could very quietly, push the GOPig agenda of misogyny, Faith based crap, climate change denial, rolling back regulations all over the place. We'll be hearing more of "Give him a chance," and the like; "Give him the benefit of the doubt," but thisis a man who has reportedly said that his faith is more important to him than his country!!! Do you think he'd get d rid of the likes of Betsy Double spacehole? Other fools? Even the quiet ones, like Rick Perry? Me neither.
DK: Gee, who do you think this fuck-up voted for? Gee, is this guy a "fur'ner?" A immigrant? Related to Betsy DeVos? just askin.'
NYT: Not bad, given the situation.
Puzzle — 3:40 Don't start sneezing Puddy Tat from the tickling of that soft fuzzy plant. You might do in the ribs again and that would not be good!
The New Yorker — Andy, were you a fly on Pence's wall? This sounds suspiciously like straight reporting! To be sure, the whole damn bunch of the Republican criminal enterprise needs to be tossed to the curb with the rest of the trash.
Daily Kos — IMO, there is definitely more danger from domestic terrorists than from any foreign terrorists, starting with Drumpfenfarten. With the Drumpfian Cartel in charge, there is definitely significant danger from the Republican congressional terrorists to the population.
NY Times — As the saying goes, "the proof will be in the pudding." Another saying is also appropriate "the devil is in the details". Unfortunately the article link is corrupted in some way as I get "Page Not Found" from the Times.
Cartoon — The only elephant that should be ridden, and ridden very hard, is the Republican elephant! Ride it right into the ground , , , preferably a six foot hole!
Resist and Persist!!!
I hope you were able to get some rest! No mention of the pain. I hope that is a positive thing. Take care!
I hope you had time for a long nap after you finished all that har work, TomCat.
TNY: Andy is again writing down what people around Drumpf are thinking. They all thought Drumpf a nice stepping stone in their own career and one that wouldn't last long. The fact that neither Pence nor others in the Administration nor in the GOP dare to topple Drumpf yet is an indication how deeply they are involved in the Russian Connection directly or in its cover up since September last year.
DK: This is so scary, and it's even scarier that those students can count themselves lucky this deluded madman wasn't a ammosexual who had just attended a NRA rally inciting gun owners against the academic, political and media elite, though it looks like he got the gist of that fascist rant anyway. How long before someone in the NRA/Republican true target audience is going to act on it?
NYT: Hmm, I'll reserve judgment on this one. Have to look at those core values and the details first.
Cartoon: And they shouldn't, but what do they care about abuse…
Thanks all! Shitty Hugs!