TomCat

Apr 202019
 

9RepublicansOnParade8

Here is the one hundred fifty-eighth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s winner is Republican Disinformation Officer Sarah Upchuckabee Sanders. She is so honored for lying repeatedly in service of her adored Fuhrer and the Republican Reich.

Press secretary Sarah Sanders was caught lying several times in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, and now she’s defending herself with more misdirections.

During a string of media appearances following the release of the Mueller report on Thursday, Sanders has faced questions about a claim she made during a May 2017 press briefing that she later admitted was false during testimony to Mueller’s team. In an attempt to justify President Donald Trump’s decision to fire then FBI director James Comey, Sanders told reporters that “countless members of the FBI” had contacted her to say they had lost confidence in Comey, when in fact that wasn’t the case.

On Thursday evening and Friday morning, Sanders repeatedly downplayed that lie as a mere “slip of the tongue.” But as ABC’s George Stephanopoulos pointed out to her in an interview on Friday morning, she used the line about “countless members of the FBI” multiple times in the days following Comey’s firing — a revelation undercutting her claim that she merely misspoke.

“You said it was a ‘slip of the tongue’ when you talked about ‘countless FBI members,’ yet you repeated it twice the very next day,” Stephanopoulos said. “That’s not a slip of the tongue, Sarah, that’s a deliberate false statement.”

Sanders, however, refused to own it, and bizarrely blamed her lie on Democrats….  [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Vox>

Well, I suppose it was “countless” to the extent that one cannot count to zero.

Lawrence O’Donnell has more.

 

Here’s what amazes me most.  I can’t believe that this is Upchuckabee’s first parade?  How did such an obvious recipient slip under my radar for so long?!!? I’m so ashamed!

RESIST!!

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Apr 202019
 

It’s a cooler but muggy day here in the CatBox.  It will also be busy, because tomorrow is Easter and a WWWendy day.  I got her some Cadbury Carmel Eggs.  She will love/hate them. 🙂

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:00 (average 4:58).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Fox News can’t stop screaming “no collusion” even though the Mueller report doesn’t address it

Barf Bag Alert!!

 

What else could anyone expect from the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise? RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Senator Elizabeth Warren First 2020 Candidate To Call For Impeachment

 

I have to agree with her. Yesterday I said that, whether or not we actually Impeach Putin’s Pet Pervert, we should begin the investigation.  If the House presents the case well enough, voting against impeachment could be career ending for Republican Senators. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Reacting to the journalist April Ryan’s call for her to be fired, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said, on Friday, that she has been the victim of the media’s “widespread anti-liar bias.”

“From their obsession with fact-checking to their relentless attacks on falsehoods, the media have made no secret of their bias,” Sanders said. “It’s open season on liars in America.”

“This is media hypocrisy at its very worst,” she added. “The same journalists who advocate freedom of speech want to take that freedom away from anyone whose speech consists entirely of lies.”

Dang, Andy! That would be the most truthful thing she’s ever said. RESIST!!

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The Mueller Report

 Posted by at 10:15 am  Politics
Apr 192019
 

The Mueller Report was not as redacted as many expected, myself included.  It lays out a compelling case for future charges of Obstruction of Justice against Putin’s Puppet, Resident Donald Trump, aka the Orange Obstructer.  Despite a centrist article and over 50 minutes of video coverage, we are barely scratching the surface here.  I can promise more coverage over time.

1019Obstruction

For nearly a month, the American public has been under the impression, thanks to a four-page “summary” by Attorney General William Barr, that Robert Mueller could not decide whether President Donald Trump had obstructed justice because of “difficult questions of law and fact.” Barr suggested that the special counsel, after 22 months of investigation, simply couldn’t make up his mind and left it to his boss to decide.

Now that we have seen almost the entire report of more than 400 pages, we know Barr intentionally misled the American people about Mueller’s findings and his legal reasoning. As a former federal prosecutor, when I look at Mueller’s work, I don’t see a murky set of facts. I see a case meticulously laid out by a prosecutor who knew he was not allowed to bring it.

Mueller’s report detailed extraordinary efforts by Trump to abuse his power as president to undermine Mueller’s investigation. The case is so detailed that it is hard to escape the conclusion that Mueller could have indicted and convicted Trump for obstruction of justice—if he were permitted to do so. And the reason he is not permitted to do so is very clear: Department of Justice policy prohibits the indictment of a sitting president.

Mueller still could have reached a conclusion regarding obstruction of justice, but he believed it would be unfair to reach a conclusion that Trump could not rebut in court. How do we know this? Because Mueller says it. If he had reached a conclusion that Trump obstructed justice, Mueller wrote, Trump could not go to court to obtain a “speedy and public trial” with the “procedural protections” afforded to a criminal defendant by the Constitution…. [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Politico>

There’s no way around it.  Barrf lied.

To detail chargeable crimes in the report, here are two video clips.  The first is from Rachel Maddow.

 

The second is from Jesse Dollemore.  His channel is here.

 

Next, now that we know, what do we do about it?  Jerry Nadler [D-NY] has subpoenaed the full Mueller Report.  That’s a good move, but the Republican Reich will tie that up in court for months.  The best way for Congress to see the entire report is to open an impeachment investigation.  That provides Congress the legal standing to be granted access to the report and all underlying  material.  If we don’t have the support of enough Senate Republicans to convict, for their own self-preservation, there’s no need to conclude the investigation with Articles of Impeachment.

My biggest concern is, if Trump gets away with this, it will embolden future Republicans to commit even more heinous crimes.

RESIST!!

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Apr 192019
 

It’s a muggy day here in the CatBox, and I feel very tired.  It was hot and humid last night, exacerbated by the heat my O2 concentrator produces.  I slept very poorly.  TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:32 (average 5:20).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Late Show Channel): Samantha Bee Gears Up For 2019’s Not WH Correspondents’ Dinner

 

I can’t wait to see that one. Sam will skewer the Orange Obstructer. RESIST!!

From The Atlantic: [J]oe Biden is running. The former vice president will make his candidacy official with a video announcement next Wednesday, according to people familiar with the discussions who have been told about them by top aides.

Seriously, he’s actually made a decision. It’s taken two years of back-and-forth, it’ll be his third (or, depending on how you count, seventh) try for the White House, and many people thought he wouldn’t do it, but the biggest factor reshaping the 2020 Democratic-primary field is locking into place.

I’m actually disappointed. I had hope that Joe would assume a Senior Advisor role. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Gina Haspel, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, made a rare public appearance on Thursday to give a nostalgia-laced recruiting pitch to students at Auburn University. But she was confronted instead by a heckler shouting about her role in torturing suspected militants in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Ms. Haspel was recounting the excitement she felt at the start of her own career when the heckling began. “Tell these young children, tell them who you tortured. You know their names — they’re still in Guantánamo Bay,” an unidentified man shouted.

“You’re a decrepit human being,” he continued before being removed by security. “The only people you should be talking to is a prison guard in a jail cell.”

Kudos to the protester. Republican torturers belong in prison, not heading the CIA. RESIST!!

Cartoons:

0419Cartoon2

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Barrf Barrfed!

 Posted by at 9:55 am  Politics
Apr 182019
 

The redacted version of the Mueller Report has been released, and I have a link to a PDF copy of that report.  However, before that was released, Coverup General William Barr, aka Barrf, did his nest to misrepresent its contents in order to protect his Fuhrer.  He did a poor job. In fact, Barrf Barrfed.

0418Barrfing

Attorney General William Barr’s Thursday morning press conference on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia report was a whitewash.

There’s no other way to describe it. Barr, who claimed beforehand that the press conference would focus on process, spun the report’s conclusions before it was released and expected reporters to ask questions about a document they had not even seen. He literally uttered the phrase “no collusion” to describe Mueller’s conclusions — providing a perfect sound bite to play on loop on cable news in the president’s favorite phrasing.

Barr repeated this and similar talking points multiple times during his prepared statement. He put tremendous effort into explaining why Trump’s behavior during the probe should be seen as justified and in no way constituted obstruction. He even praised the president for providing “unfettered access” to documents and said the White House “fully cooperated” with the investigation, despite Trump’s refusal to submit to an interview with Mueller.

At the end, when a reporter asked if it was improper for the attorney general to spin the report to the public before it was released, Barr literally walked off the stage.

Meanwhile, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is generally respected by Trump critics, stood next to Barr silently.

It was a spectacle that said more about Barr and the way the Mueller report has been twisted by partisan politics than the report itself….  [emphasis added]

Inserted From <Vox>

Don’t take my word for it.  Decide for yourself.  CSPAN recorded Barrf’s presser.

Barrf Bag Alert!!

 

What do you think?

Finally, click here to read the redacted Mueller Report.

I’ll have to depend on others to dig out the dirt.  I have a copy, but my eyes are not capable of evaluating it.  Go for it.

RESIST!!

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Apr 182019
 

Summer has come early to the CatBox.  It’s still cool now, but the forecast high this afternoon is 75°.  It may get too warm here, as my O2 concentrator sheds heat. I hope your day is Republican-free.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:54 (average 4:10).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Uninvited: GOP Representative Flip-Flips On Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

 

I love it when Republicans step in dawg crap and put their feet in their mouths. RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): North Korea tests ‘tactical’ weapon, report says

 

I wonder what Resident Rump Dump will give away to Kim this time. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: After putting in what one associate called a “hellish all-nighter,” the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is almost finished redacting Robert Mueller’s report in time for its release, on Thursday.

Earlier in the week, the U.S. Attorney General, William Barr, submitted the approximately four-hundred-page document to Putin for his approval, but the Russian President was reportedly “in a state of disbelief” over how much Barr had failed to redact.

Quickly assembling a crisis team at the Kremlin to implement further redactions, Putin told his associates, “Put some coffee on, boys—it’s going to be a long night.”

Dang, Andy! You nailed it! RESIST!!

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Democrats, Knock It Off!

 Posted by at 10:27 am  Politics
Apr 172019
 

If I wake up in the middle of a political wet dream, and I am ripped from sleep by members of my own party drenching my naked body with ice water, I can tell that I am a Democrat.  In 2008, there was a struggle between Clinton and Obama.  Almost 5% of Democrats, angry that Clinton lost, voted for McCain.  In 2016, angry that Bernie lost, over 10% of Bernie supporters voted for Trump.  Are we starting for 2020 already?  Democrats, knock it off!

0417circular-firing-squad

…From canapé-filled fund-raisers on the coasts to the cloakrooms of Washington, mainstream Democrats are increasingly worried that their effort to defeat President Trump in 2020 could be complicated by Mr. Sanders, in a political scenario all too reminiscent of how Mr. Trump himself seized the Republican nomination in 2016.

How, some Democrats are beginning to ask, do they thwart a 70-something candidate from outside the party structure who is immune to intimidation or incentive and wields support from an unwavering base, without simply reinforcing his “the establishment is out to get me”’ message — the same grievance Mr. Trump used to great effect?

But stopping Mr. Sanders, or at least preventing a contentious convention, could prove difficult for Democrats.

He has enormous financial advantages — already substantially outraising his Democratic rivals — that can sustain a major campaign through the primaries. And he is well positioned to benefit from a historically large field of candidates that would splinter the vote: If he wins a substantial number of primaries and caucuses and comes in second in others, thanks to his deeply loyal base of voters across many states, he would pick up formidable numbers of delegates…

Inserted from <NY Times>

This is the worst thing establishment Democrats could do.  Look at this video:

 

Bernie’s campaign is behaving just as badly.  They are fundraising with the message “The Democratic establishment and high-dollar donors are already planning how to stop our campaign. They are terrified of our movement — as they should be.”  That will only frighten establishment Democrats more, a very unwise choice.

In the end, no matter who wins have a massive bloc of resentful lefties, who feel anger toward and unrepresented by the winning candidate.  How insane!

Democrats need to knock it off. If you support Bernie, support him. If you support someone else, support them. If we allow our disagreements to become feuds, whoever wins our nomination will be too battered and bloody to win the general. Let’s compete on issue and let the voters choose the individuals. And when we have a nominee, we ALL need to get behind them with enthusiastic support. The alternative is four more years of Republican tyranny.

RESIST!!

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