TomCat

Open Thread – 3/30/2019

 Posted by at 10:28 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 302019
 

I must be feeling pretty tired, because I overslept again.  I just got my A1c results.  I’m quite pleased with 6.0.  Tomorrow Wendy’s niece, Katie, is filling in for her.  I hope to publish normally, but may not have time.  If I can’t I won’t send links messages on Care2.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:33 (average 5:04).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): William Barr Improvises Role On Mueller Report Despite Clear Regulations (25 min.)

The more Republicans we subpoena (with cause), the better. Is Coverup General Barr suggesting that Moby Dick might contain evidence of whales, after all? People who believe anything Barr says are fools. RESIST!!

From Huffington Post: Former Nevada Assembly woman Lucy Flores published an op-ed in New York Magazine’s The Cut on Friday alleging that Joe Biden inappropriately kissed and touched her after he offered to help her with her 2014 campaign.

Flores, who was running for Nevada lieutenant governor at the time, described her encounter with the former vice president as making her feel “uneasy, gross, and confused.” During a Las Vegas campaign rally, she alleges he approached her from behind, put his hands on her shoulders, smelled her hair and kissed the back of her head.

“I froze. ‘Why is the vice-president of the United States touching me?’” she wrote.

She detailed the unwanted encounter with the likely 2020 candidate, which took place right before she was set to go onstage and speak.

I don’t want to rush to judgment, but I think it should be investigated and appropriate action taken. The Republican Reich already have a bush bandit running for Resident. Democrats cannot afford to copy them. RESIST!!

From Alternet: National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre issued a stark warning that the group may be forced to shut down due to financial woes in a fundraising letter to supporters.

LaPierre wrote in a four-page letter that the group may be forced to shutter “very soon,” The Daily Beast reported. The NRA chief blamed the financial woes on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who last year directed state regulators to “urge insurance companies, New York State-chartered banks, and other financial services companies licensed in New York to review any relationships they may have with the National Rifle Association.”

LaPierre wrote that Cuomo’s “tactics are already working.”

“Right now we’re facing an attack that’s unprecedented not just in the history of the NRA, but in the entire history of our country. And if this attack succeeds, NRA will be forced to shut down forever,” LaPierre wrote.

That would be wonderful. The demise of the NRA would open the door for the creation of a new organization to do the training in gun skill and safety that it used to do, when I was a member, half a century ago. RESIST!!

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Samantha Bee from 3/27

 Posted by at 9:50 am  Politics
Mar 292019
 

It’s that time of week again, and here are three excellent video clips from Sam’s show Wednesday night.  Enjoy!

Collusion Conclusion

 

Amen Sam! Collusion Delusion (not the band) is still alive and well in the Republican Reich. Vote the Colluder-in-Chief out of office.

Mick Mulvaney, Bad Scammer

 

No matter how vile Sam makes Mulvaney seem, and he is that vile, he’s typical of the Republican Reich.

Immigrants in the Military

 

Trump and the Republican Reich do not want educated recruits, immigrant or otherwise. They want ignorant Nazis to kill Americans on command. Thank God most of our service members are better than that.

That was a great show.  Sorry I’m a day late.

RESIST!!

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Open Thread – 3/29/2019

 Posted by at 9:49 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion
Mar 292019
 

I had a busy day yesterday, and after a long week, I’m feeling quite tired.  My only medical issue is a yeast infection in the diaper area.  No wonder the antibiotic ointment didn’t work.  My next trip put isn’t until a week from Monday for my semi-annual eye torture.  TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:05 (average 4:18).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Rep. Adam Schiff’s Controlled Anger At GOP’s Indifference On Russia

 

Have truer words than Schiff’s ever been spoken? I think not. RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): See DeVos’ reaction to CNN’s questions after testimony

 

Every penny Democrats can’t spend on disabled kids is a penny Republicans can give to a billionaire. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: One inherent danger of allowing a religious minority to install a puppet controlled by religious fanatics in the White House is the now unfolding threat of government officially establishing religion – the Christian religion. Any American’s confidence that the U.S. Constitution is a protection against government establishing religion is grossly misplaced and, that belief is about to be disabused by the current religious conservatives responsible for adjudicating the law of the land.

Because a nearly half-century-old Supreme Court ruling prevented the government from advancing religion, the wall of separation between church and state is almost certainly going to be eviscerated by the Christian conservatives on the current Supreme Court. The crusade to demolish the wall of separation is being advanced by one of the Heritage Foundation SCOTUS nominees confirmed shortly afterTrump corrupted every aspect of  the government his tiny little hands touched. However, it is noteworthy that Neil Gorsuch’s theocratic crusade is wholly supported by Trump’s other SCOTUS appointee, religious serial liar and sexual abuser Brett Kavanaugh. 

The reason the “Establishment Clause” is going to be found unconstitutional by the current Court’s Christian conservatives is crystal clear; they believe a 1970’s-era ruling prohibiting government establishment of religion adhered to the U.S. Constitution and is patently wrong. The prohibition on government establishing religion is appalling to evangelicals and the theocrats on the High Court are not going to tolerate it any longer. 

I agree with this author with one highly notable exception. Republicans are not establishing the Christian Religion. There is nothing remotely Christian about the Republican anti-Christian dogma of hate, lies, and oppression. Their religion is the polar opposite of authentic Christianity. It’s Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity. RESIST!!

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Here Comes RepubliCare

 Posted by at 10:34 am  Politics
Mar 272019
 

RepubliCare is the Republican Plan for health care, if Trump and his Republican Reich are successful in destroying the Affordable Care Act.  Its sole feature is the RepubliCare Death Benefit.  If you can afford to pay enough for health care to mike a profit for Big Insurance and Big Pharma, you get health care.  If not, you get to die almost free.  (the Reich charges only 100% of your remaining assets as a modest disposal fee.

Late Monday night the Trump administration issued an eye-catching legal filing, essentially advocating for the elimination of the entire Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. This was a reversal from the White House’s previous position, which only sought to invalidate certain, often popular, provisions of the law. If the administration gets its way, there would be widespread chaos as the health care system would drastically revert to its pre-ACA era existence overnight—with impacts ranging from millions of people losing Medicaid to insurers being able to refuse people because of preexisting conditions and to charge people for birth control.

The administration’s filing Monday asks a federal court to approve a ruling from earlier this year in a federal court in Texas that said Obamacare was “unconstitutional” and struck down the entirety of the health care law.

The plethora of Democrats currently running to unseat Donald Trump in 2020 eagerly pounced on the news as a major development, making it even more clear that health policy will be keyed up as a prime topic during the next presidential election, just as it was in last year’s midterms. “If it’s a fight for healthcare this administration wants, it’s a fight they’ll get—and we will win,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand tweeted Monday night. But while Trump’s opposition to health care reforms received plenty of attention Tuesday morning, the legal filing was not actually a major break in policy goals; Trump and his officials have spent the past two years latching onto any and every possible method to undermine Obamacare—both broadly and by slowly whittling away key provisions. What it is, though, is basically a major political gift to Democrats…

Inserted from <Mother Jones>

This is horrid.  Both Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell weighed in.

Rachel’s Video:

 

Underwood’s plan does not go far enough.

Lawrence’s video:

 

I have to agree.  Whether or not we beat this, and I pray we can, the Republican Reich could not have provided a better gift for the 2020 campaign.

RESIST!!

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Open Thread – 3/27/2019

 Posted by at 10:33 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 272019
 

It’s a very busy day today, and I’m so worn out that I overslept for an hour.  Store to Door will deliver groceries soon, and I have to unpack and put them away.  WWWendy is coming this evening.  Her sons’ father passed away, and she is taking her son to Iowa for the funeral.  She will be gone from Thursday until Monday night.  Her cousin is filling in Sunday.  We have a ton of tasks to complete.  Today I have a routine medical exam with Megan, my PCP.  Tomorrow, please expect no more than a Personal Update with no links messages on Care2.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:48 (average 6:15).  To do it, click here.   How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Why Did So Many Donald Trump Associates Lie About Contact With Russians?

 

Why? They lied to coverup their conspiracy with the Russians. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Attorney General William Barr has just read the classic American novel “Moby-Dick,” by Herman Melville, and found that the book contains “no evidence whatsoever of whales,” Barr stated on Tuesday.

The Attorney General issued his statement on the absence of whales in the Melville classic in a two-paragraph book report released to the news media.

“Those who read ‘Moby-Dick’ looking for whales will be sorely disappointed,” Barr wrote. “There are no whales here.”

To illustrate his point, Barr quoted the book’s first sentence: “Call me Ishmael.”

“As you can clearly see, that sentence does not have a whale in it,” Barr wrote.

Dang, Andy! If Coverup-General Barr had been a literary critic, we’d have the blessing of never having heard of him! RESIST!!

From NY Times: After years of effort, scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service had a moment of celebration as they wrapped up a comprehensive analysis of the threat that three widely used pesticides present to hundreds of endangered species, like the kit fox and the seaside sparrow.

“Woohoo!” Patrice Ashfield, then a branch chief at Fish and Wildlife Service headquarters, wrote to her colleagues in August 2017.

Their analysis found that two of the pesticides, malathion and chlorpyrifos, were so toxic that they “jeopardize the continued existence” of more than 1,200 endangered birds, fish and other animals and plants, a conclusion that could lead to tighter restrictions on use of the chemicals.

But just before the team planned to make its findings public in November 2017, something unexpected happened: Top political appointees of the Interior Department, which oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service, blocked the release and set in motion a new process intended to apply a much narrower standard to determine the risks from the pesticides.

The Party of Death strikes again! RESIST!!

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The Barr Report

 Posted by at 10:10 am  Politics
Mar 262019
 

While Grand Jury testimony is secret, there is one exception to that rule.  When the testimony relates to offenses of the US President (Resident, in this case) that testimony is released under seal to the House of Representatives, based on the theory that a sitting President (Resident) may not be impeached indicted.  Enter AG William “Coverup-General” Barr, who got his job after writing his Fuhrer that the Resident inherently cannot obstruct justice.  In addition to his bogus letter, Barr now says that he needs to remove all Grand Jury testimony from Mueller’s report, before releasing a sanitized version.  As Rachel said, this is the Barr Report.

0326Barr

Back in 1992, the last time Bill Barr was U.S. attorney general, iconic New York Times writer William Safire referred to him as “Coverup-General Barr” because of his role in burying evidence of then-President George H.W. Bush’s involvement in “Iraqgate” and “Iron-Contra.”

General Barr has struck again — this time, in similar fashion, burying Mueller’s report and cherry-picking fragments of sentences from it to justify Trump’s behavior. In his letter, he notes that Robert Mueller “leaves it to the attorney general to decide whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime.”

As attorney general, Barr — without showing us even a single complete sentence from the Mueller report — decided there are no crimes here.  Just keep moving along.

Barr’s history of doing just this sort of thing to help Republican presidents in legal crises explains why Trump brought him back in to head the Justice Department…  [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Salon.com>

Rachel Maddow spent almost 45 minutes in two clips covering this.  In the first clip, she breaks down the history of Grand Jury testimony and introduces the list of questions that trouble her.

In the second clip, she finishes explaining her list of questions.

Her coverage certainly invalidates the integrity of the Barr Report.  Congress must be given the full report, excluding only information about intelligence sources and methods, and ongoing criminal investigations into Trump and his Reich.

RESIST!!

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Open Thread – 3/26/2019

 Posted by at 10:08 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Mar 262019
 

It’s a chilly day here in the CatBox.  Yesterday’s meeting was very long and I’m very tired, but we accomplished everything we needed to get done.  On 2/19, I blasted Jussie Smollett.  Jussie Smollett has been cleared.  When I’m wrong, I say I’m wrong.  I apologize to Jussie and to you all.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:08 (average 4:17).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Trey Crowder Channel): Liberal Redneck – Mueller Report Schmueller Report

 

Dayyum! “2020 is the only play and it always has been!” Amen to that. However, we need to make the truth obvious. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): Robert Reich & W. Kamau Bell: A Tale of Two Tickets

 

The Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is half right. Bell is the other half right. RESIST!!

From Alternet: The Trump Administration told a federal court on Monday that it will be urging federal judges to strike down the Affordable Care Act of 2010, a.k.a. Obamacare. A lower court ruled in December that the law is unconstitutional, and Justice Department attorneys have asserted in a letter filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans that the December 2018 ruling “should be affirmed.”…

…Here are some of the most harmful results of the Trump Administration gutting and undermining the ACA.

1. Undermining the ACA is bad for Medicare

In 2016, Trump asserted that unlike other GOP presidential candidates, he had no interest in gutting Medicare. But when Republicans attack the ACA, they also attack Medicare. Obamacare didn’t hurt Medicare, contrary to what Trump claims; it strengthened it. But in 2017, it was estimated that the GOP’s anti-ACA efforts would cause Medicare’s revenue to drop by $346 billion.

2. Gutting Obamacare is terrible for Americans with preexisting conditions

Most Americans over 40, even if their health is generally good, have some type of malady that insurance companies call a “preexisting condition”—which could be anything from asthma to acid reflux. Pre-ACA, insurance companies could deny coverage to Americans because for a long list of reasons. But the ACA brought health insurance to millions of Americans who were uninsurable before, and everyone from diabetics to cancer survivors to asthmatics will be imperiled if Trump’s assault on health care reform progresses.

I shared the first two. Click through for the other three. RESIST!!

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