I got to bed late, slept poorly, feel groggy and need to take the day off.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:26 (average 5:49). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Take:
From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Michael Cohen Friend: Testimony Was ‘Peek Inside The Criminal Enterprise’
Is the Fuhrer toast or what? RESIST!!
Cartoon:
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Here is the one hundred fiftieth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s winner is a Republican Representative and Trump Sycophant Matt Gaetz (R-FL). He is so honored for congressional witness intimidation on behalf of his Fuhrer.
A top ally of President Trump appeared to threaten a witness on the eve of a high-profile congressional hearing, suggesting Tuesday that he would expose the president’s former lawyer Michael Cohen as a womanizer should he testify against Trump.
“Hey @MichaelCohen212 — Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends?” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a fierce defender of the president, wrote on Twitter Nazi delinked]. “Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot.”
The comment elicited instant pushback from House Democrats, who accused Gaetz of trying to intimidate their star witness.
Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and longtime associate, is set to testify publicly before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday. He will accuse the president of “lies, racism and cheating,” according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to describe the expected testimony. And Cohen is expected to detail Trump’s role in his hush-money payments to two women alleging sexual relationships with Trump during the 2016 election…
Inserted from <Washington Post>
It’s worse than the article appears, as CNN’s Don Lemon explains.
Gates deserves his parade, because his behavior was so Republican.
It’s a frigid snowy day here at the CatBox. Store to Door just called. They cancelled all grocery deliveries due to inclement weather. I’m contacted WWWendy to do my shopping for me. She has a snow day too and a 4 WD pickup. Happy Hump Day!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:13 (average 5:02). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Fox News misrepresents Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to claim she wants to “get rid of children”
Barf Bag Alert!!
It’s not just AOC . The Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, misrepresents everything! RESIST!!
From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): House Passes Resolution To End Trump’s ‘National Emergency’
I saw Bought Bitch Mitch. He looked like he ate a bad clam! Love it. RESIST!!
From NY Times: Mark Harris, the North Carolina Republican who nearly won a seat in Congress last year but saw his political fortunes collapse after the revelation that his campaign had financed a fraud-tainted voter-turnout effort, said on Tuesday that he would not run in a new election.
In a statement on Tuesday, less than one week after the North Carolina State Board of Elections ordered a new contest for the seat, Mr. Harris attributed his decision to medical issues that included two recent strokes and issues with his memory and recall, saying the Ninth District deserved “to have someone at full strength during the new campaign.”
Bullshit! He was caught red-handed, and cowardly Republican that he is, he’s slithering away. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
Nancy Pelosi is an old hand. She has the wisdom of experience. She knows her way around government better than most. Donald Trump is the exact opposite. Years of repeated failure demonstrate his incompetence. He’s a political neophyte, whose ego is as big as his hands, etc. are small. Therefore, is it any wonder that she beat him again?
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi just keeps racking up wins over Donald Trump, partly because she expertly knows how things work, and Trump largely doesn’t. Take for instance the procedural maneuver that Pelosi just pulled off which, regardless of how the vote goes, will end up helping the Democrats and harming Trump and the Republicans.
Nancy Pelosi and her allies like Joaquin Castro introduced what’s called a “privileged resolution” to bring an end to Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration. This means that not only will it be voted on in the House (where it’ll pass), it will also have to be voted on in the Senate; Mitch McConnell can’t block it. It also only needs a simple majority to pass, thus sidestepping the sixty vote supermajority that sometimes derails Senate votes.
This means that just four Republican Senators have to vote for this resolution, and it’ll pass the Senate. There’s buzz right now that there may indeed be four or more such votes. We’ll see if that happens, or if the GOP ends up being as big a bunch of cowards as ever. But that’s not what matters here… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <The Palmer Report>
Photo Credit: imgflip.com
I agree. If it passes the Senate, Trump will veto it, and we won’t get the 67 Senate votes need to override the veto. Long term, we’ll win this one in the courts, but now, we will have forced every Republican Senator and Representative to vote on it. Those few that vote for America will earn the wrath of the rabid Republican base. Those who goose-step behind their Fuhrer will alienate everyone else. Either way, that’s a win for our side.
It’s a very cold day here in the CatBox, and it will likely stay that way, at least through the weekend. It’s almost 20° below average. I want to crawl under my covers and hunker down.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:45 (average 5:25). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): Robert Reich: A Bold New Idea to Boost Wages
The Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right, but one more provision is needed to benefit the disabled/retired poor: an Unearned Income Tax Credit. No American should have to live in poverty, when billionaires get welfare. RESIST!!
From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Elizabeth Warren Talks 2020 Campaign With Chris Hayes
I touched on this yesterday, but she explains it far better than I could have. Anti-corruption would be a great place to start. RESIST!!
From Daily Kos: …J. Beauregard Sessions was a legitimate threat to America’s secular government as Trump’s attorney general, but his theocratic aspirations paled in comparison to Trump’s latest theocratic cabinet member – a conservative Catholic malcontent who is unlikely to ever defend the U.S. Constitution because it is a secular document. It is noteworthy that Sessions only stated that, according to his mind, the separation of church and state in the Constitution is a concept that is unconstitutional. However, his replacement ardently believes that America’s government is duty-bound to enforce god’s laws because there is no place for secularism.
In a 1995 essay, Barr expressed the extremist Christian view that “American government should not be secular;” secularism is an abomination in Barr’s theocratic mind despite the law of the land is unmistakably secular. Furthermore, Barr contends America’s government is supposed to be imposing “a transcendent moral order with objective standards of right and wrong that flows from God’s eternal law;” eternal law best dictated by the Vatican and taught in public schools at taxpayer’s expense.
It is true that as attorney general William Barr will defend Trump’s criminality and corruption; it is one of the only reasons Trump nominated him. However, the real danger to the nation is Barr’s belief that the government’s primary function should be defending and enforcing his god’s moral edicts while ardently opposing any legislative branch effort to make secular laws according to the secular Constitution…
Beware the evil of Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, like Barr and Pence. They are the exact opposite of real Christians. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
The Republican Reich views their failure to establish a totalitarian white homeland as a reason for violent civil war. It's not new. Trump is an excuse and a symptom, not a cause. This was going on long before Trump's infamous visit to the Ritz Carlton Hotel. This morning I found an excellent article by Daily Kos staff writer David Neiwert on the history of this phenomenon.
We’ll never know for certain whether accused domestic-terrorist-in-the-making Christopher Hasson ever would have acted on the desire to spark a racial civil war for white supremacy by committing the assassinations and mass killing for which he had so thoroughly prepared and about which he endlessly fantasized. We do know, however, exactly what might have been the spark to send the 49-year-old Coast Guardsman from Baltimore off on a killing rampage, though: the impeachment of President Trump.
Buried in Hasson’s deleted emails, along with correspondence to neo-Nazi leaders and ruminations on his admiration for Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik, were his working notes for events around which he was planning actions, notably: “what if trump illegally impeached” and “civil war if trump impeached”.
As Chris Hayes adroitly observed, it’s not hard to find where Hasson might have obtained the belief that civil war would erupt if President Trump were to face impeachment: Civil war has become an endemic talking point and source of speculation among right-wing pundits. Only this week, longtime Republican operative Joseph diGenova went on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show and warned:
We are in a civil war in this country. There's two standards of justice, one for Democrats, one for Republicans. The press is all Democrat, all liberal, all progressive, all left—they hate Republicans, they hate Trump. So the suggestion that there's ever going to be civil discourse in this country for the foreseeable future in this country is over. It's not going to be. It's going to be total war. And as I say to my friends, I do two things—I vote and I buy guns.
This seemingly hysterical pronouncement, in fact, is fast becoming a commonplace among right-wing pundits. (Watch for it to become a permanent talking point at Fox.) That’s because it has been circulating on the right for a good long while now, and is now being whipped up to new heights—notably, well into the mainstream of conservative-movement discourse… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Daily Kos>
I encourage you to click through and read the article in it's entirety. David built it around the following four four video clips, totaling about forty minutes. Consider this a "Barf Bag Alert!!" for all of them. They are raw. They are hate filled. And they represent today's Republican Reich.
The radical right's early civil war push: The Turner Diaries, The Order, and Tim McVeigh
Reaction to Obama's presidency fuels far-right revival, agitation for civil war
Conspiracy theorists, Klansmen and radio hosts talk up civil war as Obama's tenure wanes
Trump's defenders claim the radical left is trying to create the civil war they've been hoping for
Having seen these I trust you agree that merely defeating the Republican Reich is not enough. The Republican Party must either be transformed into an organization that values decency and what's best for Americans, or it must be eradicated.
It’s a cold, busy day here at the CatBox. The snow is forecast to end in about three hours. Oh God it’s Monday!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:38 (average 4:55). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (CNN Channel): Elizabeth Warren’s new promise: No fundraisers, phone calls with wealthy donors
Kudos to Liz for following the trail Bernie blazed in 2015. The rest of the candidates should follow suit. RESIST!!
From NPR: Requiring only men to register for the draft is unconstitutional, a federal judge has ruled.
The Military Selective Service Act, or MSSA, states that males in the U.S. aged 18 through 25 must register in case the country needs a military draft. Women face no such requirement. On Friday, a federal judge in Texas ruled that a males-only draft violates the equal protection provisions in the U.S. Constitution.
While historical restrictions on women in the military may have justified past discrimination, they don’t anymore, wrote Senior Judge Gray Miller of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. “If there ever was a time to discuss ‘the place of women in the Armed Services,’ that time has passed,” he wrote, citing an earlier Supreme Court decision.
I have always opposed the draft, because of the ease with which children of the rich and powerful can get deferments to evade service, for example, with dissolving bone spurs. I especially opposed the draft for women, because I did not realize my chivalry was a mask for residual sexism. Now I would support a draft, if and only if the progeny of the rich and powerful were first to be called and automatically designated for combat. There would ne far fewer wars. RESIST!!
From Alternet: President Donald Trump’s supporters in the right-wing media have often described Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe as a reckless “witch hunt” that lacks merit. Trump himself has used the phrase “witch hunt” countless times to describe the investigation. But Neal Katyal, former acting solicitor general in the Obama Administration, has a very different view. And when the attorney appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, he told host Chuck Todd, “If this is a witch hunt, Mueller has found a coven at this point.”
Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble. Trump has made the bullshit double! RESIST!!
Cartoon:
Billionaires have been deprived of their rights under this amendment. Increase their rights to 90%!
WWWendy is due shortly, and we have a full slate of tasks to finish. This is my only article today.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:01 (average 4:58). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube: Youngbloods, the – Get together (audio original)
Ah… the memories. The Republican Reich stole the love. It’s time to take it back! RESIST!!
From The New Yorker: The comedian Rosie O’Donnell will narrate the audiobook of Robert Mueller’s long-awaited report, the special counsel’s office confirmed on Saturday.
Explaining the selection of O’Donnell, a spokesperson for Mueller said, “Donald Trump has complained about how much this report has cost, and Rosie has agreed to narrate it for free. In fact, she offered to pay us to let her narrate it.”
Speaking to reporters, O’Donnell called the job of narrating Mueller’s report “the acting job of a lifetime.”
“I never thought I’d get the chance to play so many twisted characters,” she said. “I mean, when else am I going to get to be both Ivanka and Jared? People are gonna freaking love listening to this in the car.”
Wow, Andy! Let’s pipe that into Trump’s solitary cell, and turn up the volume. RESIST!!
From The Nation: It’s 2019, and the Democratic Party is finally starting to energize voters. Gone are calls for cutting Social Security or one-upping Republicans in games of tax-cutting or warmongering. In their place are transformational ideas like Medicare for All, universal childcare, and a Green New Deal. Democratic candidates and elected officials are finally hearing the needs and wishes of their supporters, and acting accordingly.
Now it’s time for those of us in the consulting field, who work to help elect these leaders, to follow suit.
While it’s not well-known outside the political class, many consultants who advise campaigns are often working for corporate clients at the same time—and all too frequently, these clients interests’ directly oppose the goals of any progressive coalition. Those working both sides of the street include some of the most senior aides from the Obama administration, and as well as advisers to both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns. From opposing progressive taxation to fighting for deregulation, working for corporate clients means pushing an agenda most progressives would consider a non-starter were it espoused by a political candidate.
Many progressives recently criticized Bill Burton, a top Democratic consultant and former Obama aide, for working on former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s independent presidential bid. Critics rightly worried that by helping Schultz direct massive resources against the Democratic nominee, Burton could swing the election over to Donald Trump. Besides, Schultz’s agenda of opposing higher taxes on multimillionaires or Medicare for All is a direct attack on the progressive movement.
I could not agree more. Corporate double-dipping by Democratic consultants is both anti-democratic and anti-Democratic. RESIST!!
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