TomCat

Open Thread – 1/16/2019

Posted by TomCat at 10:41 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 162019

Yesterday the computer tech did a great job. He cleaned up the horrible bird’s nest of wires behind my computer that I cannot reach. He got my screen working on the original DIV cable, and used the HDMI output on the video card to send computer images to my TV. He scanner on my laser printer configured so that it works with the laser printers control center software. And he set my notebook computer up on the network, and installed a utility that allows me to control my home computer from a remote location over a secure encrypted connection. I’m very pleased with him. Portlanders, he’s Peter from Bolt Computers. Store to door is delivering a grocery order today and I’ll need to unpack and stow them. Later, WWWendy is coming to destink the vile TomCat and help with cores. In short, it’s a busy day here at the CatBox.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:24 (average 5:43). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Bill Maher: If We Don’t Impeach President Donald Trump, Where Is The Bar?

Amen Bill!! I almost always agree with him, except for when he proselytizes for his religious faith in atheism. RESIST!!

From YouTube (NY Times Channel): Who Is Kirsten Gillibrand? | 2020 Presidential Candidate

I like her, and I’d love to see a bevy of qualified women and men competing for the nomination in an atmosphere of mutual respect and integrity . This time, if your candidate is not chosen, PLEASE don’t help elect Putin’s candidate again. RESIST!!

From NY Times: After suffering the worst parliamentary defeat in modern times over her plans for leaving the European Union, Britain’s prime minister, Theresa May, endured another day of turmoil on Wednesday, when she is to face a vote of no confidence in her battered government.

On Tuesday Mrs. May lost by a crushing margin, 432 to 202, when Parliament voted on her plan for European Union withdrawal, or Brexit, as the clock ticks toward March 29 when Britain is scheduled to leave.

Lawmakers spent much of Wednesday debating whether Mrs. May’s government should continue in power before voting at around 7 p.m. on a motion that could, in theory, lead to a general election.

That is an unlikely outcome, analysts say, because many of those who voted against Mrs. May’s withdrawal plan, including hard-line pro-Brexit rebels in her Conservative Party, and a group of 10 lawmakers from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, have said they will support the government on Wednesday.

We should remember that British Republicans, aka Tories, were suckers for Russian propaganda (Brexit) before US Republicans. I’d love to see Labour kick their Bridiot butts! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Open Thread – 1/15/2019

Posted by TomCat at 8:09 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 152019

I’m in a hurry this morning, because I have a computer tech coming. This is my only article today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:29 (average 8:29). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Most people who are innocent of any crimes will still need to hire thirty-five lawyers at some point, a new study shows.

According to the study, commissioned by the University of Minnesota Law School, thirty-five is the “bare minimum” number of lawyers that an innocent person should have on retainer in the event that he or she becomes the subject of an entirely unjustified criminal investigation.

“We found that many innocent people are going through life without taking the basic precaution of hiring thirty-five lawyers,” Professor Davis Logsdon, who supervised the study, said. “They are flirting with disaster.”

“An innocent person who has absolutely nothing to hide should do everything in his or her power to avoid answering questions from investigators,” he said. “Thirty-five lawyers can really help you do that.”

Additionally, Logsdon noted, hiring nearly three dozen lawyers is invaluable because of the powerful statement it makes. “Nothing says ‘I’m innocent’ like hiring thirty-five lawyers,” he said.

Dang Andy! That’s not BS. That’s not even MS. That’s PhD (Piled Higher and Deeper). RESIST!!

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): THE WALL CAME A TUMBLIN’ DOWN – Parody

Thanks Don! May the whole damn Republican Reich come tumbling down. RESIST!!

From NY Times: House Republican leaders removed Representative Steve King of Iowa from the Judiciary and Agriculture Committees on Monday night as party officials scrambled to appear tough on racism and contain damage from comments Mr. King made to The New York Times questioning why white supremacy is considered offensive.

The punishment came on a day when Mr. King was denounced by an array of Republican leaders, though not President Trump. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, suggested Mr. King find “another line of work” and Senator Mitt Romney said he should quit. And the House Republicans, in an attempt to be proactive, stripped him of the committee seats in the face of multiple Democratic resolutions to censure Mr. King that are being introduced this week.

Those measures would force Republicans to take a stand on the House Democratic majority’s attempt to publicly reprimand one of their own.

Too little, too late. Steve King has been doing this for years, and all these Republicans have been gleefully goose-stepping with him all along. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

The highest holy day!

Teachers Fight for Kids

Posted by TomCat at 12:01 pm Politics

Jan 142019

This morning the teachers and other educators at the nations largest school district, the LA Unified School District, went on strike in an attempt to save the schools they serve from starvation by the predatory practices of the Republican Reich. While Republicans say the teachers are motivated by greed, the district and the union are very close on that issue. Where they are not close are class size, reductions in standardized testing, increased support staff (Most schools lack a librarian, and many don’t even have a school nurse.), and limitations on district creating limits on new and on spending on charter schools.

Tens of thousands of Los Angeles teachers went on strike Monday after contentious contract negotiations failed in the nation’s second-largest school district.

“Students, we are striking for you,” teachers union President Alex Caputo-Pearl told a cheering crowd of teachers marching in pouring rain.

Members of United Teachers Los Angeles voted last year to walk off the job for the first time in three decades if a deal wasn’t reached on issues including higher wages and smaller class sizes.

Months of talks between the union with 35,000 members and the Los Angeles Unified School District ended without a deal. It follows teacher walkouts in other states that emboldened organized labor…

Inserted from <TPM>

The issues are complex, but this video should help clear it up for you.

Several years, I worked part time as a tutor in the computer lab of a community college. My GED kids were pretty squared away, but about a third of the kids that had graduated from public high schools were functionally illiterate. To get them through computer science, I had to help them learn to read. Teachers are trying to change that, so I fully support their strike to get them the tools and support they need.

RESIST!!

Open Thread – 1/14/2019

Posted by TomCat at 12:01 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Jan 142019

It’s another busy day here in the CatBox. I finally got ahold of the computer tech. He thought our appointment was on the 18th, and did not get my messages, because he was out of town. He’s giving me a free hour, and he will be here tomorrow morning. As a result, I will only be preparing a Personal Update or an Open Thread. I won’t be sending links messages on Care2.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:48 (average 5:28), To do it, click here. How did you do.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (NBC Channel): Full Panel: ‘What is the story with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin?’ | Meet The Press

Even Cardenas was afraid to goose-step with his Fuhrer. Putin’s Pervert is in major trouble. RESIST!!

From Alternet: We find it easy to dismiss the fantastical beliefs of people in other times and places, but those that we’ve been exposed to since childhood seem not so far out. Virgin birth? Water turning into wine? A fig tree shriveling on the spot? Dead people getting up out of their graves and walking around?

All of the following beliefs are found in respected religions today. They have been long taught by religions that either are considered part of the American mainstream or are home grown, made in the U.S.A., produced here and exported. Some of these beliefs are ensconced in sacred texts. Others are simply traditional. All, at one time or another, have had the sanction of the highest church authorities, and many still do.

How many of them can you match up with a familiar religious tradition? (The answers are at the bottom.)

Click trough to take the quiz. I scored 19 of 20, missing #19. How did you do? RESIST!!

From RWW: With Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg missing oral arguments this week as she recovers from surgery to remove cancerous tumors from her lungs, Religious Right activists are circling the Supreme Court like vultures, gleeful at what they see as an imminent opportunity to seal a solid far-right majority on the Supreme Court and fulfill their goals to overturn Roe v. Wade, eliminate legal equality for LGBTQ people, undermine separation of church and state and roll back decades of court rulings and federal programs protecting worker safety, public health, and the environment. Trump boosters have been praying since his election that God would “remove” Supreme Court justices, who enjoy lifetime appointments, so that Trump would be able to fill the vacancies.

Earlier this week, Jerry Falwell Jr. re-tweeted right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s tweet [anti-Christian de-linked]mentioning Ginsburg and Justice Stephen Breyer and calling it “Bad news for Democrats” that the “two oldest judges on the bench are radical liberals.” Gary Bauer noted Ginsburg’s absence at oral arguments and linked to a Daily Caller story about the White House making “quiet preparations” to fill a vacancy, which Bauer said “would be an incredible opportunity for a first-term president.”

Anti-gay activist Matt Barber tweeted [anti-Christian de-linked] last night that he was praying for Ginsburg “in her twilight time” that she would “accept Christ as her Lord & Savior & beg His forgiveness for the millions of innocent babies she’s helped to slaughter.”

Barber followed up by tweeting [anti-Christian de-linked]—with the caption “Warming up in the bullpen”—a photo of Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump-nominated federal appeals court judge who has been on his Supreme Court short list, and who has been declared God’s choice for the Supreme Court by dominionist “prophets” and Religious Right leaders.

The author calls these Republican pseudo-Christians ‘vultures’, as they pray for RBG to die so their Fuhrer can appoint Amy Coney Barrett. As an Injustice on SCROTUS (Republican Unconstitutional VD), she would be worse than Kava-Nazi. That’s unfair to the vultures. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Personal Update – 1/13/2019

Posted by TomCat at 12:44 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 132019

It’s a slow news say, I slept poorly, and WWWendy and I will be busier than a long-tail TomCat in a rocking chair showroom. Therefore, it’s time for a day off.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:29 (average 6:36). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

RESIST!!

Deep State or Deep Doo Doo?

Posted by TomCat at 11:58 am Politics

Jan 122019

To me, it has been obvious for a long time that Resident Donald Trump, aka Putin’s Puppet, sold out to Russia in return for Russia installing him in the White House. I kept asking myself why it wasn’t being investigated. Unbeknownst to me, it was. Shortly after the Comey firing the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation into Trump, as they suspected that he had been working for Russia, against American interests.

In the days after President Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president’s behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.

The inquiry carried explosive implications. Counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president’s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security. Agents also sought to determine whether Mr. Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence.

The investigation the F.B.I. opened into Mr. Trump also had a criminal aspect, which has long been publicly known: whether his firing of Mr. Comey constituted obstruction of justice.

Agents and senior F.B.I. officials had grown suspicious of Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign but held off on opening an investigation into him, the people said, in part because they were uncertain how to proceed with an inquiry of such sensitivity and magnitude. But the president’s activities before and after Mr. Comey’s firing in May 2017, particularly two instances in which Mr. Trump tied the Comey dismissal to the Russia investigation, helped prompt the counterintelligence aspect of the inquiry, the people said… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <New York Times>

Please click through to read this article in it’s entirety. It contains considerable detail.

When this came out, the Tangerine Traitor came unglued.

President Trump on Saturday morning called his firing of former FBI Director James Comey “a great day for America.”

The comment came in a tweetstorm voicing outrage over a recent New York Times report saying days after the May 2017 firing, the FBI opened an inquiry into whether Trump was “secretly working on behalf of Russia.”

“Wow, just learned in the Failing New York Times that the corrupt former leaders of the FBI, almost all fired or forced to leave the agency for some very bad reasons, opened up an investigation on me, for no reason & with no proof, after I fired Lyin’ James Comey, a total sleaze!” the president tweeted [sphincter delinked].

Inserted from <NY Post>

In short, Trump and the the Republican Reich say this is fake news from what they call the "deep state". This could not be further from the truth.

Filling in for Lawrence O’Donnell, Ali Velshi analyzed some of the implications with David Corn, Glenn Kirschner and Frank Montoya.

I disagree with one point. Russia is not the chief threat to American democratic values. The Republican Reich is.

Now we know that when Mueller went to work, he already had ample evidence of treason dropped in his lap.

If this story had come out as fiction five years ago, most of us would have dismissed it as too fantastic to consider.

This is not Deep State. Trump is in Deep Doo Doo.

RESIST!!

Open Thread – 1/12/2019

Posted by TomCat at 11:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 122019

Yesterday my technician stood me up. I rushed through my blogging and prepared the area. I waited for him for four hours, before I gave up. I feel pretty angry at him, but I’d like to hope that he had an emergency so extreme that he could not even call. I’ll listen to his explanation, before I put him on my do not use list. Today is a High Holy Day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. It’s Division Playoffs Weekend. My Broncos are not playing, because they stink. If your team is still going, may the Orb bless them with its holy light. Tomorrow is a WWWendy day. After destinking a rancid TomCat, we have a ton of tasks. Please expect no more than a Personal Update or an Open Thread, and I will not be sending links messages on Care2.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:07 (average 5:38). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (NSNBC Channel): Senator Chris Van Hollen: Mitch McConnell Has Been ‘AWOL’ In Shutdown

Bought Bitch Mitch [R-KY] is a total coward. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Fox News on a Democrat swearing vs Fox News on a Republican embracing white supremacy

Barf Bag Alert!!

Well, you didn’t expect integrity from the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, did you? RESIST!!

From Alternet: Evangelical activists demand LGBTQ protections be removed from anti-lynching bill.

Incredibly, the United States has no law that makes lynching a federal crime. Now, decades after the Civil Rights Movement, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill to correct this. The Justice for Victims of Lynching Act would give federal prosecutors the power to charge people for bias-motivated mob killings. It passed the Senate unanimously and by anyone’s reckoning should be a slam dunk.

But according to PinkNews, the fundamentalist legal group Liberty Counsel is now lobbying the House to change the bill. Why? Because lynchings of LGBTQ persons are included as crimes — and that just might be a slippery slope to federal laws that would protect all LGBTQ civil rights.

“The old saying is once that camel gets the nose in the tent, you can’t stop them from coming the rest of the way in,” said Mat Staver, the group’s president. “And this would be the first time that you would have in federal law mentioning gender identity and sexual orientation, as part of this anti-lynching bill.”

Liberty Counsel has previously compared homosexuality to pedophilia, attacked bans on abusive “conversion therapy,” and defended the infamous former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis as she defied the Supreme Court’s orders to allow same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists it as a hate group.

This is the 4th in the author’s list of the week’s 5 worst Republican outrages. Click through for the rest. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

If they could, Republicans would repeal it.

Open Thread – 1/11/2019

Posted by TomCat at 10:03 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 112019

It’s another busy day here in the CatBox. I have a computer technician coming to resolve some connection and network issues. Therefore this is today’s only article. TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:14 (average 4:13). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Trump A.G. Pick Advocated Pardons By George H.W. Bush; Bashed Mueller Probe (17:28)

The Republican Reich has a long history of using sleazy tactics to evade responsibility for their crimes. There they go again! RESIST!!

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Protesters speak out on the shutdown and why media should talk about its human impact

Furlough all the Secret Service agents that protect high ranking Republicans. That would end the Republican government shutdown today. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: In a bid to end the government shutdown, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh said on Thursday that he would recycle his empties to pay for a wall with Mexico.

Speaking to reporters from his office at the Court, Kavanaugh said that the inspiration came to him while he was building a beer-can pyramid in his basement rec room on Wednesday night.

“I was in my man cave, building this rad beer pyramid, and I was, like, I bet if I recycled all the beer cans down here plus the ones out in the garage, I’d have enough to pay for that freaking wall,” the Supreme Court Justice said.

Andy, I have a better idea. Instead of a wall that won’t work, Injustice Pervert KavaNazi should use that money to buy himself a chastity belt. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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