TomCat

Dec 192018
 

It’s another busy day here at the CatBox.  An occupational therapist visited this morning.  She agreed that the shower in my room is too small to use.  Store to Door is delivering groceries soon.  It’s a big order, as they will be closed for two weeks.  I’ll have to put them away.  WWWendy comes this evening to de-stink the rancid TomCat and help with chores.  Please expect no more than a Personal Update tomorrow, and there will be no links messages on Care2.  I have a routine follow up visit with Ellie in my PCP’s office.

Groceries done!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:09 (average 5:00).  To do it, click here.  How did you do.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Judge Shocks Court With Harsh Rebuke Of Michael Flynn; Sentencing Delayed (19 min.)

 

For the judge to go off on Flynn the way he did, the information that he has, but that is redacted to us, must be extreme. He even inferred treason, a statement that must have been accurate, albeit improper. I bet Flynn’s Fuhrer is wringing his tiny hands. RESIST!!

From The Hill: It seems the country is headed for a government shutdown, but it’s not due to any kind of real national or international crisis.

Rather, it’s over a Trump temper tantrum as he is hell bent on getting funding for his ill-advised, waste-of-taxpayer-money, unwanted border wall. After all, it helped get him elected with his far-right, anti-immigrant base of voters.

While there are many reasons Democrats should stand strong and not acquiesce to Trump on this, they need to espouse the truth about how they have better handled immigration and border security and have made the country safer in comparison to Republicans.

While the president lies regularly, facts and truth still matter to the American people. The rule of law, sensible governance and keeping the country secure are also of utmost importance.

The flow of undocumented immigrants to the U.S. peaked in 2007, under President George W. Bush, when the number living in the U.S. was 12.2 million. It has been in decline ever since.

There is a short term bill likely to pass in the Senate that would temporarily fund the government until February, but if it doesn’t pass in the House, or if the Hatemonger in Chief does not sign it, we must be sure that voters know that the Republican Reich is fully to blame. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Call it the deep-state defense.

After the Pentagon stripped an official’s security clearance for reading a top-secret paper in public, his allies said he was “caught in the web of the deep state.”

When federal agents raided the home of a government contractor suspected of taking classified documents, his supporters denounced the “deep state F.B.I.”

And when a conservative conspiracy theorist rejected a plea deal with the special counsel, he claimed he was targeted because he dared “to oppose the deep state.”

President Trump has long tried to explain away his legal troubles as the work of a “deep state” of Obama supporters entrenched in the law-enforcement and national-security bureaucracies who are just out to get him. Now junior officials and others accused of wrongdoing are making the case that the same purported forces are illegitimately targeting them, too.

There is no propaganda too insane for Republicans to employ, attempting to evade responsibility for their own crimes. RESIST!!

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Dec 182018
 

Here is the one hundred forty-third article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is Republican Senator [R-AZ] Martha McSally. She is so honored for sleazing her way into a Senate seat, even though the people of Arizona just rejected her for that office.

1218McSally

Arizona’s governor has named Rep. Martha McSally to replace U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl in the U.S. Senate seat that belonged to Sen. John McCain.

Republican Gov. Doug Ducey announced Tuesday that McSally will take over after Kyl’s resignation becomes effective Dec. 31. McSally lost the Senate race to Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.

McSally will serve until the 2020 election, when voters will elect someone to serve the final two years of McCain’s term.

Inserted from <Huffington Post>

Here are three videos about McSally.

Twist

 

Rep. Martha McSally Afraid to Stand Up to Scott Pruitt

 

Stop McSally

 

Is it any wonder that voters didn’t want her?  Does this demonstrate how little the Republican Reich cares about what voters want?

RESIST!!

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Dec 182018
 

I had a dozen chores this morning, so I’m way late and very tired.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:20 (average 5:48).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the news from our own fantasy football league.

Playoffs:

P1

Congrats to Pam and Vivian for winning their first round games.  WWWendy and I had first round byes.  Patty Monster and Squatch do not have second round games, but they will the following week.

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: In a tense meeting on Monday, leading Cabinet members warned Donald J. Trump that shutting down the federal government would make it exponentially harder for them to steal from.

Led by his Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, the Cabinet members begged Trump to prevent a government showdown that would bring their brazen spree of pillaging the nation’s coffers to a screeching halt.

“Mr. President, with the federal government up and running, I was able to take seven trips on military aircraft at a cost of eight hundred thousand dollars,” Mnuchin said. “I implore you, sir: don’t make me fly coach.”

Trump’s three oldest children, Ivanka, Eric, and Don, Jr., who have piled up impressive taxpayer-funded travel bills of their own, chimed in with an emotional plea to their father. “Daddy, please don’t make us stop plundering government money,” Ivanka said. “Not right before Christmas.”

Dang, Andy! That’s a valid point! But Trump is too stupid to get it. RESIST!!

From YouTube (NY Times Channel): The Secret History of Muslims in the U.S

Cool! I do have a Muslim friend. In fact, he’s a gay Muslim friend. He couldn’t be nicer or kinder. Reject GOP hatred. RESIST!!

From NBC: While she didn’t win the crown, Angela Ponce broke barriers on Monday in the 67th Miss Universe pageant. The 27-year-old Spanish beauty became the first transgender woman to ever participate in the international competition.

1218Spain

Kudos to Angela. She has courage and looks good. RESIST!!

 

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Good Riddance Upchuckabee

 Posted by at 10:21 am  Politics
Dec 172018
 

Since he summer of 2017, Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been Press Secretary and Liar in Chief for President Donald Trump, aka Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten.  I call her Upchuckabee, because it best describes what comes out of her mouth, whenever she lies on behalf of her Fuhrer.  I look forward to her departure.

1217Sanders

Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that she would be leaving the White House at the end of 2018 after serving for two years in the administration. She leaves behind a legacy of lying to such a degree it’s become a farce.

Credibility from the press podium has spent the better part of her term falling to 30 percent approval rating, lower than even her boss. According to YouGov surveys, her approval rating among the Millennial Generation is an embarrassing 21 percent.

The survey doesn’t breakdown trustworthiness, but throughout 2018, Huckabee Sanders’ lies from the podium couldn’t have helped with respectability. As we close out the year and the White House career of the staffer Stephen Colbert likes calling HuckaSand, these are the most egregious lies from her podium.

1. Family Separation lies.

During her third daily press briefing in June, Sanders sparred with the press over the children being pulled from their families when they tried to enter the United States and declare asylum. The policy has “been on the books for over a decade,” Sanders said. It hasn’t. The “policy” was enacted as a result of President Donald Trump’s “no-tolerance policy” he wrote into an executive order.

“These people have nothing. They come to the border with nothing, and they throw children in cages,” reporter Brian Karem said to Sanders. “You’re a parent; you’re a parent of young children. Don’t you have any empathy for what they go through?”

Sanders told Karem to “settle down” and accused him of wanted to get on camera.

Reporter Brian Karem repeatedly asks Sarah Sanders about the Trump policy of separating undocumented children from their parents: “Come on, Sarah, you’re a parent. Don’t you have any empathy?”

She says he’s trying to get more TV time. pic.twitter.com/NGVPnh1ISv

— David Mack (@davidmackau) June 14, 2018

“Credibility issues are just getting more obvious, and reporters are getting really frustrated with it, and it’s causing tension,” a White House reporter told Politico. “It’s sort of coming to a head. The statements are more disprovable, more obvious.”

Inserted from <Alternet>

I shared only the first lie out of six.  Please click through for the other five.

RESIST!!

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Dec 172018
 

I’m very busy and very tired, so please pardon my brevity.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:35 (average 5:08).  To do it, click here.  How did you do.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Serena Williams, and the women who changed 2018

 

I grew up in the sugar and spice era, but I like these new feminists. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Just days before a deadline to avert a partial government shutdown, President Trump, Democratic leaders and the Republican-controlled Congress are at a stalemate over the president’s treasured border wall. But House Republican leaders are also confronting a more mundane and awkward problem: Their vanquished and retiring members are sick and tired of Washington and don’t want to show up anymore to vote.

Call it the revenge of the lame ducks. Many lawmakers, relegated to cubicles as incoming members take their offices, have been skipping votes in the weeks since House Republicans were swept from power in the midterm elections, and Republican leaders are unsure whether they will ever return.

It is perhaps a fitting end to a Congress that has showcased the untidy politics of the Trump era: Even if the president ultimately embraces a solution that avoids a shutdown, House Republican leaders do not know whether they will have the votes to pass it.

The uncertainty does not end there. With funding for parts of the government like the Department of Homeland Security set to lapse at midnight on Friday, Mr. Trump and top Republicans appear to have no definite plan to keep the doors open. It is clear that as Democrats uniformly oppose the president’s demand for $5 billion for his border wall, any bill that includes that funding cannot pass the Senate, and might face defeat in the House, too.

How typical. Republicans are just too lazy to finish doing their jobs! RESIST!!

From John Pavlovitz: Christian Friend,

I’ve been meaning to talk to you.

I’m trying to reconcile the things I see right now.

I see your house, carefully strewn with glowing lights, fragrant boughs of holly decking your photo-covered hallways.

I see your ceiling-scraping tree, limbs weighed down with the carefully curated collection of fragile keepsakes and handcrafted mementos acquired over decades.

I see you donning your gay apparel, while making your list and checking it twice, and declaring yourself exceedingly nice.

I see your overflowing shopping cart, packed to bursting with goodness that you plan to soon indulge in, nestled in an abundance that cascades in every direction.

I see the outward displays of reverent religion in needlepoints you make and in cards you’ve sent me and in filtered Instagram posts that arrive from you on my timeline every day.

But I’ve also seen something else.

I’ve also seen your Twitter feed.

I’ve read your Facebook rants.

I’ve watched you watching the news.

I’ve witnessed you tossing-off cruel comments at the dinner table.

I’ve seen your cruelty, your selfishness, your anger.

I’ve heard you declare your contempt for those trying to find refuge here.

And all the while I’ve heard you singing Christmas songs,

With all due respect, I’m not sure you should be singing right now.

Amen John! Please click through. There is so much more to read there. RESIST!!

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Dec 162018
 

I’m waiting for Wendy to arrive so I can freeze my kitty dingles testing the shower again.  ARGH!  This is today’s only article from me.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:08 (average 5:05).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Agony:

1215-Broncos16-Browns17

The freaking Browns?!!?  I’m wearing a bag over my head!

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a key figure in President Trump’s sweeping plan to reshape the nation’s environmental framework, resigned under pressure on Saturday as he faces numerous ethics investigations into his business dealings, travel and policy decisions.

“Secretary of the Interior @RyanZinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter [Fuhrer delinked]. “Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation.” The president said he would name a replacement this coming week.

Mr. Zinke is the latest Trump official to exit an administration plagued by questions of ethical conflict. And his departure comes as Mr. Trump has begun a shake-up in his administration. In early November, the president fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and last weekend he announced that his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, was leaving.

Good riddance Stinky! RESIST!!

From YouTube (SNL Channel): It’s a Wonderful Trump Cold Open

 

If Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten had never been President… What a blessed Christmas gift that would be. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): White Congress Parody

 

White Congress? The Republican Reich dreams of a white country! RESIST!!

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Dec 152018
 

Once upon a time, I used to post the week’s craziest, most evil, greediest, etc. Republican moments almost every week.  However, I rarely see them anymore.  But Matt Chapman posted a list of five yesterday, featuring Goose Step Gohmerde, the Coultergeist, and more. So without further ado…

1215Q

QAnon conspiracy theorist says it’s a miracle the Clintons haven’t had her murdered yet.

The QAnon conspiracy theory, which holds that President Donald Trump is secretly working with special counsel Robert Mueller to take down a world-spanning ring of child sex traffickers led by prominent liberals and Democrats, continues apace, despite many of its core predictions not coming true. But according to Right Wing Watch, Liz Crokin, a pro-Trump "journalist" at the forefront of the QAnon community, claims to be near to cracking the case — and thinks it’s amazing that the Clintons have not yet rubbed her out.

In an interview on the far-right YourVoice America "Steel Truth", Crokin said the NYPD discovered "tons" of evidence of "child rape" implicating Hillary Clinton and "several other elites." And in response to host Ann Vandersteel saying that she was "afraid to go on camera and talk about this because there is a Clinton body count also associated with these people," Crokin agreed: "They’ve tried to come after me," Crokin responded. "They have come after me. It’s a miracle I’m still alive, to tell you the truth."

Watch below:

Crokin and Vandersteel are far from the first ones to paint the Clintons as a pair of mob bosses whacking people left and right. Conspiracy theory lists of people supposedly murdered by the Clintons have circulated for years, most of which are just lists of random people in the Clintons’ orbit who happened to die of diseases or accidents, and almost none of which provide explanations of why these people would be murdered but not, say, Monica Lewinsky or Ken Starr.

Inserted from <Alternet>

Here’s that video.

I shared the first of five crazy Republican moments.  Click through for the other four.

RESIST!!

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Dec 152018
 

This is the first time I’ve been half able to post since I moved.  The place is 2/3 of what I had, and I have to sit sideways to the keyboard, which tips away from me, because the movers broke the keyboard stand on my desk.  They also broke my computer, and repairing it cost me $239.  Building staff are repairing the handicapped shower, so I’m taking whores’ baths in the sink.  I’ve moved a few dozen times in my life, including across the country.  This one has been far and away the worst.  Tomorrow, please expect no more than a Personal Update.  It’s a WWWendy day, and I’ll be busy.  Great job, Staff!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:47 (average 4:48).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): GREEN TIDE – Parody

 

I agree. It’s time for the new Democrats. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Jeff Merkley Channel): Senator Jeff Merkley on New Day

 

I’m proud of my Senator.  Oregon leads the way!  The Republican plan is ugly. If the children are not white, killing them is OK. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): Robert Reich: How to Hold Corporations Accountable

 

The Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right. I’m not surprised Elizabeth Warren is behind this. Stop the Reich on the right, the Republican Reich! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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