TomCat

Open Thread – 10/6/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:42 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 062018

It’s another chilly day here in the CatBox. I’m feeling very depressed, because Pervert Kava-Nazi will be confirmed shortly after this is published, or shortly thereafter, and I thought we were going to stop him. Tomorrow is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. My Broncos are visiting the Jets, and it will be televised here. May the Orb shine it’s holy light on your team, unless they are planes. Tomorrow is also a WWWendy day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:40 (average 5:00). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Brett Kavanaugh Vote Will Drive Political Backlash If History Is Guide (25 min.)

From Rachel’s mouth to God’s ear! Pervert Kava-Nazi’s decisions will drive backlash for a years. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!

Also from YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Lawrence: ‘The Senate Is An Unfixable Crime Against Democracy’

He is so right. I wish I knew how to fix it. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Daily Kos: Just after Maine Sen. Susan Collins spent 50 minutes on the Senate floor rolling out the twisted logic of her support for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin finally decided he had enough cover to announce he would help push Kavanaugh’s nomination over the edge.

His support was full of useless caveats, like having “reservations” about Kavanaugh’s “temperament” and the “serious accusations” against him. “I do hope,” Manchin said, Kavanaugh won’t let his self-professed partisanship “follow him onto the court.” Gee, that’s reassuring. But here’s the most craven defense of his decision, concerning the pre-existing conditions coverage for West Virginians that Kavanaugh may well shred thanks to his position on the Supreme Court.

I think I disagree. You all know that the only reason I ever support Manchin [DINO-WV] is that even the worst DINO is better than the best Republican, because the DINO counts towards having a Senate majority. That said, I want to give Manchin the benefit of the doubt here. He could choose an easy reelection by voting yes or a knife fight by voting no. After Collins announced, it was a done deal with or without Manchin’s vote. I think he would vote no, if it mattered. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

I’m Going to Puke!

Posted by TomCat at 1:09 pm Politics

Oct 052018

In a matter of minutes, before I finish writing this article, The conformation of Pervert Kavanookie to SCROTUS (Republican Unconstitutional VD) may or may not be a done deal. Senator Collins [R-ME] is announcing how she will vote in the final vote. If she says yes, barring a miracle, it’s over and Kavanookie will get his pervert party with TEABAG Thomas. If she says no, It will depend on Manchin [D-WV]. She said yes and piled on the BS. Here’s how we got to this point.

The US Senate voted narrowly to advance Brett Kavanaugh to the threshold of the Supreme Court, as President Donald Trump’s pick survived a dramatic procedural vote that could have effectively killed his nomination after sexual assault allegations were made against him.The vote was 51-49, after key swing Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Jeff Flake, along with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, voted to advance the nomination. The final vote is expected Saturday.

One wavering Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, defied her party and voted against advancing the nomination, and declared that she will vote against Kavanaugh’s confirmation Saturday as well

"He’s not the right man for the court at this time," she told reporters.

Flake said he will back Kavanaugh unless something changes. Asked how he will vote, he said "yes, unless something big were to change. I don’t see what would." The Arizona Republican had forced a one-week delay and an extended FBI investigation into Kavanaugh.

Collins said she will make her final position clear later Friday, adding a final element of drama to the tortured saga of Kavanaugh’s nomination that has exposed and deepened national political divides. A source close to Manchin said that he was expected to vote "yes" on confirming the judge but that given the fluidity of a tumultuous nomination process it was impossible to be sure…

Inserted from <CNN>

Here’s a CNN video.

All I have left to say is this.

RESIST!!

VOTE BLUE!!

32 DAYS!!

Open Thread – 10/5/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:08 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 052018

It’s been such a busy week that I’m feeling so burned out that I thought it was Thursday, until just a few minutes ago. Pardon my brevity.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:15 (average 5:53). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): KAVANAUGH – A Parody

Thanks Don. Pervert Kavanookie can’t wait to have a pervert party with Clarence Thomas and Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (Daily Kos Channel): CNN 10 04 2018 Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says NO to Kavanaugh nomination

This has never happened before. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From AlterNet: In a new piece for the New York Review of Books, historian Christopher Browning warns that there are troubling parallels between the present-day United States and the days of fascism’s rise in Europe.

Browning, a specialist in the areas of the Holocaust, Nazi Germany, and world war-era Europe, isn’t arguing that President Donald Trump is a modern Adolf Hitler or that Trumpism is akin to Nazism. But he does argue that certain stress fractures in the society and the international order appear to be re-emerging and that these patterns portend troubling trends for the United States and the rest of the world.

And there is one figure in American politics that Browning does see as a relatively direct — and troubling — analog to a crucial world war-era figure. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, is becoming "the gravedigger of American democracy," Browning wrote, a role played for Germany beginning in the 1930s by President Paul von Hindenburg… [emphasis added]

Click through for more. Now why I call them the Republican Reich should be clear. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Monthly Report for September 2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:20 pm Monthly Report, Politics

Oct 042018

Compared to August, September results were down in every category. I don’t know why.

Here is our latest summary:

Reported period	Month Sep 2018
First visit	01 Sep 2018 – 00:01
Last visit	30 Sep 2018 – 23:59
	Unique visitors	Number of visits	Pages	Hits	Bandwidth
Viewed traffic *	4,539	36,621 (8.06 visits/visitor)	177,017 (4.83 Pages/Visit)	382,731 (10.45 Hits/Visit)	18.69 GB (535.22 KB/Visit)
Not viewed traffic *			744,676	889,829	20.98 GB

Reported period	Month Sep 2017
First visit	01 Sep 2017 – 00:00
Last visit	30 Sep 2017 – 23:59
	Unique visitors	Number of visits	Pages	Hits	Bandwidth
Viewed traffic *	8,742	27,465 (3.14 visits/visitor)	101,767 (3.7 Pages/Visit)	236,376 (8.6 Hits/Visit)	7.69 GB (293.69 KB/Visit)
Not viewed traffic *			421,101	484,020	11.33 GB

Compared with last September, we are way down in Uniques, and up in all other categories. Fewer visitors doing much more is a win.

Here is August’s ClustrMap for 2018 YTD. This is eight months’ traffic. Clustrmap is broken and I’m looking for a fix.

ClustrMap8-2018

ClustrMap misses a lot of visits, because many visits can’t be easily traced to a location.

Here are our top five articles:

Republicans on Parade – 9/10/2018 9/10/2018 1,066
Grassley and the Pervert 9/16/2018 615
Monthly Report for August 2018 9/4/2018 573
Republicans on Parade – 9/2/2018 9/12/2018 568
Labor Day 9/3/2018 943

The count represents only the people who opened the page for that specific article. All were from this year. All were from September. I wrote all five. I would have been happier to see more of our other authors’ work represented here. JD, Nameless, Lona and Squatch have written fine articles.

Here are our top non-blog/news referrers (100 referral minimum):

Google 3,247
Care2 2,295
Facebook 228

Google was up from last month. Care2 was down. We do not link to Facebook.

Here are our top blog/news referrers:

http://infidel753.blogspot.com/
http://littlewinginc.blogspot.com/
http://welcome-to-pottersville2.blogspot.com/
http://bildungblog.blogspot.com/
http://parsleyspics.blogspot.com/
http://www.synapticstew.com/

We had 6 sites with 2 or more referrals, up 2 from August. Putting blogs’ links here increases the ratings of their sites, so this “linkey love” is our thank you for their referral support. We still need to improve this. Since May, I cleaned up our blog roll and found most of the sites either were gone or had not published for years. Now I still need to visit the few who remain.

As of midnight October 1, we had 8,511 articles and 101,887comments.

Nobody won a Big Mouth Award last month. From now on, Big Mouth winners at 10,000 levels will have their choice of a PP mug or a PP T Shirt. Staff will remain eligible to be winners at the 1,000 levels, Winners at prize winning levels will be the first non-staff commenter. If any staff member wants a mug or a T Shirt, let me know. Pat B has received her rewards. Here are the Mug Shots she sent:

1003PatBMug

1003PatBT

I recommend using your own avatar. Go to Gravatar. Sign up using the email address you use to post comments here and upload the image you want to use as your avatar. Whenever you comment under that email address here or on any WordPress blog (several others too), that image will become your avatar.

Your Administrators are Lynn Squance, aka Sasquatch or Squatch, SoINeedAName, aka Nameless, and I, aka TomCat, the Founder. Your Editors are Joanne Dixon, aka JD the Erynator and Lona Goudswaard, aka Lona the Napster. I promoted them from Author in August 2017 to give them the ability to add graphics to comments and the ability to correct my innumerable typos.

This is our policy on links. We do not embed links to extreme Republican websites, like Faux Noise, Breitfart or World Nut Daily. However I leave notes in square brackets when I delete such links, (example: [faux noise delinked]) so readers, who wish to follow them can click through to the source article. I also remove topical links. Finally, I blank the target on all links, so they open in a new tab or window.

We now have just 33 das, before we will have a major opportunity to reclaim part of our nation from the fascist Reich that possesses all three branches of government. Please do every thing you can.

Thank you for your support here, and kudos for all the good you do, everywhere you do it.

RESIST!!

VOTE BLUE!!

33 DAYS!!

AvatarTC

Open Thread – 10/4/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:18 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 042018

It’s a chilly day here at the CatBox. I just finished writing the Monthly Report and that wore me out. Wish me lots of Zs.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:21 (average 5:13). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Sen. Jeff Merkley: ‘Absurd’ There’s Only Going To Be One Copy Of FBI Report

Jeff was on this before we knew Kavanookie was a pervert. Dozens of Democrats won’t even get to see the cover-up. Jeff and Oregon lead the way. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): News reports and personal accounts contradict Kavanaugh’s defenses of himself

That’s over a dozen lies under oath. To disqualify, all it takes is one lie. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Daily Kos: Voting early has grown increasingly popular across the country in recent years, and in some states, the early voting period for the Nov. 2018 midterms has already begun. Below, courtesy Ballotpedia, you can see when early voting starts and ends in all of the states where it’s available.

STATE	START	END	STATE	START	END
Alaska	22-Oct	5-Nov	Montana	9-Oct	5-Nov
Alabama	None		North Carolina	17-Oct	3-Nov
Arkansas	22-Oct	5-Nov	North Dakota	27-Sep	5-Nov
Arizona	10-Oct	2-Nov	Nebraska	9-Oct	5-Nov
California	8-Oct	5-Nov	New Hampshire	None
Colorado	5-Oct	6-Nov	New Jersey	22-Sep	5-Nov
Connecticut	None		New Mexico	20-Oct	3-Nov
Delaware	None		Nevada	20-Oct	2-Nov
Florida	27-Oct	3-Nov	New York	None
Georgia	15-Oct	2-Nov	Ohio	10-Oct	5-Nov
Hawaii	23-Oct	3-Nov	Oklahoma	1-Nov	3-Nov
Iowa	8-Oct	5-Nov	Oregon	17-Oct	6-Nov
Idaho	22-Oct	2-Nov	Pennsylvania	None
Illinois	27-Sep	5-Nov	Rhode Island	None
Indiana	10-Oct	5-Nov	South Carolina	None
Kansas	17-Oct	5-Nov	South Dakota	21-Sep	5-Nov
Kentucky	None		Tennessee	17-Oct	1-Nov
Louisiana	23-Oct	30-Oct	Texas	22-Oct	2-Nov
Massachusetts	22-Oct	2-Nov	Utah	23-Oct	2-Nov
Maryland	25-Oct	1-Nov	Virginia	None
Maine	8-Oct	1-Nov	Vermont	21-Sep	5-Nov
Michigan	None		Washington	19-Oct	6-Nov
Minnesota	21-Sep	5-Nov	Wisconsin	Varies by locality
Missouri	None		West Virginia	24-Oct	3-Nov
Mississippi	None		Wyoming	27-Sep	5-Nov

RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

1004Cartoon

Fuhrer Financial Fraud

Posted by TomCat at 12:28 pm Politics

Oct 032018

As long as I’ve heard of him, Donald Trump, aka Fuhrer Drumphenfarten, has proclaimed his financial prowess as a self-made billionaire often and loud. It turns out that his financial prowess is on the same level as the other prowess about which he brags, but Stormy tells it like it is. It isn’t there. The NY Times has revealed that he got it all from his daddy. No, I don’t mean Putin [R-RU]. I mean Fred.

Donald J. Trump built a business empire and won the presidency proclaiming himself a self-made billionaire, and he has long insisted that his father, the legendary New York City builder Fred C. Trump, provided almost no financial help. “I built what I built myself,” the president has repeatedly said.

But an investigation by The New York Times has revealed that Donald Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate empire. What’s more, much of this money came to Mr. Trump through dubious tax schemes he participated in during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, The Times found.

In all, the president’s parents transferred well over $1 billion in wealth to their children, which could have produced a tax bill of at least $550 million under the 55 percent tax rate on gifts and inheritances that was in place at the time. Helped by a variety of tax dodges, the Trumps paid $52.2 million, or about 5 percent, tax returns show.

The president declined requests over several weeks to comment for this article… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

He cheated us out of millions. Should we be surprised that he cheated us out of the White House.

Rachel Maddow has much more.

I trust we have not heard the last of this one. The Republican Reich could not have picked a poster fiend more emblematic of who and what they are.

RESIST!!

VOTE BLUE!!

34 DAYS!!

Open Thread – 10/3/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:28 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Oct 032018

It’s a busy day here in the the CatBox. I’m waiting for Store to Door to deliver groceries, so I’ll need to unload and stash them. It’s actually a bit chilly here, and I’m enjoying that. I made the graphic and collected the data I’ll need for tomorrow’s monthly report. ClustrMap is on the fritz and I have no idea why. WWWendy is back on schedule so she comes this evening to destink the TomCat. My plan is to finish my work shortly after lunch, as I’m still quite tired.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:17 (average 5:00). To do it, click here. How did you do? (I ate a big bowl of killer green cloud chili last night, hoping to blow that Sasquatch back, long enough for me to get that dawg!)

Short Takes:

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Trump mocks Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony

Barf Bag Alert!!

Put this together with Kavanookie’s statements about her and we have a tag-team of perverts. Putting Kavanookie on SCROTUS (Republican Unconstitutional VD) would be no worse than giving the seat to Trump. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Daily Kos: Georgia’s Republican Senator David Perdue, known around these parts for being a millionaire who loves bailouts and outsourcing American jobs, was walking through Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport when he was approached by three women. According to The Cut, the three women, including two identified as sexual-assault survivors, wanted to ask Sen. Perdue to stand up for women by demanding a thorough investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

The three women — sexual-assault survivors Patti Serrano and Jennifer Epps-Addison, of the Center for Popular Democracy advocacy group, along with Arizona State Representative Isela Blanc — also asked Perdue whether he supports a full FBI investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh.

Perdue tried to ignore the women, and then told one of them not to touch him when she put out her hand to introduce herself. Perdue proceeded to make a beeline for an airport bathroom. Maybe an appropriate Republican motto could be “Republicans: angry and afraid of women … since forever.”

That a thoroughly Republican thing to do! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From NY Times: Amazon said on Tuesday that it would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for its United States employees, a rare acknowledgment that it was feeling squeezed by political pressure and a tight labor market. The raises apply for part-time workers and those hired through temporary agencies.

The company said it would also lobby Washington to raise the federal minimum wage, which has been set at $7.25 for almost a decade.

The new wages will apply to more than 250,000 Amazon employees, including those at the grocery chain Whole Foods, as well as the more than 100,000 seasonal employees it plans to hire for the holiday season. The change will not apply to contract workers. It goes into effect on Nov. 1.

“We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” Amazon’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos, said in a statement. “We’re excited about this change and encourage our competitors and other large employers to join us.”

Kudos to Jeff Bezos and amazon.com. I’d rather pay a little more, if that means more for workers. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Pervert Kavanookie Update

Posted by TomCat at 1:52 pm Politics

Oct 022018

From what I understand, the White House has removed restrictions on the FBI investigation, but I hear rumblings on TV that Bought Bitch Mitch may still have his thumb on the scales. Time will tell, but this article may already be out of date. In the interim, here’s what I thought I knew and some of the stories coming out about Pervert Trump’s Pervert.

The White House authorized the F.B.I. to expand its abbreviated investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh by interviewing anyone it deems necessary as long as the review is finished by the end of the week, according to two people briefed on the matter.

At an event on Monday celebrating a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico, President Trump said he instructed his White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, over the weekend to instruct the F.B.I. to carry out an open investigation, but the president included the caveat that the inquiry should accommodate the desires of Senate Republicans.

The new directive came after a backlash from Democrats, who criticized the White House for limiting the scope of the bureau’s investigation into Judge Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court. The F.B.I. has already interviewed the four witnesses it was originally asked to question, and on Monday it reached out to others.

The broadening inquiry produced an unusual spectacle as friends and classmates from Judge Kavanaugh’s past provided dueling portraits of the nominee in his younger days — either a good-natured student incapable of the alleged behavior or a stumbling drunk who could easily have blacked out and forgotten inappropriate behavior at alcohol-soaked parties… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>
Graphic credit: Daily Kos

Joy Read has more on new stories including an attempt by Pervert Kavanookie to silence Debbie Ramirez.

Keep calling your Senators every day!

RESIST!!

VOTE BLUE!!

35 DAYS!!

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