TomCat

What Happened to Bill?

Posted by TomCat at 1:07 pm Politics

Jul 082018

I wondered yesterday what had happened to Bill Maher, since I usually post his Friday night clips on Saturday. It turns out he was doing a special in Oklahoma.

I’m sorry but YouTube took the clip down. 🙁

Bill Maher went to Oklahoma to perform for his live HBO special, opening with a bit about how much he loves both Red State liberals and Millennials who don’t need “Safe Spaces.”

It was a theme he continued to return to throughout the hourlong special, in which he poked at liberals for making room for Trump with their own brand of extremism.

Specifically, he said #MeToo is an important issue for Democrats—provided they don’t get off track.

“Liberals have the high ground on this issue—let’s not veer off, as we so often do, into that weird place where we look ridiculous,” Maher said…

Inserted from <Raw Story>

Instead of the small clip embedded in the article, I found the entire thing for you.

Enjoy!

RESIST!!

VOTE BLUE!!

Open Thread – 7/8/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:06 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 082018

It’s very muggy here in the CatBox. WWWendy is cooking up a tray of super hot taco pasta, specially designed for northward travel. Enjoy Your Sunday.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:33 (average 5:01). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Newsweek: Throughout the country, a record number of white nationalists and anti-Semites are running for election this year, many of whom have shown no signs of hiding their views. Among them is John Fitzgerald, who since winning enough votes in June to compete for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives this November has reportedly appeared on several neo-Nazi podcasts.

Last month, Fitzgerald came second in a top-two primary with nearly 25 percent of the vote, which was more than 20,000 votes, and will face off against incumbent Democrat Mark DeSaulnier in November’s midterms. After the primary, the California Republican Party said they do not support the Holocaust-denier who is running as a Republican.

“The California Republican Party’s Board of Directors took swift and decisive action to eliminate any support for John Fitzgerald.

Now that Republicans have the candidate they wanted, they are just pretending they don’t want him. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Politifact: Most political scientists we spoke to said Democrats have no procedural tools at their disposal to delay a Supreme Court confirmation until the midterms.

However, there is an extreme and untested option Senate Democrats could use to try to block the vote, according to Gregory Koger, a political science professor at University of Miami.

At least 51 Senators must be present in the chamber to establish a quorum, the minimum number of members needed to debate and vote. Without a quorum, no business can be conducted. That includes confirmation votes on Supreme Court nominees.

While Republicans currently hold 51 seats, Arizona Sen. John McCain’s failing health has prevented him from voting since last December. If all 47 Democrats (and two Independents) agreed not to attend, Republicans would be unable to maintain a quorum, rendering them unable to confirm a nominee.

Bust the Quorum!! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From The New Yorker: Former President George W. Bush is eagerly counting down the days until he is no longer the worst President in U.S. history, Bush confirmed on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters at his home, Bush said that he “could hardly wait” until Friday, when he will be officially bounced from the worst-President slot.

“I have to admit, I never thought I’d see this day in my lifetime,” the former President said. “When you leave office with the nation in smoldering ruins, you sort of come to accept that you’re gonna be worst for a long, long time.”

“I guess you could say I set the bar kind of high, worst-wise,” he chuckled.

As the returns came in on Election Night, however, the former President suddenly realized that his days as the worst President in U.S. history might be coming to an abrupt end.

But Andy, Bush will still be the worst President in history, and Trump, the worst Resident. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Republican Lies on Reuniting Families

Posted by TomCat at 12:54 pm Politics

Jul 072018

Try to imagine yourself as a refugee parent. ICE has ripped your young child from your arms. You heard him screaming as they took him away. Finally you learn that the US government has promised to reunify families, and you desperately wait to get your son back. Then the government gives your son to a US family and deports you to your home country. Can you imagine how you would feel? What kind of people actually do such things?

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said Friday that Trump administration officials have told him and his staff that they view placing separated migrant children in foster care as an equivalent to reuniting them with their families.

“The secretary told us on a conference call they do not have an intention to reunify these children with their parents,” Inslee said on MSNBC’s “All in With Chris Hayes,” appearing to refer to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

“They’re going to call it good if they can find anybody else who can serve as a foster parent or anybody else who can serve as familial relationship, and these kids don’t even know these strangers,” he continued.

Inslee claimed that the Trump administration doesn’t plan on complying with a court order requiring that officials reunify all of the immigrant children separated from their families at the border under a since-ended Trump policy.

“It’s clear they do not intend to be humane and it’s clear they will continue on this course until he is removed from office,” the governor said, referring to Trump.

Inslee and five other Democratic governors signed a letter Friday to Trump officials, saying they were “deeply concerned that wholly inadequate resources and procedures are in place to ensure children and parents are reunified safely and securely.”

The letter also states that during a June 29 meeting with governors’ offices, administration representatives “shared that reunification may include the placement of separate children with any long-term sponsor,” including long-term foster care.

“If true, this interpretation appears to blatantly ignore the terms of the court order,” the letter reads.

Democratic Govs. Andrew Cuomo (New York), Dannel Malloy (Connecticut), Tom Wolf (Pennsylvania), Phil Murphy (New Jersey) and Kate Brown (Oregon) also signed the letter…. [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Hill>

Here is Chris Hayes as he interviewed Jay Inslee (D).

I asked what kind of people actually do such things. Only one kind could be so vile: Republicans.

RESIST!!

VOTE BLUE!!

Open Thread – 7/7/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:53 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 072018

It’s another hot, sticky day here at the CatBox, and it will get worse as the week goes on. I’ll be scarce this weekend, as I have an annual cat scan with contrast for my Oncologist on Saturday and a routine appointment my PCP with fasting labs on Monday. I’ll be out and about in high 90°s. Not fun. I hoped you are enjoying your vacation.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:48 (average 4:44). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (NY Times Channel): Trump’s Top Supreme Court Contenders on Abortion

Look how evasive they were. If they did not rabidly oppose women’s rights, they would not be on Trump’s list. One thing they all have in common is this: during their confirmation hearing, they would lie. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): How a Multiracial Populism Can Build a 21st Century Economy

Republicans want us prejudiced against black, brown, red and yellow, when the true enemy of all, except the 1%, including white, is green. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From The Palmer Report: Article III, Section I of the Constitution states that “The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” While the Constitution established the Supreme Court, it left it up to Congress to decide how to fill the court. The Judiciary Act of 1789 set the number at one chief justice and five associate justices.

While the intended purpose of the Supreme Court is to determine the constitutionality of laws, there have been several instances where the court was used for partisan political moves. When the Federalists lost power in 1800 the lame-duck Congress made a play to prevent President Thomas Jefferson from being able to make an appointment by reducing the number of justices to five. However, the incoming Congress repealed this to put the number back at six. In 1807, Congress increased it to seven.

Then in 1837, President Andrew Jackson was able to appoint two justices after Congress increased the number of justices to nine. Following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, a Republican majority in Congress voted to reduce the number of justices to prevent Democrat President Andrew Johnson from appointing any new justices. When Ulysses S. Grant won the presidency in 1868, Congress increased it back to nine to allow him two appointments. The number of Supreme Court justices has remained at nine since the Judiciary Act of 1869.

As I have said before, when Democrats have enough power, we can overturn the Judiciary Act and change SCROTUS (Republican Unconstitutional VD) back to SCOTUS!! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Republicans on Parade – 7/6/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:12 pm Politics

Jul 062018

Here is the one hundred twenty-fifth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is former Republican Faux Noise perversion and harassment enabler Bill Shine. He is so honored for the Republican way he is becoming Trump’s Director of Communications, and Porn Star, Playmate, and Russian Hooker relations. In addition he will handle witness intimidation and Pee Pee Tape suppression.

[I]n the interminable 17 months that Donald Trump has been president, the administration has struggled mightily to find and keep a communications director. Sean Spicer held the job for about 45 days before he was replaced by Mike Dubke who resigned after just three months. Spicer was then brought in as acting director, only to quit in protest when Anthony Scaramucciwas hired. The Mooch lasted a grand total of 10 days, until an on-the-record obscenity-fueled rant to a New Yorker reporter went viral and he was canned. His successor, Hope Hicks, stuck it out the longest—225 days—until she quit and hightailed it back to Connecticut. Since March 29, 2018, the role has been vacant, considering the fact that it’s a thankless job in which one will ultimately be blamed by the president for being unable to curtail stories about what a train wreck the administration is. But praise the gods of right-wing cable news, Trump has finally found someone willing to run his press shop.

ABC News reports that Bill Shine, a former Fox News co-president, has been offered, and has accepted, the role of deputy chief of staff for communications, with a formal announcement from the White House expected by the end of the week. In tapping Shine, Trump is effectively solidifying the idea that Fox News is state-run TV—a political sandbox where Trump floats his dumbest ideas in the morning, tweeting back and forth with the hosts of Fox & Friends, and then gets to hear his moronic ramblings echoed back to him at night as received wisdom. The ex-executive is still tight with primetime star Sean Hannity, who’s well known to be the president’s most trusted unofficial adviser, and favorite pre-bedtime phone call. “He’s already outsourced a lot of his communications stuff to Fox News,” a Republican close to the White House told Politico of Trump. “He has a tremendously close relationship with Hannity, so he’s going to put Hannity’s guy in there.”…

Inserted from <Vanity Fair>

When Shine was at Faux Noise, the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, his main job was to enable the harassment of female employees by executive and on-air perverts.

Shine’s name runs through all the threads of the sexual harassment saga at Fox. He’s been named in multiple lawsuits by women who say he was involved in covering up or otherwise aiding in their abuse, particularly by Ailes.

In a case settled in December (the dollar figure is under wraps), Shine was accused of retaliating against a woman who declined to have a sexual relationship with Ailes. In another lawsuit, a woman who complained to Shine about Ailes’ behavior said he told her that he was “a very powerful man” and that she “needed to let this one go.” A third woman, who said she was psychologically tortured by Ailes for 20 years, was, at one point sent to live in a hotel for six weeks where senior leaders at Fox could “monitor” her. She claims that Shine reviewed all of her emails, which he denies.

All of this behavior was meant to keep the powerhouses, the “talent,” at Fox in place, and to keep Fox making money — at nearly any moral cost. Business is business. O’Reilly’s contract was even extended after they found out he’d personally paid a woman $32 million to keep quiet about accusations that they, themselves, knew about. Their reason, The New York Times reported: “he was the biggest star in cable TV.”…

Inserted from <Vox>

Here’s Joy Reid’s take on it, as she filled-in for Rachel Maddow.

I have no doubt that, with an enabler like Shine, Putin’s Piddle Pervert is lining up dozens of new pussies to grab, and Shine will keep earning his parade over and over again

RESIST!!

VOTE BLUE!!

Open Thread – 7/6/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:11 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 062018

It’s not as hot today, but the sun hit the window early, and the building was already overheated from yesterday. I was sweating on the throne at 6:00 AM. TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:10 (average 5:19). To do it click here. Hoe did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (RWW Channel): RWW News: Rick Wiles Says Democrats Will Kill Republicans To Prevent Them From Voting In 2020

Barf Bag Alert!!

Some men in white coats need to throw something on Wiles: a net. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From NPR: As the day dawned across the U.S. on Friday, a new economic reality dawned with it: The tariffs long threatened against billions of dollars in Chinese goods took effect just at midnight ET while many Americans were sleeping — but Beijing was ready immediately with a wake-up call of its own.

The new trade regulations imposed by the Trump administration, which levy a 25 percent tariff on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports to the U.S., have "violated [World Trade Organization] rules and launched the largest trade war in economic history to date," China’s Ministry of Commerce declared in a statement Friday.

Chinese authorities quickly retaliated with equivalent tariffs on $34 billion worth of imported U.S. goods — previously promised as ranging from vehicles to soybeans, beef and other agricultural products.

The rapid tit for tat follows weeks of anxious anticipation over the "trade remedies"President Trump vowed last month to implement. At the time he announced the tariffs, back in mid-June, Trump said the current U.S.-China economic relationship had grown to be "no longer sustainable."

The people Trump is hurting most are US consumers and workers. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Think Progress: With a top coal lobbyist stepping in to serve as acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), few people are expecting Scott Pruitt’s resignation to slow down the Trump administration’s efforts to deal a knock-out blow to the agency’s ability to protect the environment.

President Trump on Thursday named EPA deputy administrator Andrew Wheeler — whose beliefs on environmental protection are as radical as Pruitt’s — to serve as acting administrator of the agency.

As extreme as Pruitt’s graft became, it did not hold a candle to the level of damage the Republican Reich is doing to the environment. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

0706Cartoon

Monthly Report for June 2018

Posted by TomCat at 11:54 am Blog News, Monthly Report, Politics

Jul 052018

Compared to May, June results were up in Uniques and Bandwidth and down in Visits, Page Views and Hits. Those are mixed, and I have no explanation for them.

Here is our latest summary:

Stats6-2018

Reported period	Month Jun 2018
First visit	01 Jun 2018 – 00:00
Last visit	30 Jun 2018 – 23:59
	Unique visitors	Number of visits	Pages	Hits	Bandwidth
Viewed traffic *	6,958	27,090 (3.89 visits/visitor)	273,520 (10.09 Pages/Visit)	459,472 (16.96 Hits/Visit)	18.49 GB (715.72 KB/Visit)
Not viewed traffic *			1,096,467	1,236,294	22.60 GB

Reported period	Month Jun 2017
First visit	01 Jun 2017 – 00:00
Last visit	30 Jun 2017 – 23:59
	Unique visitors	Number of visits	Pages	Hits	Bandwidth
Viewed traffic *	9,323	27,090 (2.9 visits/visitor)	122,678 (4.52 Pages/Visit)	246,604 (9.1 Hits/Visit)	8.04 GB (311.2 KB/Visit)
Not viewed traffic *			519,108	577,231	12.30 GB

Compared with last June, we are down in Uniques, identical in Visits, and up in every other category. That means fewer visitors are doing more.

Here is our ClustrMap for 2018 YTD. This is six months’ traffic.

ClustrMap6-2018

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

Here are our top five articles:

DO NOT CONGRATULATE! 3/21/2018 976
Bill Maher from 6/1 6/2/2018 854
Poll Results – 6/3/2018 6/3/2018 821
To Shame or Not to Shame? 6/24/2018 799
Republicans on Parade – 6/26/2018 6/26/2016 700

The count represents only the people who opened the page for that specific article. All were from this year. Four were from June. I wrote all five. I would have been happier to see more of our other authors’ work represented here. Lona has been preparing for the great migration, the Squatch is still hiding from green tornados, and Nameless has been busy on the home front, but JD has published some truly superior articles.

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

Google 10,409
Care2 3,424
Stumbleupon 421
Facebook 244
Baidu 149

Google was way up, Care2 and Stumbleupon were down. Baidu was virtually unchanged. Facebook made the list, and Reddit did not. Because I advocate unplugging from Facebook, because they keep selling clients’ personal data to enemies, I opted not to link to them.

Here are our top blog/news referrers:

http://infidel753.blogspot.com/
http://oakcreekforum.blogspot.com/
http://bildungblog.blogspot.com/
http://progressiveerupts.blogspot.com/

We had 4 sites with 2 or more referrals, down 3 from May. 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 last month I cleaned up our blog roll and found most of the sites either were gone or had not published for years. Now I need to visit the few who remain.

As of midnight July 1, we had 8,302 articles and 99,504 comments.

Kudos to Squatch, who earned a Big Mouth Award in May for making the 99,000 comment.

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 four months, before we will have a major opportunity to reclaim part of our nation from the fascist Reich that possesses all three branches of government. If you haven’t started working toward that end, you are way past due. This is critically important, because it appears that Putin’s Puppet will get to appoint another goose-stepper to SCROTUS (Republican Unconstitutional VD).

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

RESIST!!

VOTE BLUE!

AvatarTC

Open Thread – 7/5/2018

Posted by TomCat at 11:53 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 052018

The sun will be hitting the wall any minute now, and I’ll have to button-up the CatBox in anticipation of 90°s temps today. I was up late last night. The fireworks display is only five blocks away, and the sound echoes between the downtown buildings. This morning, I overslept.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:01 (average 6:28). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): As the movement to Abolish ICE grows, right-wing media freak out

BARF BAG ALERT!!

I have nothing against ice. At this time of year, it makes coffee quite refreshing. But let’s get rid of the fascist organization and the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): Robert Reich: The 5 Principles of True Patriots

Amen! True patriots RESIST!! True patriots VOTE BLUE!!

From Politico: A pile of pending lawsuits over Donald Trump’s personal and business conduct could put his nominee to the Supreme Court in an awkward position: deciding whether to cast potentially pivotal votes on legal matters of keen importance to the president.

Virtually all justices wind up ruling on policy issues affecting the president who appointed them. But Trump is enmeshed in more than half a dozen significant court cases involving everything from his alleged sexual behavior before taking office to claims that his businesses are profiting from his presidency and allegations that he misused funds through his charitable foundation.

In addition, the Supreme Court could be asked to rule on other legal questions critical to the president, such as whether Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election was legally authorized or whether Trump has the authority to dismiss the special prosecutor.

The legal pressure Trump faces on many fronts is likely to spill into the confirmation hearings for his nominee — whom he is expected to name next week to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, long seen as the court’s swing vote — as senators seek to use the high-profile platform to publicize the unusual legal predicaments.

This is partially why no Trump nomination is appropriate as long as he remains under investigation. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoons:

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