TomCat

Open Thread – 6/25/2018

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

Jun 252018

Yesterday Wendy and I worked so hard, and it was so damn hot, that I was unable to wind down and get to sleep until well after midnight, so I spent the morning napping instead of researching. Therefore this is my only article today, and I will not be sending links messages at Care2.

Jig Zone Puzzles:

Today’s took me 7:01 (average 7:41). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Washington Post: President Trump on Sunday explicitly advocated for depriving undocumented immigrants of their due-process rights, arguing that people who cross the border into the United States illegally are invaders and must immediately be deported without trial or an appearance before a judge.

In the Republican Reich, let the Constitution be damned. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From NY Times: 2. Driver’s license offices are closed in black areas.

The year after the photo identification law took effect, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency announced that it would close 31 driver’s license offices, one of the primary places where Alabamians could obtain photo identification. The closings were in response to budget cuts, but there was a clear racial pattern.

This is the second of seven ways Alabama Republicans have made it harder to vote. Click through for the other six. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Washington Post: Rep. John Carter (R-Tex.) hasn’t won a race by fewer than 20 points in a decade. Veteran MJ Hegar (D) is trying to change that, and she made a big splash over the last few days with an ad that includes a subtle but brutal jab at Carter.

Hegar served three tours in Afghanistan and later successfully lobbied the Obama administration to lift the ban on women serving in combat.

In a new ad “Doors” — which you can watch above [below] — Hegar shows viewers how she opened “doors” throughout her career, facing many that slammed in her face. Behind one closed door was Carter, who she says in the ad she tried to lobby to lift the combat ban.

Great Ad! MJ Hegar for Congress! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Kudos to the winners!

To Shame or Not to Shame?

Posted by TomCat at 1:23 pm Politics

Jun 242018

I have followed politics ever since my teens (over 50 years), and I have known people who were killed for their support of civil rights or their opposition to the war in Vietnam. Extreme right wingers have committed political atrocities as long as I can remember, but for the first time atrocity has become a part of national policy as Trump and the Republican Party openly brag about tearing families apart and torturing children. So the time has come to ask, at what point does civility end?

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders — whose lies are piling up at a furious rate and whose defense of the child-separation policy prompted a reporter to exclaim, “Come on, Sarah, you’re a parent” — was reportedly asked to leave a restaurant in Virginia on Friday because she works for President Trump. In a tweet, she explained that “I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left.” She then couldn’t help lying again: “I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.” Anyone who has seen her sneer, insult and condescend to the press knows that’s not the case.

This episode follows one on Tuesday in which Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was heckled at a Mexican restaurant, a culinary choice as jarring as Melania Trump’s jacket given the administration’s deliberate cruelty exhibited toward Hispanic children and their families. The loud protesters who gathered prompted her to leave. In addition, anti-immigrant zealot Stephen Miller, who pushed as hard as anyone for snatching kids from their parents, was dining in a different Mexican restaurant last Sunday when, according to the New York Post, a protester called out, “Hey look guys, whoever thought we’d be in a restaurant with a real-life fascist begging [for] money for new cages?”

Unsurprisingly, the restaurant confrontations became a source of debate on cable television. On CNN, Ana Navarro tartly observed, “You make choices in life. And there is a cost to being an accomplice to this cruel, deceitful administration.” So, are these reactions to Trump aides reassuring and appropriate acts of social ostracism that communicate to the cogs in a barbaric bureaucracy that they cannot escape the consequences of their actions? Alternatively, should we view these as a sign of our descent into incivility, evidence that we are so polarized we literally cannot stand to be in the same room as those with whom we disagree?

It depends on how you view the child-separation policy. If you think the decision to separate children from parents as a means of deterring other asylum seekers is simply one more policy choice, like tax cuts or negotiations with North Korea, then, yes, screaming at political opponents is inappropriate. Such conduct is contrary to the democratic notion that we do not personally destroy our political opponents but, rather, respect differences and learn to fight and perhaps compromise on another day. If, however, you think the child-separation policy is in a different class — a human rights crime, an inhumane policy for which the public was primed by efforts to dehumanize a group of people (“animals,” “infest,” etc.) — then it is both natural and appropriate for decent human beings to shame and shun the practitioners of such a policy… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Yesterday I opted not to share a clip, in which Bill Maher argued with an NRA TV propagandist, but treated him courteously. It is my view that people who knowingly represent organizations that willfully kill and injure others are not worthy of courtesy.

Let me be clear. I do not favor shunning and shaming people, who commit outrages out of ignorance. Such people may be redeemable.

However, people who know what they are doing to murdered school children and their families or to refugee children and their families, should be shamed, shunned, and condemned in every possible way, short of violence.

RESIST!!

VOTE BLUE!!

Open Thread – 6/24/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:23 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Jun 242018

The heat has returned. I’m trying to finish writing before WWWendy arrives in about an hour. We have a very busy day.

We finished all the work and it’s hot as hell.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:15 (average 4:42). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (RWW Channel): RWW News: Leigh Valentine Says Undocumented Immigrants Are Treacherous Murderous God-Haters

Barf Bag Alert!!

These are NOT Christians. They are Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, the opposite of authentic Christians. You can tell by their gospel of cruelty, hatred and racism. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Daily Kos: This is the price of voter apathy. This is what happens when good people sit on their hands and think they have no voice — that their vote just doesn’t matter:

Kids are snatched away from their parents and thrown in cages.

If we don’t get out in droves upon droves this November to kneecap this shart-slurping, retrograde prick who minces about like King Fuckwit in the West Wing, listening to nauseating encomiums from his fawning shit brigade while kids languish in concentration camps, we deserve to lose our democracy.

How much quasi-Nazi B.S. do we have to bear witness to in order to make the upcoming midterms a historic repudiation of our dictator-in-waiting?

My fear is that when November comes around, too many of us will forget what’s happening now.

But we can’t. We just can’t. Whatever happens, we need to be just as angry on November 6 as we are today. It’s the most important day of the year, by far. Fuck you, Christmas. Our holiday comes early this year.

We have to remember every outrage of the past two years. Every. One

I fully agree. Click through for a partial list of outrages. However, for every outrage, we also need to explain exactly how we would do it differently. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Crooks and Liars: Journalist Masha Gessen joined Joy Reid this morning to help us figure out what stage of fascism the United States has achieved. There’s a sentence I still cannot believe I had to write in seriousness.

On the scale from Democracy to Fascism:

Fascist Ruler? Check.

Fascist attitude towards Immigrants? Check.

Fascist Rule? Not yet. Not completely.

Whether or not we become a Fascist nation is up to you. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Bill Maher from 6/22

Posted by TomCat at 11:52 am Politics

Jun 232018

It’s that time of week again, so here are three fine video clips from Bill’s show last night. Enjoy!

Monologue: President Hold My Beer

I disagree. Most Republicans have followed Trump on kidnapping children. A few objected weakly but virtually all did NOTHING!

Michael Pollan: Psychedelic Science

Do you think he had too much of Squatch’s wacky tobaccy?

New Rule: The Good Sex Economy

I fully agree with Bill. Trump is far more dangerous than any recession.

Bill had one more clip entitled "Colion Noir: Gun Nuts". Colion is a propagandist for the NRA, and I opted not to share it. Bill argued well, but in my opinion, a propagandist for an organization that knowingly and intentionally profits from murdered school children deserves far less courtesy than Bill gave him. If you wish to view it, use the Bill’s Show link above.

RESIST!!

VOTE BLUE!!

Open Thread – 6/23/2018

Posted by TomCat at 11:51 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 232018

It’s a cool morning here in the CatBox with a hot afternoon forecast, and a very hot day tomorrow, so I’m skipping my morning rest to do most of my work in the cool of the day. I’m still feeling tired out.

Jig Zone Puzzles:

Today’s took me 3:31 (average 5:06). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Late Show Channel): Reefer Madness Reaches Canada

No wonder the Squatch has been particularly frisky lately! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): MR FORTY-FIVE Parody of Mrs Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel

That one could go on for hundreds of stanzas. To support Don Caron, click here. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (Daily Kos Channel): Rep. Ted Lieu forces the House to hear the cries of immigrant children

Kudos to Rep. Ted Lieu! Republicans are too cowardly to listen to the effects of their evil ways. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From The New Yorker: A group of scholars who have been monitoring the descent of the bar over the past few decades have concluded that the bar can no longer be lowered, the scholars announced on Friday.

The academics, led by Professor Davis Logsdon, of the University of Minnesota, published their conclusion after their research definitively found that the bar had finally dropped to its lowest possible position.

“For those who thought the bar still had room to be lowered, our findings resoundingly contradict that assumption,” Logsdon said. “The bar is now essentially flush with the ground.”

Dang Andy! I disagree. The bar is subterranean. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Cats know how to deal with Republican mice!

Republicans Support European Fascists

Posted by TomCat at 1:01 pm Politics

Jun 222018

We on the left object to attempts by foreign governments to interfere with US elections to install extremist, white supremacist, fascists in positions of power. The Republican Reich does not object, because they are the fascists Putin helped install. Not only do they not object, but also, they are teaming with Putin to help install fascists in power in Europe.

It’s not new to hear U.S. officials rooting for regime change. It’s just been a while since they’ve talked about it with regard to Berlin.

President Donald Trump’s attacks on Twitter against German Chancellor Angela Merkel this week provided the clearest evidence yet of a sprawling American campaign to undermine her. While Trump’s disdain for Merkel has been evident since the early days of his presidential run, he and his ideological allies have ramped up their efforts dramatically just as the German leader faces what experts call one of her most serious challenges yet: developing a Europe-wide policy on asylum seekers by July 1 to appease a crucial right-wing partner in her coalition government.

Merkel now has to contend with not only local opponents but also a network of influential anti-immigrant Americans and other international activists inspired by Trump and similar illiberal leaders, like Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

They’re determined to punish the chancellor for welcoming more than a million desperate refugees seeking shelter in Europe since 2015 ― and ultimately want to prove that compassion toward immigrants is now political suicide in the West.

“The leaders of the two biggest nations in Europe are increasingly besieged,” said Gerald Knaus of the European Stability Initiative, referring to Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron. “And both of the big outside powers, the U.S. and Russia, are on the side of those who besiege them.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Huffington Post>

Freedom loving people all over the world need to stand together against Republicans like Trump and his boss, Putin!

RESIST!!

VOTE BLUE!!

Open Thread – 6/22/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:00 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 222018

It’s a little cooler today, but the sun is due to hit the window, and I’ll have to button-up when it does. I have not yet recovered from the heat wave, and I still feel quite tired.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:44 (average 5:42). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): MSNBC’s Mariana Atencio speaks with families who were separated at the border

These are the people Republicans call enemies, criminals, drug gangs, and scum. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): Trump’s Takeover of the Courts

The Reich on the left is right. The Reich on the Right is Fascist. We need BOTH the House and Senate just to mitigate the damage. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From NY Times: The European Union fought back on Friday against the Trump administration’s tariffs, slapping penalties on an array of American products that target the president’s political base, like bourbon, motorcycles and orange juice.

The European counterattack on $3.2 billion of goods, a response to the administration’s measures on steel and aluminum imports, adds another front to a trade war that has engulfed allies and adversaries around the world. China and Mexico have already retaliated with their own tariffs, and Canada, Japan and Turkey are readying similar offensives.

The risk of escalation is high since Mr. Trump has promised even more tariffs. Taking aim at German car manufacturers, the president has started an investigation into automobile imports to determine whether they pose a national security concern, the same justification used for his metal tariffs.

Frankly, I’m amazed that the civilized world has not imposed major sanctions against the US, because Republican policies are have made the US an International pariah. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Samantha Bee from 6/20

Posted by TomCat at 12:49 pm Politics

Jun 212018

It’s that time of week again, so here are three excellent video clips from Sam’s show last night. Enjoy!

Migrant Kids Update: Trump Fixed It!

Bingo! Children should NOT go to jail. GOP Gulags are NOT the answer! C word? Do Republicans have Thunder Cages?

Migrant Kids Update: Trump Broke It!

Even when (and if) the policy is gone, the Republican hatred for non-white children that this policy demonstrates will remain.

The Cult of Impeachment

I think impeachment is a wonderful wet dream, but it’s not realistic until Democrats control the House and have 67 votes in the Senate. In addition, it won’t help, unless we can impeach Pence simultaneously.

A great mix of truth and humor.

RESIST!!

VOTE BLUE!!

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