It’s a busy day here at the CatBox.  I had some paperwork to do.  Store to Door delivered my groceries, and I have unpacked and put them away.  WWWendy will come later to de-stink the rancid TomCat.  I don’t know why, but I feel sleepier than normal.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:54 (average 5:41).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): SAVE THE RICH (Cover) Original by Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome

That’s the anthem of the Republican Reich! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From The New Yorker: The White House was reportedly in panic mode Tuesday afternoon, shortly after news broke that a television star with a racist Twitter feed had been fired.

According to a White House source, Donald J. Trump immediately huddled with close advisers to discuss the firing, which, staffers agreed, “set an ominous new precedent.”

“We’ve been living under assumption that a TV personality could tweet out as many racist things as he or she wanted with no consequences,” the source said. “Now, all of a sudden, our worst nightmare has come true.”

White House staffers are reportedly combing through Trump’s thirty-seven thousand tweets, searching for ones that could be deemed fireable offenses, and have so far flagged more than thirty-six thousand of them.

Andy, I think they are lying. 36,000 is way too low an estimate. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Alternet: 7. Co-opt and Make Institutions of Military and Police Power into Loyal Sycophants.

Without the police and the military on their side, a tyrant’s days in office are inevitably numbered.

That’s why one of the hallmark behaviors of authoritarian leadership and its media supporters is to praise and empower, to the point of fetishizing, the police and the military. They then amplify this with elaborate displays of symbolic patriotism like singing the national song and hyper-displaying the flag.

From attacking NFL players for protesting police violence against unarmed Black people to telling a crowd of police officers to not be professional or respectful when arresting people, to chest-thumping about our military as “the most powerful ever,” Trump doesn’t even try to be subtle about his threats. The next step, if he follows the well-worn authoritarian path, is to put on Saddam Hussein-style military parades.

Meanwhile, the process that Ronald Reagan began, and Newt Gingrich sped up with his 1033 program, of redirecting billions of dollars of military funds, hardware and training to police departments, begins the process of turning ordinary police agencies into praetorian guards to solidify the power of the now-captured state.

Exempting police unions from crackdowns on other government employee union activities, like Scott Walker did in Wisconsin, hastens the process by ensuring the loyalty of the one legally armed, duty-sworn agency of government.

This is the seventh of nine ways that Trump fosters authoritarianism, or more descriptively, Nazism. Click through for the other eight ways!  RESIST!!  VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

The contents deserve celebration.

It’s a lazy day, because, after the holiday weekend, news is scarce, but I filled the time with chores.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:22 (average 5:10).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Democrats Work To Level Election Field, Undo GOP Gerrymandering

Anytime Scott Walker, Fartfuhrer of Fitzwalkerstan, takes it in the sphincter, TC does a one-legged happy dance. If we doing it across the country, so much the better. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Daily Kos: On Aug. 7, progressives have another chance to flip a key GOP-held House seat from red to blue in Ohio’s vacant 12th Congressional District, and Daily Kos is pleased to endorse Democrat Danny O’Connor in this special election.O’Connor has deep roots in Ohio and has served as Franklin County Recorder since 2016, where he swiftly instituted reforms to make the office more responsive to veterans (for whom his office provides ID cards) and the homeless, by implementing a plan to store birth certificates so that they can more easily apply for housing. And he practiced the progressive values he believes in by instituting the Recorder’s Office’s first paid family leave program.

His opponent, on the other hand, is an arch-conservative. Republican state Sen. Troy Balderson opposed expanding Medicaid in Ohio, even though it was backed by his own Republican governor and his GOP colleagues in the legislature. But of course, that’s not enough: He also supports repealing the Affordable Care Act altogether. And naturally, he’s voted to defund Planned Parenthood and has pledged to “build Trump’s wall.”

Danny O’Connor for Congress! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Alternet: A reporter for Breitbart News courted a black Bernie Sanders campaigner to switch allegiances to Donald Trump in 2016 — and then convinced him to work for the right-wing website and encourage his fellow African American voters to sit out the presidential election.

Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that Bruce Carter, the founder of Black Men for Bernie, revealed his story to the website after falling out with his former employers when they ceased paying him in the weeks following the 2016 election.  [emphasis added]

I wonder how many voters were fooled by this paid race-traitor. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Down with Fitzwalkerstan!

It’s a lazy holiday here in the CatBox  and finding the material I did was a struggle.  The next few days will be seasonable so whether and when I have top use the AC will depend on when the sun hits the wall.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:48 (average 4:33).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): EXPLAIN HIS RATIONALE (Parody of) You Can Call Me Al (9/27/2017)

Even then, the Fuhrer’s catalogue of lies was virtually infinite. RESIST!! VOTE!!

From NY Daily News: A valedictorian’s speech that mentioned Marjory Stoneman Douglas students was too political for local officials — so he took it outside.

Christian Bales used a bullhorn to get his message across during the Holy Cross graduation ceremony in Covington on Friday. Christian was outside the auditorium, surrounded by other students, as he made the speech.

Here’s video:

Kudos to Bales! We need more like him. RESIST!! VOTE!!

From Share Blue: According to senior adviser Stephen Miller, the Trump White House has settled on a campaign stoking racism as a desperate ploy to keep Republicans in control of Congress.

Miller made that admission in an interview with Breitbart [Breitfart delinked], the white supremacist website known for highlighting “black crime.” Miller, among the most loyal of Trump’s underlings, once infamously announced that Trump’s power “will not be questioned” and attacked the pro-immigrant message etched on the Statue of Liberty.

Miller explained to Breitbart that lacking any strong, positive message going into the midterm elections, Republicans plan to use the criminal gang MS-13 as a boogeyman to scare up votes.

“The big fight this summer is going to be with the open borders Democratic caucus in Congress,” Miller said, using a lie that Republicans have often used to attack Democrats. There is no such thing as an “open borders” faction in Congress; Republicans like Miller simply use the inflammatory term to attack those who are pro-immigrant.

And the party of hate strikes again. RESIST!! VOTE!!

Cartoon:

By way of explanation, my building takes several temporary RCP residents.  They are street people that have no place to go, when they are released from hospitals.  While they are here Central City Concern tries to get them into programming, but most care only about getting high.  After they are back on their feet, they move on.  Many are so addled that they have no idea how to live in decent facilities.  Most of the kitchen fires here come from RCP trying to cook when too loaded to do so.  Does that make it more clear?  WWWendy is due in 30 minutes.

WWWendy just left.  Chores all done.  She says Hi.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:24 (average 4:49).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): SAD WORLD (Parody of) Mad World (9/25/2017)

All that seems so mild compared to how much Trump has devolved since. RESIST!! VOTE!!

From Washington Post: Just before Christmas, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pulled up to the massive Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, a California state prison complex in the desert outside San Diego that holds nearly 4,000 inmates. Kennedy was there to visit Sirhan B. Sirhan, the man convicted of killing his father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, nearly 50 years ago.

While his wife, the actress Cheryl Hines, waited in the car, Kennedy met with Sirhan for three hours, he revealed to The Washington Post last week. It was the culmination of months of research by Kennedy into the assassination, including speaking with witnesses and reading the autopsy and police reports.

“I got to a place where I had to see Sirhan,” Kennedy said. He would not discuss the specifics of their conversation. But when it was over, Kennedy had joined those who believe there was a second gunman, and that it was not Sirhan who killed his father.

“I went there because I was curious and disturbed by what I had seen in the evidence,” said Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and the third oldest of his father’s 11 children. “I was disturbed that the wrong person might have been convicted of killing my father. My father was the chief law enforcement officer in this country. I think it would have disturbed him if somebody was put in jail for a crime they didn’t commit.”

In my opinion, one of the things that JFK, RFK and MLK have in common is that all were murdered by the Republican Reich. RESIST!! VOTE!!

From Crooks and Liars: Is the Republican National Committee offering wealthy Chinese investors access to Trump in exchange for campaign contributions?

Nooooooooo. I mean, why WOULD they? That would be improper. Illegal, even! Pay no attention to that letter with "the insignia of a real Republican committee raising money for the party and President Trump’s reelection campaign, it purported to offer a handshake and a one-on-one photo with the president for $100,000 — a “VIP” trip “to be remembered for a lifetime.” That’s all completely innocent, and the RNC knows nothing about that, they promise!

Also, completely innocuous is the upcoming fundraiser on May 31st! Ignore, if you would, the two Chinese companies charging two or three times the price of the campaign fundraiser’s ticket, promising access to and photos with the president of the United States. The RNC knows noooooothing about that.

And the emoluments march on. RESIST!! VOTE!!

Cartoon:

It’s time to fight the Nazis again!