TomCat

Open Thread – 1/2/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:31 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 022018

I’m still feeling a bit under the weather, so please forgive my brevity.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took m 4:52 (average 5:39). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Salon.com: President Donald Trump is staring down the barrel of a very, very unfavorable political climate in 2018.

The foremost problem is the prospect of a Democratic sweep in the upcoming midterm elections, according to Axios. One source told the site that when it comes to the possibility that Democratic victories in November could both thwart the GOP’s legislative agenda and make Trump vulnerable to impeachment, the president "gets it."

Meanwhile Reince Priebus, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee and Trump’s former chief of staff, has been telling Republican Party leaders that they need to have access to the entire data and ground operation for every single congressional district. He also encouraged them to not be thrifty, arguing that they must "spend whatever needs to be spent as if 2020 relies on it."

They will have lots to spend, as Banksters and Billionaires fear losing their Tax Scam welfare, and will contribute heavily. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Retail cannabis shops in California opened their doors on Monday for the first time, inaugurating what proponents say will become the world’s largest market for legalized recreational marijuana.

A transaction that remains illegal in many parts of the country seemed almost banal on Monday for the customers at a dispensary in Oakland who picked out their marijuana, showed their driver’s licenses and walked into the brisk morning air with their drugs in a paper bag.

“This is a whole new world opening up,” said Diana Gladden, 48, who bought marijuana for herself and her aging parents. “My mother, a very strict Southern Baptist, now thinks it’s O.K. because it’s legal.”

One customer left with more than $1,000 worth of cannabis in a large grocery bag.

Dang!! The Oregon Weather Bureau predicts that the cloud from the south will arrive this evening. Don’t RESIST!!

From TPM: Fired former FBI Director James Comey made another dig at President Donald Trump on Twitter over the weekend, writing on New Year’s Eve that he hopes 2018 brings “more ethical leadership focused on truth and lasting values.”

Amen James! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0102Cartoon

Personal Update – 1/1/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:13 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 012018

It’s a dead day for news, and I appear to be coming down with head/upper respiratory infection, so this is my only article today. I hope I feel better tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:50 (average 5:38). To do it, click here. How do you do?

Religious Agony:

1231Broncos24-Chiefs27

They were playing against the Chiefs’ reserves. That describes the season quite well. ARGH!

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest from our own Fantasy Football league, Lefty Blog Friends.

Playoffs:

17Playoffs

Champs:

17Champs

Congrats to Patty Monster (aka Patricia M Lasek)! We will be looking for two more players next season to replace the folks that dropped out. Leave me a message here or on Care2 if you’d like to play.

Short Take:

From Time: President Donald Trump slammed Pakistan for ‘lies & deceit’ in a New Year’s Day tweet that said Islamabad had played U.S. leaders for ‘fools.’

‘No more,’ Trump tweeted.

Trump in his tweet said the U.S. had given Pakistan $33 billion in the last 15 years, yet Afghanistan and the U.S. have long accused Pakistan of providing safe havens for militants.

It’s hard to disagree with Trump for saying something about Pakistan many times myself, but this is what the Republicans’ idiot Fuhrer just does not get. As duplicitous as they are, Pakistan is the only reasonable logistical route for our troops in Afghanistan. If Pakistan closes that route, supplying our troops by air is terribly costly and insecure, and if we withdraw them, as we should have years ago, we would have to leave all their heavy weapons and equipment for Al Qaeda and the Taliban. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0101Cartoon

Hahahahahahaha!

Posted by TomCat at 7:39 am Politics

Dec 312017

This could not have happened to a more homophobic Republican pseudo-Christian (the opposite of an authentic Christian).

[V]ice President Mike Pence’s Christmas vacation in Aspen was protested by the neighbors next to the private home in which he was staying.

A rainbow flag with the words “Make America Gay Again” was posted at the end of the driveway to both houses, the Aspen Times reports.

The banner was hung by the daughters of the homeowners — and one of their girlfriends.

“You couldn’t miss it,” Pitkin County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Buglione explained.

Deputy Buglione explained the homeowners brough chili and corn muffins to the deputies and Secret Service agents posted.

“They’ve been really nice to us,” Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo…

Inserted from <Raw Story>

Republicans are calling this priceless gag a "vicious attack" against Pence. Kudos to the protestors that did it!

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 12/31/2017

Posted by TomCat at 7:38 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 312017

Wendy will be here in about 90 minutes to de-stink the sticky TomCat, help with chores, and celebrate New Years Eve with steak and taters Later, Wendy is going out for an evening of ribald debauchery, and I’m splitting my time between Ellipsoid Orb meditations and ZZZZZzzzzz.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:04 (average 5:59). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Lawrence O’Donnell on Donald Trump’s Very Bad Year

We are proud to wish a Crappy New Year to Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten and every Republican in the Reich! RESIST!!

From Huffington Post: 2017 was a huge year in news: The United States got a new president. North Korea made major advances in its nuclear program. Women around the world toppled their sexual abusers with the #MeToo movement. And everyone is suddenly talking about bitcoin again.

It was also a bizarre time ― a lot of weird stuff went down in the U.S. and beyond. Here are six of the strangest news stories from the past year.

Comey In The Curtains

*sigh* Where to begin with this one?

James Comey was the director of the FBI until May, when President Donald Trump fired him in a stunning and highly controversial move. Under Comey, the bureau had launched an investigation into possible collusion between the Kremlin and Trump’s campaign. Comey later testified that the president pressured him not to investigate certain members of his team, which Trump denies.

Unsurprisingly, it turns out they didn’t have the greatest relationship during their few months together.

According to a later New York Times interview with Benjamin Wittes, a friend of Comey’s and the editor-in-chief of the Lawfare blog, the FBI director went to notable lengths to avoid interactions with his boss. Comey, who is 6 feet 8 inches tall, reportedly told Wittes that in January 2017 he attempted to blend into the curtains at a White House gathering so that Trump wouldn’t notice him. Apparently his dark blue suit matched the fabric.

“He thought he had gotten through and not been noticed or singled out and that he was going to get away without an individual interaction,” Wittes told the Times.

But Trump not only spotted him; the president gave him a pat on the back.

I shared one of the six. Click through for the other five. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Republicans’ 2018 Resolution: Bipartisanship. Will It Last?

Senator Mitch McConnell sounded downright magnanimous in anticipation of 2018, eager to work closely with Democrats even though he had cut them out of virtually every big-ticket deliberation during 2017.

“We’re going to be looking for areas of bipartisan agreement because that’s the way the Senate is,” Mr. McConnell, the majority leader, said this month as Congress fled town for the holidays.

The truth, as Mr. McConnell well knows, is that he has little choice. The certification of Doug Jones’s victory as the new Democratic senator from Alabama and his imminent arrival in Washington mean Mr. McConnell will be presiding over a Senate split 51 to 49 between Republicans and Democrats, a margin providing him scant room to maneuver. It will be almost impossible for congressional Republicans to do anything meaningful without at least modest support from the Democratic side.

Need I say more? RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Update for the Fools that Voted for Trump

Posted by TomCat at 1:13 pm Politics

Dec 302017

For several month from the time he rode the escalator to announce his campaign, until he infested the Oval Office, he made thousands of campaign promises. To the best of my knowledge, he has kept only one. He promised Republican billionaire donors he would make them richer. Robert Reich, the Reich on the left, who is virtually always right, reminds us of twenty.

Almost one year in, it’s time for another update for Trump voters on his election promises:

1. He told you he’d cut your taxes, and that the super-rich like him would pay more. You bought it. But his new tax law does the opposite. By 2027, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, the richest 1 percent will have got 83 percent of the tax cut and the richest 0.1 percent, 60 percent of it. But more than half of all Americans — 53 percent — will pay more in taxes. As Trump told his wealthy friends at Mar-a-Lago just days after the tax bill became law, “You all just got a lot richer.”

2. He promised to close “special interest loopholes that have been so good for Wall Street investors but unfair to American workers,” especially the notorious “carried interest” loophole for private-equity, hedge fund, and real estate partners. You bought it. But the new tax law keeps the “carried interest” loophole.

3. He told you he’d repeal Obamacare and replace it with something “beautiful.” You bought it. But he didn’t repeal and he didn’t replace. (Just as well: His plan would have knocked at least 23 million off health insurance, including many of you.) Instead, he’s doing what he can to cut it back and replace it with nothing. The new tax law will result in 13 million people losing health coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

4. He told you he’d invest $1 trillion in our nation’ crumbling infrastructure. You bought it. But after his giant tax cut for corporations and millionaires, there’s no money left for infrastructure.

5. He said he’d clean the Washington swamp. You bought it. But he’s brought into his administration more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls than in any administration in history, to make laws that will enrich their businesses, and he’s filled departments and agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who are crafting new policies for the same industries they recently worked for… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Robert Reich>

I shared five. Click through for the other fifteen.

Some Trump voters are not fools. They are monsters. They knew he was lying all along, and that’s OK with them. But some Trump voters are decent people, who became fools, because he fooled them, but they don’t have to be fools indefinitely. They can see what’s going on and…

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 12/30/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:13 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 302017

Today’s the last day of the current humidity wave. I hate feeling chilly and sweating at the same time. Tomorrow is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. My Broncos play the Chiefs, who are sitting their starters, so my guys have an outside chance. I’ll hurry along, as this weather has me big-time pooped.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:19 (average 6:39). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): Robert Reich Googles Himself

Normally I don’t put up fundraising vids, but this one had so much interesting info about the Reich on the left that is right that I made an exception. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Hats off to the people of Maine for their unrelenting pressure on Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) for putting partisanship over people with her vote to give the Republican donor class upward of $2 trillion in tax cuts, while also eliminating health insurance for some 13 million people. Her efforts at self-defense have been at best naive, at worst duplicitous, and downright shameless to boot. Now that the vote is over and her constituents are rightly enraged at her, she’s taking another stab at it, penning an op-ed in the Press Herald in which she decides to fall back on lying.

I supported this legislation because it will help lower-income and middle-income families keep more of their hard-earned money, boost the economy and encourage businesses, both small and large, to grow and create jobs here in Maine and around the country.

Look, the people of Maine just aren’t that dumb.

They aren’t? Explain Paul LePage! RESIST!!

From NY Times: President Trump, in an impromptu interview on Thursday with The New York Times, rattled off at least 10 false or misleading claims about the Russia investigation, wars abroad, health care, immigration and trade. Here’s an assessment.

He inaccurately said the claims against Paul Manafort occurred “many years ago before I ever heard of him.”

The two men reportedly met in 2011. Paul Manafort joined the Trump campaign in March 2016, was promoted to campaign chairman and chief strategist that May and was ousted that August.

Mr. Manafort is accused of serving as an unregistered agent of Ukraine from at least 2006 to 2015, laundering payments from 2006 to 2016 and making false statements to investigators from Nov. 23, 2016, to Feb. 10, 2017.

He misrepresented what a senator has said about the Russia investigation.

According to Mr. Trump, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, appeared “on television saying there is no collusion” between his campaign and Russia in the 2016 election. Ms. Feinstein has said she has not yet seen evidence of collusion, not that the evidence shows no collusion.

“It’s an open question because there’s no proof yet that it’s happened, and I think that proof will likely come with Mr. Mueller’s investigation,” she said in an interview in October with CBS, referring to the special counsel overseeing the inquiry.

I shared two. Click through for the other eight Trump lies listed for that interview. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

A Veiled Threat

Posted by TomCat at 1:12 pm Politics

Dec 292017

Many journalists are talking about Trump’s recent interview with the NY Times, as accepting and agreeable, suggesting that trump will do nothing to interfere with the Mueller investigation into him and his co-conspirators. Sadly, those journalists either do not know how to or are unwilling to interpret Republican Lies.

President Trump said Thursday that he believes Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel in the Russia investigation, will treat him fairly, contradicting some members of his party who have waged a weekslong [sic] campaign to try to discredit Mr. Mueller and the continuing inquiry.

During an impromptu 30-minute interview with The New York Times at his golf club in West Palm Beach, the president did not demand an end to the Russia investigations swirling around his administration, but insisted 16 times that there has been “no collusion” discovered by the inquiry.

“It makes the country look very bad, and it puts the country in a very bad position,” Mr. Trump said of the investigation. “So the sooner it’s worked out, the better it is for the country.”

Asked whether he would order the Justice Department to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, Mr. Trump appeared to remain focused on the Russia investigation.

“I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department,” he said, echoing claims by his supporters that as president he has the power to open or end an investigation. “But for purposes of hopefully thinking I’m going to be treated fairly, I’ve stayed uninvolved with this particular matter.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

Ari Melber discussed the interview with David Frum, Wendy Sherman, and Natasha Bertrand.

Here’s the bottom line. This is nothing but a veiled threat to Muller that, if the ongoing results are not what Trump wants to see (considers fair), he will no longer have a reason not to invoke absolute right to do what he wants with the Justice Department. There it is.

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 12/29/2017

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

Dec 292017

It’s a very uncomfortable day. The current temperature is 54°, about 10° above normal, but the humidity is 98%. I’m not hot, but I’m sweating anyway, and I slept very poorly. UGH!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:05 (average 4:53). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Some of the best moments of 2017

And in 2018, we’re not going to shut up either. RESIST!!

From USA Today: President Trump demanded Friday that Democrats approve a wall along the border with Mexico and other programs to tighten immigration before he supports a program designed to protect young people brought into the country illegally as children – all while promoting his agenda and attacking political critics on Twitter.

"The Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc. We must protect our Country at all cost!" Trump said during a wide-ranging tweet storm.

I have a one word reply!! NO!! RESIST!!

From NY Times: Alabama officials on Thursday unhesitatingly pushed aside a legal challenge from Roy S. Moore and certified Doug Jones as the winner of this month’s Senate election.

The action, during a brief meeting at the State Capitol, was essentially the state’s final step before the seating of the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Alabama in a quarter century. It was also a swift rejection, by some of the state’s most powerful Republicans, of Mr. Moore’s complaint that he was the victim of “systematic voter fraud.”

Mr. Jones’s margin of victory was 21,924 votes, with more than 1.3 million ballots cast.

Swear him in IMMEDIATELY! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

1229Cartoon

Although I normally post my Wounded Knee graphic on the 29th, this year I thought it appropriate to resurrect my cartoon from 12/29/2011 in light of Republican stance on Jerusalem.

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