TomCat

Open Thread – 7/11/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:39 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 112017

I’m still trying to get appointments squared away. I’m about to receive a visit from Melissa from Neighborhood House, the agency that manages the portion of Wendy’s services that the State pays. It’s routine. She is replacing my previous social worker and wants to get aquatinted, so I’ll be breaking to visit with her, before I publish today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:24 (average 5:30). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Guess What Else Happened on 6/19/16 | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

I told you that this one would be a doozy. It was. RESIST!!

From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): Medicaid Allowed Him to Die at Home

Tell ALL Senators! RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: It seems like the alt-right has an identity problem. It can’t figure out what it wants to be or what it wants to be called. This confusion is driving a wedge between those deplorables who identify with the label “alt-right” and white supremacist Richard Spencer who has become the face of the movement, and those who identify with the almost the exact same things he stands for but are uncomfortable publicly aligning themselves with his brand of racism and anti-Semitism. That must be deeply difficult for them, poor little things.

And before you ask, yes, they are serious. They actually see a distinction in their ideologies which is splintering the movement in two.

During the Presidential campaign, the term came to denote several intersecting phenomena: anti-feminism, opposition to political correctness, online abuse, belligerent nihilism, conspiracy theories, inflammatory Internet memes. Some pro-Trump activists adopted this big-tent definition, allowing any youthful, “edgy” critique of establishment conservatism to be considered alt-right.

But a core within the movement always insisted on a narrower conception of the alt-right, one that was inextricably linked with white separatism, and with Spencer specifically. […]

If the alt-right wants a label, I have two from which they can choose. Nazis and Republicans are equally applicable terms. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0711Cartoon

Trump Jr. Holds the Smoking Gun

Posted by TomCat at 1:33 pm Politics

Jul 102017

With every passing day, more evidence piles up that the Resident of the United States is a traitor, having colluded with Russia in an assault against our nation’s electoral integrity. In the most definitive evidence so far, Donald Trump, Jr. now holds the smoking gun.

Donald Trump Jr. acknowledged Sunday that he met with a Russian lawyer who had promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton in June 2016.

The news, which was first reported by the New York Times, represents the most direct suggestion to date of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, and it is the first indication that someone from President Trump’s inner circle met with Russians during the campaign. Trump Jr. also brought then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump’s son-in-law and now-top White House adviser Jared Kushner to the meeting.

But the information isn’t just troubling because it suggests the Trump campaign sought out the help of Russians to win the presidency. It also contradicts a number of claims made by the White House, the campaign and Trump Jr. himself — claims made as recently as this weekend. For an administration and campaign that have repeatedly denied contact with Russians and had their denials blow up in their faces, it’s yet another dubious chapter.

Let’s recap all the times they suggested this kind of thing never happened…

From <Washington Post>

Click through for a long list of denials and lies from the inner circle of the Trump Reich.

MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts covered the story

Now the latest Republican lie to deflect guilt is the claim that the Russian’s pulled a bait and switch. They say that the Russian lawyer had no information, so there could have been no collusion.

According to Raw Story, Keith Olbermann found the very first tweet (6/9/2016) from the Twit that tweets after Manafart, Kushner, and Trump, Jr. met with Veselnitskaya. Trump tweeted to Hillary, "where are your 33,000 emails that you deleted." Keith has not posted a Resistance video recently, but I can’t wait to see this one.

In short, Trump began using the information obtained from Russia immediately, making it clear that he was a willing participant. That smoking gun is still loaded.

RESIST!!

Open Thread – 7/10/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:29 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 102017

I spent a lot of this morning getting prescriptions squared away and trying to deal with a potential conflict. I think Allison’s semi-annual eye evaluation for cancer would put too much stress on my eye too soon after Christine does the cataract surgery. And I’m trying to schedule the cataract surgery for the other eye. I missed my morning rest and feel tired.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:21 (average 6:12). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Unlisted MoveOn Video): The Resistance is Local

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve said this to people who are voting for pseudo-progressive spoilers with Republican funding and support, like Ralph Nader and Jill Stein, who also colluded with Russia, we could all retire on the proceeds. The time and place for progressive revolution to begin is years before an election at home, not in a national election for President with a no-win candidate. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: The video above [below], Chris Uhlmann reporting for Australia’s ABC on Donald Trump & the G20. There is little I can add to this.

I could not have said it better. AMEN! RESIST!!

From NY Times: After the nation’s worst mass shootings, in Newtown, Conn.; Aurora, Colo.; Orlando, Fla.; and Columbine High School in Colorado, gun control advocates rose to demand more rigorous laws: stricter background checks, limits on magazine capacities, bans on assault weapons and tougher controls on gun shows and online firearms markets — almost always to no avail.

But in the weeks after the June 14 shooting of Republicans at a congressional baseball practice, the response has had a twist: Conservative lawmakers, some of whom were nearly the victims of gun violence, have pressed to loosen gun controls.

Three bills introduced in the Republican-held House during the past two weeks would allow lawmakers to almost always carry a concealed weapon. A fourth would allow concealed carry permits obtained in other states to be recognized in the District of Columbia. Still another would eliminate federal controls on silencers.

What Ammosexual InsaniTEA! People too incompetent to legislate (Congressional Republicans) are too incompetent to carry concealed weapons. In Texas, legal residence, 18 years of age, and no felony convictions are the only requirements for a concealed carry permit. Do we really want Washington DC flooded with Texan wing-nuts with hidden guns? And how is giving an Ammosexual assassin a silencer going to make us safer? RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0710Cartoon

Fuhrer on Course to Destroy Planet

Posted by TomCat at 12:57 pm Politics

Jul 092017

At the time when mother earth has never had a greater need for all her inhabitants to work together to minimize the effects of global climate change, Donald Trump, Resident of the United States and Fuhrer of the Republican Reich is doing everything in his power to destroy the earth.

A gathering of global economic powers concluded on Saturday with the United States standing alone as the sole country that declined to sign onto a communique addressing climate policy issues — confirming fears that, in the Trump era, the G20 will devolve into the G19 without the United States.

The 19 other members of the G20 all reaffirmed their commitment to combating climate change through the Paris climate agreement, which the United States withdrew from earlier this year, ignoring the position of the scientific community and nearly every other country in the world.

The joint summit statement acknowledges the United States’ decision to pull out of the agreement, but notes the rest of the countries at the summit still believe “the Paris Agreement is irreversible” and remain committed to doing their part to slow the effects of global warming.

From <Think Progress>
Photo Credit: Salon.com

Kudos to 18 the 19 nations who agreed to stay the course. I omit Russia, because were it not for their attack against our election, we would not have the Fuhrer and would not have withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement.

When we were negotiating the agreement, I suggested that the other nations of the world should boycott the goods and services of any nation that refused to comply. My compassion will not allow me to call for one now, knowing the suffering it would bring to my fellow citizens, most of whom did not even vote for this tyrant, in the midst of Republican class warfare, but were it to happen, I’m not so hypocritical that I would call it unjustified.

We must remove the Fuhrer and the entire Republican Rectum Reich from power.

RESIST!!

Open Thread – 7/9/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:57 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 092017

Thank goodness it’s a Wendy day. Until she gets here, my mama had a word for anyone who gets downwind of this TomCat: nauseous! I’m sure I will not have time to finish today’s articles, before she arrives to de-stink me, and help with several chores, including the dreaded task. I have a busy week ahead. Later: Wendy just left. We did all the chores. I smell much better now.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:38 (average 4:22). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Washington Post: A Ku Klux Klan chapter holding a rally in downtown Charlottesville on Saturday afternoon says it expects 80 to 100 members and supporters to take part in the protest and that most will have guns with them.

“It’s an open-carry state, so our members will be armed,” said James Moore, a member of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which is headquartered in Pelham, N.C., near the Virginia border. Moore said that if members are attacked, they will defend themselves.

The KKK is protesting the Charlottesville City Council’s decision this year to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a public park and rename that park. Once called Lee Park, it is now Emancipation Park. A court injunction has halted the statue’s removal until a November hearing.

Pray that they kill nobody. Immediately after the rally, the Ammosexual racists could reconvene as a meeting of the North Carolina RNC. RESIST!!

From DC Report: What’s missing this morning from the front pages of four of America’s Big Five newspapers—The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today—exposes some of the reasons we felt the need after the November election to create DCReport.

Not one of America’s four most influential newspapers quoted the most crucial words spoken by Rex Tillerson, our country’s Secretary of State, about the private meeting Friday in Hamburg between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The Los Angeles Times gave the keywords only passing mention.

Tillerson said Trump began the meeting with Putin “by raising the concerns of the American people regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election.”

Notice that Trump didn’t say he was concerned. Trump didn’t say that the administration was concerned. He didn’t even say that the United States of America was concerned.

Trump expressed no official concern, based on what Tillerson said. None.

I agree with David Cay Johnston. To The best of my knowledge, only one other major news organization did make that distinction, MSNBC in the clip I shared yesterday. That’s too much media bias. RESIST!!

From Alternet: The world was aghast as a first daughter sat in for her father at the Group of 20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany. Ivanka Trump took her father’s seat among world leaders, sitting directly between Chinese President Xi Jinping and British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Republican nepotism has now reached the penultimate extreme. Will he let her try the nuclear football next? RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Trump Played His Part

Posted by TomCat at 1:30 pm Politics

Jul 082017

Whenever world leaders meet, there are invariably stenographers and/or a video recording system in the room to preserve an accurate record of what takes place in the meeting. However, when Putin met with Trump the two agreed in advance to collude on the absence of such a record. They both wanted a situation in which each side could tell their separate tales of what happened, neither of which was true.

After months of questioning whether Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election, President Donald Trump raised the explosive topic Friday in his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the men had a “robust and lengthy exchange” on the question of Russian meddling. But Putin denied any involvement, Tillerson said, adding that the Russians had asked for proof that they were to blame for the campaign of cyberattacks—and the secretary of state stressed the need for the two countries to “move forward.”

“It’s not clear to me that we will ever come to some agreed-upon resolution,” said Tillerson, who joined the Trump-Putin meeting along with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. He added that improving the U.S.-Russia relationship is “too important not to find a way forward.”

But the Associated Press reported that Lavrov said after the meeting that Trump had accepted Putin’s assurances that the Kremlin had not sought to interfere in the 2016 election—and Putin himself didn’t mention it at all in a brief comment as he moved to his next event, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: “I had a very long conversation with the President of the United States. Many issues have piled up: Ukraine, Syria, other problems, some bilateral issues, and once again the fight against terrorism and security measures.”

The back-and-forth did little to lift the cloud that’s hung over Trump since he took office in January—or to clarify whether Trump’s desire for a better relationship with Putin, whom he praised effusively on the campaign trail, will be realized…

From <Politico>

In fact, Putin got everything he wanted, and Trump got only the assertion by Rex Tillerson, winner of Russia’s Man of the Year Award, that Trump had pressed the issue.

Experts David Filipov, Julianne Smith, and Michael McFaul joined Ari Melber to agree that the meeting was a victory for the Russians.

I do not doubt that Trump is smiling, only because Putin used lots of lube.

I see this as a very weak cooperative attempt on both sides to cover-up and move past an act of war against the US, and a Siberian candidate in the White House.

RESIST!!

Open Thread – 7/8/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:28 pm Open Thread, Personal, Plus, Politics

Jul 082017

After a two day absence, I’m back in the saddle again, and the heat returned with me. I have a busy week next week, so I’d like to rest as much as I can during the weekend. Please pardon my brevity.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:42 (average 5:01). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Newsweek: The first total solar eclipse to pass from the West Coast to the East Coast in almost a century will see parts of the U.S. plunged into darkness over the course of the day on August 21. With only a month to go, Newsweek spoke to Jay Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College, about what the eclipse is, what happens on the day—and what we can learn from the cross-coastal event.

0708solar-eclipse

Click through for more information and a video. Portland is in the path of totality. When Republicans deny that the eclipse is happening, RESIST!!

From NY Times: For years the United States was the dominant force and set the agenda at the annual gathering of the leaders of the world’s largest economies.

But on Friday, when President Trump met with other leaders at the Group of 20 conference, he found the United States isolated on everything from trade to climate change, and faced with the prospect of the group’s issuing a statement on Saturday that lays bare how the United States stands alone.

We can only hope that this is a temporary condition, and that we resolve it by removing the Fuhrer And his Republican Rectum Reich from power. RESIST!!

From The Last Word: GOP, White House plot ‘urgent blitz’ for repeal votes

The Trump White House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are planning a "final, urgent blitz" to persuade GOP senators to repeal and replace Obamacare, the Washington Post reports. Ari Melber discusses with Indira Lakshmanan and Joan Walsh.

I wonder what the TRUS pervert is getting for his part in this. I told you RepubliCare would be back. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0708Cartoon

Open Thread – 7/7/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:47 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 072017

I just returned from my doctor’s appointment and ate lunch. The report was a good. I’m recovering on or ahead of schedule, anf I have no need to go back, unless I have trouble. The only down side, is that I’m extremely tired. I understand that Putin’s pervert and Putin agreed to cooperate in cyber security. Isn’t that what they’ve been doing all along? I’m too pooped to research it now, but I shall cover the meeting tomorrow, as I expect to be back in the saddle then.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:45 (average 4:44). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Funny or Die Channel): The Miracles of Jesus Under Trumpcare

Dang! Bought Bitch Mitch is Republican Supply-side Jesus?!!? RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is being dispatched to Pyongyang in what the White House is calling a high-stakes mission to reverse North Korea’s years of progress in math and science.

DeVos, who is expected to arrive in Pyongyang later this week, plans to throw a monkey wrench in North Korea’s swiftly advancing nuclear program by replacing its current system of training scientists with a dizzying array of vouchers, sources said.

According to the White House, it is hoped that, after a few weeks in North Korea, DeVos will succeed in returning that nation’s nuclear program to pre-1970 levels.

At a press briefing announcing the mission, the White House deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, called DeVos “our nation’s best bet to stop North Korea.”

Dang Andy! Sarah Upchuckabee is right!! RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Kelly Macias wrote a sobering piece, Politics in Texas provide insight into how the rest of the nation can go and it’s downright scary, that prompted a question in my mind. What do Republicans run on versus what they are doing when in office? Further, I asked, what are Democrats running to do if they were to win?

With those questions in mind, I did some digging, checking out every representative’s campaign web page and identifying the 3 top issues each candidate raises. I looked at all 150 seats and discovered some interesting and sobering things. Before I share my findings, let’s take a quick look at the makeup of the Texas House of Representatives.

A quick disclaimer; I am not a Texan, which, for purposes of this exercise, I think will prove useful since I have no preconceived notion of any of the players involved. This allowed me to remain somewhat neutral as I reviewed their campaign information.

THE TEXAS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OVERVIEW

Number of Representatives = 150
Republican-held seats = 95 (63%)
Democratic-held seats = 55 (37%)
Seats not contested by Democrats in the last cycle = 60 (40%)
Seats Republicans needed to win to secure majority = 16 (11%)
Constituents per House District = 167,637
Constituents represented by Democrats = 9,220,035
Constituents Democrats DID NOT SEEK to represent = 10,058,220

Now that’s what I call pathetic! If you don’t compete, you can’t win! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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