TomCat

Open Thread – 3/30/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:36 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 302017

I ran out of meds yesterday. Today some of the congestion and coughing has returned, so I called Megan’s office to see if they will refill my Prednisone prescription. My concern is that the coughing will exacerbate the muscular damage. I still have quite a bit of pain in my ribs, and want to keep it tolerable. Tomorrow morning I have a home visit coming from the agency that pays for around 20% of the care I get from Wendy. I am more disabled than I was a year ago, because of my eyes, so I’m not worried about losing it, until Republican budget cuts reach the state level. Then on Saturday, Carrie will be here filling in for Wendy, instead of Sunday, so my uploads will be abbreviated until Sunday. I’ve decided not to do a Monthly Report for March. First we do not have a full month’s data. Second, after everything, I don’t have enough gas left in my tank to design as new report format for our Analytics.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:20 (average 5:04). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Could Donald Trump Pass a Sanity Test? | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

Why? In a single word, the Lemon Lunatic is a Republican. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Representative Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters on Wednesday that he just spent several days alone in his apartment holding hearings on President Donald J. Trump’s ties to Russia and that those hearings “went really great.”

“Having concluded several days of hearings on my own in my apartment, I am one hundred per cent satisfied that the President had no involvement with the Russians,” Nunes said. “Now it’s time to move on.”

While Nunes would not reveal who testified at the hearings in his apartment, he called their testimony “credible and productive.”

Andy, if he said that, it would not surprise me at all. RESIST!!

From The Rachel Maddow Show: Schiff presses for public hearing for Yates

Congressman Adam Schiff, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, talks with Rachel Maddow about resistance by Chairman Devin Nunes to hear from former acting Attorney General Sally Yates and the priorities of Democrats on the committee.

I agree with him. The investigation should also contain looking at the quid pro quo, first by the Trump campaign and now by the Trump Reich to compensate Russia for their cooperation. I also think Sally Yates testimony may be critical. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Republicans Going Nuclear on Whoresuch?

Posted by TomCat at 1:28 pm Politics

Mar 292017

For the record, I am a long term opponent of the filibuster that requires 60 votes for cloture and as long term proponent of the Nuclear Option. I even coined the term, "Nuke the Filibastards" years ago. Those views have not changed, and early in the Obama administration, I predicted that the party that changed it would have a huge advantage. If the Nevada Leg Hound, Harry Reid, did not consign the 60 vote requirement for cloture to the trashcan of history, Republicans would do so if they ever got the chance, as it appears they are about to do. If Reid and the Democrats had done so then, we would have gotten the Public Option, Glass Steagall, and a robust stimulus. Republicans could not have sabotaged the nation. Trump would not be. Now, a traitor that may not even survive politically until the midterms will get to pack SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD) with Whoresuch, a fascist so extreme that he makes Scalia look liberal, to oppose our Constitution for life.

Sens. Roger E. Wicker (R-Miss.) and Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) are not usually partisan firebrands, particularly on presidential appointments.

Back in 2013, Wicker helped temporarily defuse a showdown over Republican filibusters of President Barack Obama’s nominees to the judiciary and agencies. More than a decade ago, Carper voted to confirm President George W. Bush’s first Supreme Court nominee and opposed Democratic efforts to filibuster the other.

Now, with about 10 days left in the showdown over President Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, both Wicker and Carper have turned dour in their outlook for what the battle means for the Senate — and the country.

Wicker is all but certain that Democrats have enough votes to block Gorsuch’s confirmation next week with a filibuster — by demanding a procedural step that takes 60 votes to clear. That, in turn, probably would prompt the Republicans to change the rules unilaterally to allow Gorsuch’s confirmation, and all other Supreme Court picks thereafter, by a simple majority.

“I think it’s a done deal,” Wicker said Tuesday. “That’s the way it’s headed.”

Carper agreed, explaining that he would rather see Republicans eliminate supermajority thresholds for Supreme Court nominees, further poisoning the already toxic atmosphere in Washington, than do anything to support Gorsuch.

From <Washington Post>

Graphic Credit: Left over Rights

It does not often happen that I agree with Carper, but I do now. I still fully believe in elimination the filibuster an d refuse to be a hypocrite pretending that I don’t. I just wish we had a way to delay that change.

RESIST!!

Open Thread – 3/29/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:26 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 292017

I’m writing late to be sure to be up for my grocery delivery from Store to Door. Depending on which driver comes, it could be any time between Noon and 3:30 PM. Wendy landed in Denver last night and is driving to Pueblo today. Her sister, Carrie, will come on Saturday to fill in for her, and I’ll get her back a week from today. I run out of meds today so tomorrow we’ll find out how much healing and how much symptom masking has taken place.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:47 (average 4:18). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Here’s How This Will End for Trump | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

I pray for all his ends but the last, In March 2015, had you told me that Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten would occupy the White House, albeit intermittently, I would have said that your shit level had turned your eyes brown. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: In a fiercely defiant statement on Tuesday, the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, denied that any member of the White House staff has ever worked “in any way, shape, or form” for the benefit of the United States.

Angrily addressing the press corps, Spicer said that any allegations that members of the Trump Administration have ever acted in concert or collusion with the United States are “unequivocally false.”

“At no time during the transition or afterward did any member of the Trump team have meetings, conversations, or any other contacts that furthered the interests of the United States of America,” Spicer said. “In the thousands of communications that took place, the United States never came up even once.”

Dang, Andy!! We already knew that!! RESIST!!

From NY Times: On Tuesday afternoon, while most people were focused on the latest news from the House Intelligence Committee, the House quietly voted to undo rules that keep internet service providers — the companies like Comcast, Verizon and Charter that you pay for online access — from selling your personal information.

The Senate already approved the bill, on a party-line vote, last week, which means that in the coming days President Trump will be able to sign legislation that will strike a significant blow against online privacy protection.

The bill not only gives cable companies and wireless providers free rein to do what they like with your browsing history, shopping habits, your location and other information gleaned from your online activity, but it would also prevent the Federal Communications Commission from ever again establishing similar consumer privacy protections.

That is an intolerable violation of our First and Fourth Amendment rights. I recommend using anonymous Domain Name Servers (DNS), instead of the ones provided by your ISP. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

And I thought progressives had finally won.

Open Thread – 3/28/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:06 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 282017

Wendy is on the way now and will be here, before I can finish this. I slept very well last night for the first time in weeks, but I want to keep it light to avoid stressing myself, so this is today’s only article.

Wendy is gone, and I took time out to write a letter to the Parole Board for one of my guys for whom I do prison volunteer work. I’ve known him for almost 30 years, and he is the one most deserving of release.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:03 (average 4:59). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Which of Trump’s Cronies Will Flip on Him First? | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

And I called Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten the Tangerine Traitor, even before his inauguration. RESIST!!

From NY Times: The Trump administration, signaling its intent to toughen enforcement of immigration laws across the country, threatened on Monday to withhold or revoke law enforcement funding from states, cities and localities that block the police or sheriffs from telling federal authorities about undocumented immigrants in their custody.

In an announcement at the White House, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said state and local governments seeking certain law enforcement grants would have to certify that they were complying with a law that bars any official from withholding information from the Department of Homeland Security about a person’s immigration status. Those that are violating the policy could see such grants clawed back, he said.

What Hooded Beauregard (R-KKK) is not telling us is that that Republicans already plan to strip federal funding from state and local programming anyway. RESIST!!

From Think Progress: Nationally, clean energy jobs outnumber fossil fuel jobs by more than 2.5 to 1, according to a new Sierra Club analysis of Department of Energy jobs data. And when it comes to coal and gas — two sectors President Donald Trump has promised to bolster through his upcoming executive order on energy regulation — clean energy jobs outnumber jobs dealing with those two fossil fuels by 5 to 1.

“Right now, clean energy jobs already overwhelm dirty fuels in nearly every state across America, and that growth is only going to continue as clean energy keeps getting more affordable and accessible by the day,” Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said in a statement. “These facts make it clear that Donald Trump is attacking clean energy jobs purely in order to boost the profits of fossil fuel billionaires.”

By hamstringing clean energy to subsidize fossil fuel, the Peach Plutocrat is ensuring Americand will have fewer jobs and less energy independence. But it does serve the interests of Gazprom. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Another Government Shutdown?

Posted by TomCat at 11:57 am Politics

Mar 272017

How many of you remember the last time Republicans shut down the government in 2013. The problem then was that TEAbaggers believed that government shutdown was a good idea. Boehner caved in and Obama negotiated a settlement in which almost all House Democrats joined with a minority of Republicans to reinstate government services, but not before we had lost our top credit rating, so Republicans cost Americans $millions. The same TEAbaggers are still there. Their beliefs have not changed. On 4/29 government is scheduled to shut down again. This time, instead of the President who cared and was a skillful negotiator, we will have a resident, who doesn’t even care, unless it can be pussy grabbed, speaks Russian, or has the Trump company logo.

Republicans are having trouble realizing that “as the heads of the government, they actually [have] to do something beyond angrily shaking their fists at the world,” Salon’s Matthew Sheffield has pointed out. That’s a lesson that may come too late for GOP, as a government shutdown is looming.

A shutdown is “more likely than not,” Axios reported on Monday, pointing to April 29 as the day that the government will cease its routine functions after the last continuing resolution on funding expires. The last time the government shut down was in 2013, an event that lasted for two weeks. But that shutdown was a political maneuver, designed by Republicans who vehemently opposed former President Barack Obama’s immigration policies. But this isn’t 2013, and the Republicans aren’t against anything. They just have an inability to govern.

“There are some folks in the Republican House caucus who have yet to make the pivot from complaining to governing,” Republican pollster Whit Ayres recently told the Associated Press. “And this is a White House controlled by a politician who is not really trying to lead a party.”…

From <Salon.com>

We can only hope that the damage they will do will be less than the benefits of convincing America to nullify the Republican Party. God help us!

RESIST!!

Open Thread – 3/27/2017

Posted by TomCat at 11:56 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 272017

I’m still way south of healthy, but I want to try to post normally for a day. I know I won’t be able to do so tomorrow, because Wendy is coming a day and a half early to de-stink the TomCat, before she goes to Colorado. Wednesday is up in the air, as it’s a grocery delivery day. The pain is still quite severe, but it hurts as much or more in bed, as it does here.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:35 (average 6:15). To do it, click here. How did they do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Full Frontal Channel): Trump’s Hard Power Budget | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee

I’m four days late with this one, but late Sam is better than no Sam. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Donald Trump’s Great Health Care Negotiating

Barf Bag Alert!!

The art of the deal? I think he’s about the art of the steal!! RESIST!!

From Washington Post: REP. PETER DEFAZIO (D-Ore.) has a long record of clever legislative proposals for financing infrastructure. His latest, announced Wednesday, is to increase the federal gas tax by up to 1.5 cents per year, with proceeds going to pay interest on an annual surface transportation bond issue of $17 billion through 2030. It would be the first hike in the gas tax, currently 18.4 cents per gallon, since 1993. The resulting dollars would pay for a 30 percent increase in spending from the Highway Trust Fund, above what’s currently planned.

Oregon leads the way. Of course it’s too rational for Republicans to pass. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Personal Update – 3/26/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:05 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 262017

Wendy and her sister will be arriving in a few minutes. I will finish and post this after they leave. I guess the difference in how I feel is that severe intolerable pain has backed off to become severe barely tolerable pain. I managed four hours sleep last night.

Wendy and Carrie have come and gone. If feels good to be clean again. My schedule will be skewed this week, but resting, healing, cleaning and getting my food are the only things on it.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:41 (average 4:17). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Take:

No Supreme Court pick for Trump

The Reich on the right, the Republican Reich, is wrong. The Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Shame!

Open Thread – 3/25/2017

Posted by TomCat at 9:58 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 252017

Yesterday my doctor gave me Prednisone and too little Oxycodone. I’m still quite ill, but the Prednisone seems to be helping. I slept six hours last night. I’m enclosing video’s today, because tomorrow is a Wendy day, and she is bringing her sister. Wendy will be in Colorado next weekend to help a life-long friend move to Portland. Her sister will be filling in for her then, and tomorrow we teach her how, so I’ll be busy.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:07 (average 5:02). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes: The Truth Of Trump’s “I Alone Can Fix It” Canard | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

The magic stone under the Fuhrer’s skin is a turd. His followers are deplorable, not because they are evil, but because they are so gullible that they think and do what they are told. For years, I have called that Republican trait, InsaniTEA. RESIST!!

Monologue: Repeal and Disgrace | Real Time with Bill Maher

I have been quite irritated by the flood of SPAM from left wing organizations taking credit for defeating RepubliCare and telling me to give them money because of it. What shameless BS! Republicans defeated it themselves. RESIST!!

New Rule: Trump and the Long Con | Real Time with Bill Maher

Spot on! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0325Cartoon

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