OGIM!! (Oh God, it’s Monday!!) I’m off to see Christine, my Ophthalmologist, to devise a plan for restoring my vision. When I get home, I’ll be fully dilated and even blinder than I already am, so I will complete this now. When I upload it, you will know that I have arrived safely. I should be able to post normally tomorrow.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:56 (average 5:02). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Cartoon:
Republicans have a love hate relationship with fear, as they seen to vacillate between spreading it to control deplorable sheeple and cowering it, lime the way Republican Senators and Reps are now hiding from their constituents. From 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. came a mighty quack, the fearful sound of Fuhrer Drumphenfarten ducking the White House Correspondents Dinner.
No U.S. President has missed the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner since 1981. But one day after major news outlets were banned from a briefing with Press Secretary Sean Spicer, President Donald Trump announced that he’s breaking the 36-year streak.
The dinner, which dates back to 1921, is a time for the president and press to exchange jokes about one another, while reaffirming the important role that news outlets play in a democracy. On Saturday afternoon, Trump tweeted that he’s skipping the annual event.
I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!
Ronald Reagan was the last person to miss the event, but he only did so because he was recovering from an assassination attempt. Trump offered no explanation as to why he’s skipping the dinner, which is scheduled for April 29. But the decision is unsurprising given Trump’s hostility towards the press.
Just one day before Trump’s announcement, Press Secretary Sean Spicer prohibited CNN, the New York Times, BuzzFeed, and Politico from attending his daily briefing. He reportedly handpicked the news outlets allowed to attend, including well-known conservative organizations like Fox News, Breitbart, and the Washington Times. The Associated Press and Time decided to boycott in solidarity with the banned reporters…
From <Think Progress>
Awww… the poor widdle pervert is afwaid those mean old weporters will pick in him! What a vile coward! Fortunately there is good news for that day, which I will share again.
Samantha Bee, host of TBS’ Full Frontal, announced on Monday that she will host an alternative event to the official one in Washington D.C. this spring. "Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” as it is being called, will be held on April 29th, the same night the White House Correspondents’ Association has told members to “save the date” for its event.
"The evening is sure to bring plenty of surprises, music, food, and laughter—and if you’re not careful you just might learn something. Specifically, you’ll learn how screwed we’d be without a free press,” Bee said in a statement about the event, which will serve as a benefit for the Committee to Protect Journalists. "We’re really doing this. This is not a joke,” she added.
In a conference call with reporters Monday morning, Bee confirmed that she has never been invited to host an official White House Correspondents’ Dinner and did not anticipate that she would be getting an invite this year given the nature of her comedy about President Trump…
From <The Daily Beast>
Wendy just left. She sprayed and polished the stinky TomCat, applied some bait to keep the building’s roach problem out of here, did some light housework, fed me the numbers for financial record keeping, and enjoyed French toast for lunch. Tomorrow please expect no more than a Personal Update. I have an appointment with Christine, my Ophthalmologist, to plan the procedures needed to remove my cataracts and correct the droop in my eyelids. She will be dilating me fully, so I will be even blinder for the rest5 of the day.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:46 (average 5:25). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From KP Daily Funnies: Funny or Die: Bathroom Cop
Doesn’t that "cop" look like Sean Spicer, aka Shitty Spice? RESIST!!
FRom Daily Kos: A group of law professors from around the country has filed a professional misconduct complaint against White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, a graduate of George Washington University Law School who was admitted to the D.C. Bar in1995.
The letter, filed with the office that handles misconduct by members of the D.C. Bar, said Conway should be sanctioned for violating government ethics rules and “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation,” the letter says.
The 15 professors, who specialize in legal ethics, cite several incidents,including a television interview in which Conway made the “false statement that President Barack Obama had ‘banned’ Iraqi refugees from coming into the United States for six months following the ‘Bowling Green Massacre,’ ” and the use of her position to endorse Ivanka Trump products.
“We do not file this complaint lightly,” the professors said in their filing. “We believe that, at one time, Ms. Conway, understood her ethical responsibilities as a lawyer and abided by them. But she is currently acting in a way that brings shame upon the legal profession. [emphasis original]
Cool! Will that bring Kellyanne Consensual out of hiding? RESIST!!
From NY Times: Former Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee on Saturday, narrowly defeating Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota to take the helm of a still-divided party stunned by President Trump’s victory but hopeful that it can ride the backlash against his presidency to revival.
The balloting, which carried a measure of suspense not seen in the party in decades, revealed that Democrats have yet to heal the wounds from last year’s presidential primary campaign. Mr. Perez, buoyed by activists most loyal to former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, won with 235 votes out of 435 cast on the second ballot.
I don’t dislike Tom Perez, who is anything but a DINO. I just prefer Keith Ellison. Also, Perez immediately made Keith his Deputy Director, confirming that progressives will have an influential voice, and that the days of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, when progressives were ignored, are over. Therefore, I’ll take a wait and see attitude. He wants us to RESIST!!
Cartoon:
It’s the Fartfuhrer of Fitzwalkerstan!
Once again, it's time for some relief,courtesy of Bill Maher. Here are two clips from last night's show.
Issa lied. He staged a demonstration of supporters at his office. Decent people got wind of it and counter-protested, but virtually all of Issa's interaction with "demonstrators" was really with supporters. He does sound somewhat reasonable, but I know he will not follow through on any of the good things he said, especially about investigating Trump. How do I know? Darrell Issa Issa assa and Darrell Issa turd!
He does make a really excellent point. I can count the "news" shows worth watching on one hand with fingers left over.
Once again, I’m getting a late start, because other tasks tied up my morning, so I’ll be brief.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:33 (average 4:55). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube: Trump Supporters Wave Russian Flags At CPAC
This was so embarrassing that Republicans are claiming that progressives handed out the flags as a dirty trick. I presume they are lying, as usual, but if true, they proved that hundreds of Putin’s Pervert’s supposedly most knowledgeable supporters, CPUKE attendees, are so stupid that they waved Russian flags during an investigation or the Reich without knowing it. RESIST!!
From The New Yorker: Saying “Enough is enough,” Republican senators on Friday angrily accused their constituents of “intentionally and opportunistically” using recent town-hall meetings as vehicles to express themselves.
One of the angriest Republicans, Senator Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, said he was “disgusted and offended” by the “flagrant exercise of freedom of speech” he witnessed at his town hall.
“The spectacle of people standing up, asking their elected representatives questions, and expecting them to answer is the most disgraceful thing I’ve ever experienced,” Cotton said. “This will not stand.”
Cotton accused “outside agitators” of sending voters to the town halls “to cynically exploit an obscure provision in the Constitution called the First Amendment.”
Where is the satire, Andy? RESIST!!
From The Rachel Maddow Show: Trump admin spikes intel report that undercuts travel ban
Rachel Maddow reports on a leaked DHS Intelligence report that finds that Donald Trump’s focus on countries in his Muslim ban is not a reliable way of targeting terrorists.
The Fuhrer tried to do what Crawford Caligula did, fix the intelligence around the policy. When it didn’t work, they tried to hide the real findings. Then came the wonderful leak of those findings. Now the Fuhrer likes folks to take a leak in him, but not that kind. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
The Fuhrer doesn’t!
By rule, the White House may not interfere with DOJ investigations, including those conducted by the FBI. This is especially true if the investigation involves the Resident, given the absence of a President, or any of his staff or associates. Therefore, it’s most inappropriate that Trump’s Chief of Staff, Rancid Reince Priebus, tried to interfere with the FBI’s investigation of the many documented contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russian Intelligence.
Last week the New York Times reported that members of Donald Trump’s campaign staff "had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election. The White House vigorously denies this, and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus went on TV to knock down the story. That’s fine. But it turns out Priebus did more than that. According to CNN, Priebus asked the FBI to tell reporters that there was nothing to the story:
The discussions between the White House and the bureau began with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe1 and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on the sidelines of a separate White House meeting the day after the stories were published, according to a U.S. law enforcement official.
….[A] White House official said that Priebus later reached out again to McCabe and to FBI Director James Comey asking for the FBI to at least talk to reporters on background to dispute the stories.2 A law enforcement official says McCabe didn’t discuss aspects of the case but wouldn’t say exactly what McCabe told Priebus.
Comey rejected the request for the FBI to comment on the stories, according to sources, because the alleged communications between Trump associates and Russians known to US intelligence are the subject of an ongoing investigation.
I wonder if anyone in the Trump White House even understands how inappropriate this is?… [emphasis added]
from <Mother Jones>
Mother has much more. Click through. to answer the author’s last question, I have no doubt that Priebus knows how inappropriate it is. Unlike many in the Republican Reich, he is no newcomer to Washington. Rancid Reince was head of the RNC from 2011 until he graduated to wiping Bannon’s butt, as the Fuhrer’s chief of staff, this year.
Chris Hayes covered the story well.
I agree. Rancid Reince must be fired.
I’m struggling through another very busy day. It’s not so much that I have more to do than I did a year ago, as it is that my vision makes everything I do take much longer.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:53 (average 4:58). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (GQ Channel): Donald Trump Must Go | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann
I’ve never seen anyone present evidence so much like a machine gun. I’ll summarize in two words. Amen!! RESIST!!
From Politico: House Republicans next week plan to derail a Democratic resolution that would have forced disclosure of President Donald Trump’s potential ties with Russia and any possible business conflicts of interest, according to multiple House sources.
Seeking to avoid a full House vote on the so-called “resolution of inquiry” — a roll call that would be particularly embarrassing and divisive for the right — Republicans will send proposal by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) to the House Judiciary Committee for a panel vote on Tuesday, two Democratic sources said. The GOP-controlled committee is expected to kill the resolution.
Without committee action, obscure parliamentary procedures would allow Democrats to call the resolution to the floor for a vote by the full House. But rejection by the Judiciary panel all but assures the measure will never see a floor vote.
Here is a list of House Judiciary Committee members. If one is from your state, please demand approval. RESIST!!
From NY Times: Reduced to their weakest state in a generation, Democratic Party leaders will gather in two cities this weekend to plot strategy and select a new national chairman with the daunting task of rebuilding the party’s depleted organization. But senior Democratic officials concede that the blueprint has already been chosen for them — by an incensed army of liberals demanding no less than total war against President Trump.
Immediately after the November election, Democrats were divided over how to handle Mr. Trump, with one camp favoring all-out confrontation and another backing a seemingly less risky approach of coaxing him to the center with offers of compromise.
Now, spurred by explosive protests and a torrent of angry phone calls and emails from constituents — and outraged themselves by Mr. Trump’s swift moves to enact a hard-line agenda — Democrats have all but cast aside any notion of conciliation with the White House. Instead, they are mimicking the Republican approach of the last eight years — the “party of no” — and wagering that brash obstruction will pay similar dividends.
To do otherwise would be suicidal. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
Most Republicans know that, whether through Russian intervention or laws to prevent qualified voters from voting, that they lose honest elections and therefore, must resort to dishonest tactics to win. Usually they make up lies about things like voter fraud to excuse their voter suppression, but once in a while they goof and admit the truth.
Montana’s Republican Party chairman has sounded the alarm against efforts to the conduct an all-mail ballot election to replace Congressman Ryan Zinke.
In an email to party members, Jeff Essmann warned Republicans the mail-in election would “give the Democrats an inherent advantage in close elections due to their ability to organize large numbers of unpaid college students and members of public employee unions to gather ballots by going door to door.”
At issue is state Senate Bill 503, which would require a mail ballot election this spring when Montanans are likely to vote to replace U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, a Republican nominated by President Donald Trump to be Interior secretary. The Senate is expected to vote on Zinke’s confirmation next week. A special election would follow within 85 to 100 days.
The warning evoked responses that Essmann, who is also a state House representative from Billings, is trying to suppress the vote…
From <The Billings Gazette>
Rachel Maddow covered he issue in two segments. In the first she provides background and introduces the issue.
In the second she discusses it with Democratic Governor Steve Bullock.
I have experienced Oregon’s vote by mail. I have nothing but praise for it. As long as Republicans fear honest elections, we may still reap benefits, when we
