Politics Plus

I slept poorly last night, so I feel very sleepy today.  Lona has affected me with her keyboard gymnastics.  TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:09 (average 4:57).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Democrats Announce Plans For Early Debates In 2020 Campaign

After watching the ridiculous sham of the Republican debates in Campaign 2016, I wondered how Democrats would handle an even larger field. I like this plan. Being far more fair well help us RESIST!!

From NY Times: President Trump declared a national emergency at the border on Friday to access billions of dollars to build a border wall that Congress refused to give him, transforming a highly charged policy dispute into a fundamental confrontation over separation of powers.

In a televised announcement in the Rose Garden, Mr. Trump said he would sign the declaration to protect the country from the flow of drugs, criminals and illegal immigrants coming across the border from Mexico, which he characterized as a profound threat to national security.

“We’re going to confront the national security crisis on our southern border and we’re going to do it one way or the other,” he said. “It’s an invasion,” he added. “We have an invasion of drugs and criminals coming into our country.”

The declaration will enable Mr. Trump to divert $3.6 billion budgeted for military construction projects to the border wall, White House officials said. Mr. Trump will also use more traditional presidential budgetary discretion to tap $2.5 billion from counternarcotics programs and $600 million from a Treasury Department asset forfeiture fund.

That’s a fake national emergency declared by a real national pariah. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Stating that he expected the property to be “bankrupt and vacant within the next two years,” Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, announced on Thursday that the Mar-a-Lago club, in Palm Beach, Florida, would be the site of Amazon’s second headquarters.

Bezos said that Mar-a-Lago was chosen from a list of soon-to-be-bankrupt properties, including the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, Trump Turnberry, and the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The Amazon C.E.O. said that, after Amazon acquires Mar-a-Lago, the company will start working around the clock to remove the property’s hideous décor, which he fears could prove distracting to warehouse employees.

Wow Andy! What a great idea! RESIST!!

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It’s a very busy day here at the CatBox.  The Windows Update took half an hour.  When Store to Door delivers my groceries, I’ll have to put them away.  Later WWWendy is coming to de-stink that vile TomCat and help with chores.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:04 (average 4:53).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Late Show Channel): ‘(Trump’s Rally In) El Paso’ By Marty Robbins

Think about the way the original song ended. That would also work for Putin’s Pervertivo Bandito. 😉  RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Shameless Donald Trump Favor For Donor Threatens To Normalize Corruption (18:24)

And remember this. Bob Murray is also the Republican corporate criminal that murdered six miners in Utah when he refused to obey safety regulations in his Crandall Canyon coal mine. RESIST!!

From NY Times: The tax preparers at H&R Block had to take a new class before their busy season started this year: empathy training.

They listened to a mock exchange between an employee and a customer whose refund would not just shrink but disappear. The fictitious client had received a $1,500 refund last year, but this year would owe $575.

The playacting was prescient. The tax overhaul that took effect last year promised relief, but now that returns are being filed, some people are baffled. They’re getting smaller refunds — or sometimes having to write a check — even though nothing in their situation seems to have changed.

The average refund among early filers was down 8.4 percent, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

If you are not a millionaire, and if you actually thought that the Republican Tax Scam would do something for YOU, bend over, grab your ankles, and say BAAA-A-A-A-A-A!! RESIST!!

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It’s another cold day here in the CatBox, but upgraded to Winter Storm Watch from Winter Storm Warning.  It’s a slow day for news, but I found material for you.  Kudos to the Denver teachers.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:37 (average 5:20).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): FIFTY WAYS TO LEAVE A DONOR – Parody

Thanks Don. Corporate and billionaire donations come with no strings. The Pope is not Catholic. And bears never, ever shit in the woods. (Don replied, “And surfers never pee in the ocean.” I responded, Only when standing on surfboards.”) RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Amy Klobuchar throws her hat in the 2020 ring

If she gets the nomination, I’ll support her, but there are more progressive, less corporatist, candidates I prefer. RESIST!!

From Washington Post:  The last government shutdown may have ended just a few weeks ago, but odds are escalating that another one is just around the corner. With negotiators skeptical that a deal can be struck before Tuesday, it looks as if another shutdown will begin Friday night. So Republicans are going back to scaremongering about violent immigrants.

President Trump set the tone early Sunday morning, tweeting [traitor delinked] that Democrats “want a cap on convicted violent felons to be held in detention!” Republicans on the Sunday talk shows echoed him: “How in the world after that speech does he sign a bill that would reduce the bed spaces available for violent offenders?” asked Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” referring to Trump’s State of the Union address. “We got some problems with the Democrats dealing with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], that is detaining criminals that come into the U.S. and they want a cap on them, we don’t want a cap on that,” said Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) on “Fox News Sunday.”

“Protections for violent offenders” sure sounds like an odd stance for a political party to take. So it should be no surprise that it’s not accurate. Yes, Democrats want to cap the number of unauthorized immigrants that ICE can detain at any given time. But the proposed cap — 16,500 — matches the level of detentions inside the United States in recent years. By capping the number, Democrats want ICE to focus on violent illegal immigrants, not waste resources arresting a mother in San Diego in front of her family or holding parents separated from their children.

So the Democratic ask isn’t for protection for “violent offenders.” And it is also quite small. Besides, why wouldn’t Democrats ask for something? Republicans are asking for money for a border wall and in exchange they will not shut the government down … again. Voters gave Democrats the House last fall — it seems only reasonable that they would want something to show for it.

Assuming you have heard just the Republican lies, as I had before researching the issue, you now know how to counter them. RESIST!!

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It’s still cold here in the CatBox, and we still have a Winter Storm Warning.  Tomorrow I may have no more than a Personal Update with no links messages.  WWWendy will be here to thaw the stinky, iced TomCat under hot water.  We have so much to get done, I’ll have little or no time for research and writing.  After hours of work, our transition to SSL is now complete.  The authentication and encryption our  SSL provide helps secure our content  and connections from attacks by the Republican Reich and their Russian allies.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:24 (average 5:55).  To do it, click here.  How did you do.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Ex-DOJ Official: Whitaker Testimony ‘An Embarrassment To The DOJ’

I have no doubt that evidence will surface that Shitaker lied under oath, He is an embarrassment to the country, not just the DOJ. RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Whitaker clashes with lawmaker over donations

What America needs to understand is that nobody can qualify for any high office in the Republican Reich without being thoroughly vetted to demonstrate long-term criminal history and intent. Shitaker personifies this truth. RESIST!!

From Alternet: After Justice Brett Kavanaugh was condemned on Thursday for declaring “war” on Roe v. Wade by dissenting against the Supreme Court’s decision to block a Louisiana anti-abortion law, reproductive rights groups quickly turned their ire toward Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) for casting the decisive vote to confirm the right-wing judge—and ramped up their efforts to oust her in 2020.

“Paging Senator Collins—this is on you,” UltraViolet declared on Twitter after the high court’s 5-4 decision.

A grassroots fundraising effort to unseat Collins after her decisive vote last year to confirm Kavanaugh has already raised millions of dollars, and the advocacy group Demand Justice announced in an email to supporters on Friday morning that it will run digital ads in Maine highlighting the judge’s dissent in the Louisiana case as yet another reason the Maine Republican should be ousted in 2020.

“Brett Kavanaugh has declared war on Roe, and Susan Collins is the one who made it possible,” Demand Justice director Brian Fallon said. “Even as it was obvious to everyone else that Kavanaugh was a partisan warrior committed to rolling back abortion rights, Collins defended her vote for him by promising that he would follow Supreme Court precedent. It only took four months for Kavanaugh to prove Collins’ promises were a sham.”

I could not agree more. We came close to defeating the nomination of Injustice Pervert Kava-Nazi. We failed when Collins betrayed her promise with the ridiculous excuse that he would protect women’s right to choose. RESIST!!

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