Politics Plus

It’s a comfortable Friday the 13th, here at the CatBox, and I slept well last night.  A few more nights like that just might have me feeling fully feline.  Tomorrow I may have no more than an Open Thread.  I have a meeting tomorrow afternoon, and I’ll just have to see how much time I have.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:44 (average 4:30).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): TIPPY TOP – The Nuclear Posture Review

Barf Bag Alert!!

Fortunately, I don’t have to let Earl Blumenauer know, as I already know how he’ll vote, but I will call to thank him. RESIST!!

From Politico: President Donald Trump went into attack mode against James Comey on Friday morning, calling the former FBI director an “untruthful slime ball” and a “liar & leaker” after Comey suggested in an ABC News interview that it is "possible" that salacious allegations about the president and prostitutes in Moscow are true.

“James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR. Virtually everyone in Washington thought he should be fired for the terrible job he did-until he was, in fact, fired. He leaked CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be prosecuted. He lied to Congress under OATH,” Trump wrote in a statement that stretched across two Twitter posts. “He is a weak and untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible Director of the FBI. His handling of the Crooked Hillary Clinton case, and the events surrounding it, will go down as one of the worst ‘botch jobs’ of history. It was my great honor to fire James Comey!”

Rachel Maddow has a great clip on Comey’s book. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: In a fit of pique, David and Charles Koch have unceremoniously listed House Speaker Paul Ryan for sale on the auction site eBay.

The Kochs, who reportedly had purchased Ryan for a sum estimated in the tens of millions, now seem likely to lose their entire investment.

According to Ryan’s listing on the auction site, the Kochs set a five-hundred-dollar asking price for the used congressman, a figure that, in light of the tepid bidding for him, seems optimistic.

Dang Andy, Wouldn’t $1 be too high a price, let alone $50?  RESIST!!

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I’m waiting for Store to Door to deliver groceries, and tonight, Wendy comes to destink the TomCat, so guess what?  It’s also Republicosis day.  Now that is literally a pain in the ass!  ARGH!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today.s took me 4:52 (average 5:27).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Exclusive: Handwritten Notes Appear To Back James Comey Claims On Trump

We knew that notes like these existed, but by actually seeing them, we are watching history in the making. May that cloud rain on Trump’s Republican Parade. RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): John Bolton pushes out Bossert as homeland security adviser

I understand that Bossert was one of the last competent people in the West Wing. God knows that Boom Boom Bolton does not want anyone competent interfering with his war spiel. RESIST!!

From Bloomberg: The U.S. marijuana industry has a new spokesman: John Boehner.

The Republican former Speaker of the House has joined the advisory board of Acreage Holdings, a company that cultivates, processes and dispenses cannabis in 11 U.S. states. Boehner’s endorsement, after saying nine years ago he was “unalterably opposed” to legalization, could be considered a watershed event: Marijuana has gone mainstream.

“Over the last 10 or 15 years, the American people’s attitudes have changed dramatically,” he said in an interview. “I find myself in that same position.”

Dang!! Agent Orange must have figured out that it’s possible to mix it with booze and drink it!! RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Fox News Channel announced on Monday that it would decide what Donald J. Trump’s Syria response will be in the next forty-eight hours.

At a press conference at the network’s headquarters, Sean Hannity, Judge Jeanine Pirro, and the “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy said that, as the people who have been entrusted with the decision of whether to use military force, they were not taking their responsibility lightly.

“The U.S. military is the mightiest force in all the world,” Hannity said. “However we decide that President Trump will use that force in Syria, we promise that it will be a decision he will be proud of.”

Pirro said that she and her colleagues were taking “full advantage of the entire Fox News brain trust” to craft Trump’s Syria response. “The American people should sleep well at night knowing that we are keeping Tucker Carlson in the loop,” she said…

Hmmm… Andy forgot he’s a satirist again! RESIST!!

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This led to the racist Dixiecrat abandonment of the Democratic Party, the adoption of the Southern Strategy by the Republican Party, the ensconcement of the racists as the Republican base, the birth of the Republican Reich, and hopefully, the Republican demise.

Yesterday was Infernal Revenue Day, which was a horrible pain in the ass, but at least I didn’t owe any money.  I fed WWWendy ribs, and I bet Oh and Shit (what I call her shih Tzu  dawgs) loved the bones.  Today is the hottest day of the year to date.  The Sun just hit the wall, so I know I’ll have to button up and turn on the A/C soon.  On a scale of one to ten, I’m pooped.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:30 (average 4:56).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Vox Channel): What melting sea ice means for life in the Arctic

Wouldn’t it be better to leave it the Arctic as it is? RESIST!!

From Politico: Florida Gov. Rick Scott makes his long-awaited Senate candidacy official Monday, setting up an epic battle against incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson and testing the limits of whether a close alliance with President Donald Trump is political poison or a pathway to success in the nation’s biggest swing state.

Scott has never shied away from his friendship with Trump — who has repeatedly urged him to run against Nelson, Florida’s only statewide elected Democrat. And regardless of the constant string of White House controversies, Scott has only distanced himself from the president to the mildest of degrees.

It there was ever a classic example of needing to support a DINO, this is it! RESIST!!

From Metro: Fox News have accidentally broadcast a graphic showing that they are the least trusted major news network. The broadcaster displayed the Monmouth University poll results during its Tight Shot show Sunday, with less than a third of Americans trusting it more than President Trump.

Hahahahahahahaha!!  RESIST!!

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Republicans call this fake news.

I’m still very tired.  I woke up this morning and the temperature in my room was 85°.  It was that way throughout the floor.  It has cooled off, but I was miserable.  I guess I still haven’t recovered from my trip out on Thursday.  Tomorrow, I may have no more than a Personal Update of an Open Thread.  It’s WWWendy Day and Uncle Revenue Torture Day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:54 (average 4:40).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Politico: Rep. Ralph Norman pulled out a loaded pistol while discussing gun-violence prevention during a meeting with constituents in South Carolina on Friday, according to several advocacy group members in attendance.

The episode was brought to light by volunteers for the South Carolina chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, who said in a news release that the lawmaker laid out a loaded firearm while discussing gun safety at an event in Rock Hill.

According to the group, the pistol was left out for “several minutes” while Norman “kept telling his constituents that the presence of the gun made them safer.”

To make constituents safer, we need to keep guns away from Republican Ammosexual idiots like Norman! RESIST!!

From Bloomberg Law: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to monitor hundreds of thousands of news sources around the world and compile a database of journalists, editors, foreign correspondents, and bloggers to identify top “media influencers.”

It’s seeking a contractor that can help it monitor traditional news sources as well as social media and identify “any and all” coverage related to the agency or a particular event, according to a request for information released April 3.

The data to be collected includes a publication’s “sentiment” as well as geographical spread, top posters, languages, momentum, and circulation. No value for the contract was disclosed.

“Services shall provide media comparison tools, design and rebranding tools, communication tools, and the ability to identify top media influencers,” according to the statement. DHS agencies have “a critical need to incorporate these functions into their programs in order to better reach federal, state, local, tribal, and private partners,” it said.

The DHS wants to track more than 290,000 global news sources, including online, print, broadcast, cable, and radio, as well as trade and industry publications, local, national and international outlets, and social media, according to the documents. It also wants the ability to track media coverage in more than 100 languages including Arabic, Chinese, and Russian, with instant translation of articles into English.

I doubt that PP is large enough to be considered for inclusion, but Care2 is.  This reminds me of 1984.  Big Brother is Watching! RESIST!!

From NY Times: President Trump’s national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, handed off his duties to John R. Bolton on Friday, a bittersweet departure from the White House in which he played down personal animosities with Mr. Trump but left little doubt that he and the president had differences on issues like Syria and Russia.

General McMaster met with Mr. Bolton, who then walked the halls of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, introducing himself to staff members still reeling from Mr. Trump’s second major shake-up of the National Security Council in 13 months. Mr. Bolton, a hawkish former envoy to the United Nations, takes up the job on Monday.

God help the world! RESIST!!

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