Politics Plus

I overslept this morning, but I’m doing OK, because I planned to skip my morning nap, anyway.  Tomorrow WWWendy is coming a day early, and I may have no more than an Open Thread or a Personal Update.  We have lots of chores to do, including the dreaded task.  In addition, we are celebrating Valentine’s Day.  I’ll just have to see how the day progresses.  TGIF!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:10 (average 5:05).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Right-wing media: It’s never the time to talk about gun violence

Bullshit Bag Alert!! ??

Lets not just talk about it. Lets DO something! RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Paul Ryan: No ‘Knee Jerk’ Reactions On Guns.

Bullshit Bag Alert!! ??

Lyin’ Ryan is doing what he always does: lying and prioritizing blood money over dead children. RESIST!!

From People: …“Consumers have no information,” said Thixton. “A consumer has to become a private detective to learn what’s really in their [pets’] food.”

To save pet owners the aforementioned detective work, ABC7 partnered with Ellipse Analytics, a lab specializing in food testing, to test pet food.

The station tested 62 samples of wet dog food from over 24 brands for pentobarbital multiple times over several months. Only one brand of food, Gravy Train, repeatedly tested positive for trace amounts of the euthanasia drug. Sixty percent of the Gravy Train samples came back positive.

And while the amount of pentobarbital found was not a lethal level, any trace of the drug is not permitted in pet food.

Gravy Train is made by the company Big Heart Pet Foods, which is owned by Smucker’s. Big Heart Brands is also responsible for the production of Meow Mix, Milk Bone, Kibbles’n Bits, 9 Lives, Natural Balance, Pup-Peroni, Nature’s Recipe, Canine Carry Outs, Milo’s Kitchen, Alley Cat, Jerky Treats, Meaty Bone, Pounce and Snausages.

The question still remains how the drug made its way into the food, since it is often only found in the systems of cats, horses and dogs put down by the drug. Some worry this means these animals are being put into pet food, reports ABC 7, while others are more concerned that the drug is there at all and what its presence means about the quality of the food we are feeding our pets.

Shortly after ABC7 shared its findings, Smucker’s announced Wednesday that it is voluntarily recalling shipments of Gravy Train, Kibbles ‘N Bits, Ol’ Roy, and Skippy dog food over concerns about the presence of pentobarbital, according to WebMD.

Since so many of our friends are animal lovers, I found this too upsetting not to share it. Click through. Isn’t it ironic that, just a few days ago, Infidel commented that Republicans could be putting cat meat in food boxes for the poor. RESIST!!

From Think Progress: There were many memorable moments during the first full week of the 2018 Winter Olympics, but the most indelible image might not be from the ice or the slopes, but rather, from the stands; it’s simply impossible to ignore the North Korean cheerleaders who have descended upon Pyeongchang.

Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten is so jealous of Kim Jong Un! He wants his own nubile “Army of Beauties” wearing MAGA hats and waving Nazi flags. RESIST!!

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It’s a nice comfortably cool day, and I slept well last night.  It’s been a strange winter.  I’m at the same latitude as the border between Wyoming and Montana, but I have not turned my heat on this winter, and I only closed my window overnight once.  I expect a grocery delivery from Store to Door in about an hour.  When I finish putting everything away, I’ll break for lunch.  Then I’ll finish here.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:03 (average 4:55).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Late Show Channel): Donald Trump’s Valentine’s Day Card To Melania Trump

Barf Bag Alert!!

How appropriate! Other than National Socialism, Trump loves only his own ego. RESIST!!

From Washington Post: When evaluating President Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen’s new admission that he paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket, it’s worth focusing on what he doesn’t deny: namely, that Trump had anything to do with it.

In a statement first reported by the New York Times and also shared with The Washington Post, Cohen says for the first time that he paid Daniels. The Wall Street Journal had first reported the payment as hush money to keep the adult-film actress from disclosing an alleged affair with Trump, but thus far nobody else had confirmed that the payment existed. Cohen’s hand was apparently forced by the watchdog group Common Cause, which last month announced it was filing a complaint arguing that Cohen’s $130,000 payment could be construed as an illegal 2016 campaign contribution.

I don’t buy it. Cohen is a Republican. Republicans don’t altruistically pay out big bucks like that. When it comes to their own money, they squeeze quarters so tight the eagle shits. Cohen, if not Trump, paid her with campaign money or with our money, both of which are criminal acts.  RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Millions of Americans on Wednesday demanded that Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, issue them checks in the amount of $130,000 for not having sex with Trump.

After Cohen revealed that he had issued such a check to Stormy Daniels, a porn star who he claims never had intimate relations with his client, there was widespread outrage among other Americans who had also not had sex with Trump but had not been paid for not doing so.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for Stormy Daniels,” Tracy Klugian, a florist in Santa Rosa, California, said. “I just want my check, too.”

Harland Dorrinson, a bank teller in Akron, Ohio, said that he had already e-mailed Cohen to demand payment. “I have never come close to having sex with Trump, and that should be worth something,” he said. “Specifically, $130,000.”

Andy, Dorrinson is wrong. Albeit non-consensual, he has had sex with Trump.  There isn’t an American in the poor and middle classes that Trump and the Republican Reich haven’t screwed. Where’s my $130,000? RESIST!!

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I’m rushing to finish in time for my appointment.  This is my only article today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s Took me 6:45 (average 7:14).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The Hill: U.S. figure skater Adam Rippon said he would boycott a visit to the White House.

Rippon — the first openly gay athlete selected to a U.S. Winter Olympic team — told the Daily Mail that he would not go to the White House in an effort "to support my community."

"No, I have no desire to go to the White House," he told the Daily Mail.

"But I would like to do something to help my community."

Rippon added he would want to do "something positive and not just stay at home" during the White House visit, such as planning his own event in support of gay rights.

The US would not have won a team figure skating medal, were it not for Rippon’s stellar performance. Hey GOP! Shove that up your Pence! RESIST!!

From The Daily Beast: Julian Assange Offered Hannity Impersonator ‘News’ About Top Democrat

The head of Wikileaks told @SeanHannity__ to seek ‘other channels’ for information on Sen. Mark Warner of the Trump-Russia investigation. ‘@SeanHannity__’ was a woman in Texas.

Anyone care to speculate what "other channels" Assange (R-RU) had for Hannity? RESIST!!

From Think Progress: \Industry-friendly lawmakers are waging a coordinated campaign with the Trump administration to strip Americans of their legal rights to use the courts to hold polluting companies and the government itself accountable for violations of bedrock environmental laws and other important public protections.

Members of Congress have introduced more than 50 bills over the past year that would make it extremely difficult or impossible for people to seek justice in a court of law, according to an in-depth analysis by the Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization. The proposed bills are targeting laws related to environmental protection, public health, consumer rights, and civil liberties.

The number of bills introduced in the current 115th Congress that would strip individuals of their legal rights to seek justice in a court of law have doubled from the previous Congress and quadrupled since the 112th Congress that ended in 2013. Similar to how credit card companies and other retailers block consumers from the use of a court of law to resolve disputes, these bills would have a similar effect by preventing aggrieved members of the public from filing lawsuits to ensure laws are enforced.

Even when polluters harm people directly and intentionally, the Republican Reich protects them from justice. RESIST!!

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WWWendy is due in ten minutes, so I’ll have to do most of my writing after she leaves at around Noon.  I watched the opening ceremony last night, and neither Nambia nor Normay sent teams to Korea.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:44 (average 5:43).  To di it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Donald Trump Closer To Ending Russia Probe As Rachel Brand Quits DOJ

I think Rachel Brand was acting in her own self-interest. If it came down to either hamstringing the Mueller investigation for Trump, or refusing to do so, whatever she might do would be a career ending move for her. So when the Republican Reich got Wal-fart to offer her a plumb job, she ducked out of the line of fire and took the money. I know virtually nothing about Noel Francisco. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: In comments to reporters at the White House on Friday, Donald J. Trump stirred controversy by lavishing an alleged wife beater with praise that he historically has reserved for child molesters and Nazis.

Reporters who heard the President’s comments were taken aback since, in the past, the President had given no indication that he held wife beaters in the same high esteem in which he holds supporters of child abuse and white supremacy.

“We knew that President Trump considered child molesters and Nazis very fine people, but this was the first time he had put wife beaters up there, too,” Tracy Klugian, a member of the White House press corps, said. “We wanted clarification as to whether he considered wife beaters as fine as those other two groups, or finer.”

John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, accused reporters of attempting to drive a wedge between three of the President’s most cherished constituencies.

Dang Andy! Doesn’t the Fuhrer prefer all of the above? RESIST!!

From YouTube (RWW Channel): RWW News: Paul Begley Says Barack Obama Is Leading An Illuminati Plot To Assassinate Trump

Barf Bag Alert!!

This is what Republican Sheeple get to see as a substitute for real News. RESIST!!

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