Open Thread – Page 523 – Politics Plus

Open Thread – 11/9/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:46 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 092017

I’m still feeling pretty wretched with coughing and congestion, and I’m trying to get back to bed ASAP!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:22 (average 5:53). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): The Trump Voters Who’ve Had Enough

This is why I doubt that the Fuhrer will run for a second term. I’d rather we flip the House, and impeach Trump AND Pence. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Jeff Merkley Channel): Senator Merkley Speaks Out Against NLRB Nominee

Even though there is nothing we can do to prevent Senate Republicans unilaterally conforming Robb the Robber, Jeff’s message hits home. Oregon leads the way! RESIST!!

From Washington Post: Leigh Corfman says she was 14 years old when an older man approached her outside a courtroom in Etowah County, Ala. She was sitting on a wooden bench with her mother, they both recall, when the man introduced himself as Roy Moore…

…Alone with Corfman, Moore chatted with her and asked for her phone number, she says. Days later, she says, he picked her up around the corner from her house in Gadsden, drove her about 30 minutes to his home in the woods, told her how pretty she was and kissed her. On a second visit, she says, he took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes. He touched her over her bra and underpants, she says, and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear…

…Two of Corfman’s childhood friends say she told them at the time that she was seeing an older man, and one says Corfman identified the man as Moore. Wells says her daughter told her about the encounter more than a decade later, as Moore was becoming more prominent as a local judge.

Aside from Corfman, three other women interviewed by The Washington Post in recent weeks say Moore pursued them when they were between the ages of 16 and 18 and he was in his early 30s, episodes they say they found flattering at the time, but troubling as they got older.

Evidently Moore takes after his Fuhrer. RESIST!!!

Cartoon:

Open Thread – 11/8/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:22 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 082017

Store to Door just delivered groceries, and I put then away. Wendy is coming this evening. I seem to be coming down with a cold, so please pardon my brevity.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:37 (average 5:42). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Guess Who Celebrated Election Night With Trump

May the Fuhrer be Saterized. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Donald Trump has accomplished little or nothing in his final year as President, a new poll finds.

According to the poll, a majority of Americans believe that Trump has made no progress on the economy, terrorism, or other key issues in his Presidency’s dwindling final days.

More troubling for Trump, the poll shows that Americans have lost confidence in his ability to salvage his Presidency before his imminent departure from the White House.

Davis Logsdon, a history professor at the University of Minnesota, said that Trump’s failure to accomplish anything of substance during his last year in office is a problem that has plagued other lame-duck Presidents.

From Andy’s keyboard to God’s eyes! RESIST!!

From NY Times: When the world looks at the United States, it sees a land of exceptions: a time-tested if noisy democracy, a crusader in foreign policy, an exporter of beloved music and film.

But there is one quirk that consistently puzzles America’s fans and critics alike. Why, they ask, does it experience so many mass shootings?

Perhaps, some speculate, it is because American society is unusually violent. Or its racial divisions have frayed the bonds of society. Or its citizens lack proper mental care under a health care system that draws frequent derision abroad.

These explanations share one thing in common: Though seemingly sensible, all have been debunked by research on shootings elsewhere in the world. Instead, an ever-growing body of research consistently reaches the same conclusion.

The only variable that can explain the high rate of mass shootings in America is its astronomical number of guns.

Click Through for much more. Although the number of guns is skyrocketing, the number of gun-owning households remains constant. That shows that Republican Ammosexuals are compiling arsenals. Given their propensity for "2nd Amendment Solutions", that trend threatens us all. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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Open Thread – 11/7/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:26 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 072017

I’m on an unusual schedule this morning. I woke up, like usual, at 5:00. I had a bad case of Republicosis, so I dressed, got out of bed, and motored down to the bathroom in record time. I almost didn’t make. I’ve been back three more times and taken two doses ode Immodium AD. I feel like going back to bed, but I dare not do so, before the Imodium kicks in. So I’ll do all my blogging early and hope I can lie down later.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:43 (average 5:27). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest from our own fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends.

Scores:

9Scores

I would not have won, were I playing an attended team.

Standings:

9Standings

Seth, Vivian and I lead the league. Jack, who appears to be AWOL, is in the cellar.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Trump is Lying About Russia

Of course Trump is both lying and guilty. We’re just waiting for the shoe to drop and to see who does what about it. RESIST!!

From Addicting Info: In his infamous dossier, former British spy Michael Steele alleged that Trump had paid prostitutes to come up to his room and urinate on one another on a bed that Barack and Michelle Obama once shared. Steele claimed at the time that the incident was filmed and would be used by the Kremlin as “kompromat” (compromising material).

Award-winning British journalist Paul Wood reports for The Spectator that not only do multiple witnesses confirm the pee pee tape, but there are more extreme recordings of Donald Trump than just a couple of Russian girls urinating:

I heard of Russian kompromat — compromising material — on Trump from two sources months before the Steele dossier came to light.

There are, though, reports of witnesses in the hotel who corroborate Steele’s reporting. These include an American who’s said to have seen a row with the hotel security over whether the hookers would be allowed up to Trump’s suite. The dossier’s account of hookers in a Moscow hotel room was the subject of gossip among politicians and intelligence people for months before it was published.

“Now claims are circulating of more tapes showing more extreme behavior. Expect these allegations to emerge in due course,” Wood says cryptically. [emphasis added]

I have no desire to see Putin’s Piddle Puppet on the pee-pee tapes myself, but I want them on display for everyone to see. I want then on the news, and I want them on a wide-screen outside every Republican Supply-side pseudo-Church in the country. RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Photo Finish In Race For Virginia

See Cartoon, please. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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Open Thread – 11/6/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:02 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 062017

I just returned from my appointment with Megan, and I’m a certified A-1 prime Puddy Tat. That’s my only medical appointment this week.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:41 (average 4:54). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Religious Agony:

1105Broncos23-Eagles51

My Broncos would have gotten bird shat anyway, but a couple zebras played with the birds.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): A Year Without a President

The Reich on the Left is RIGHT! We may not have a President, but we do have a Fuhrer. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: The White House called an unscheduled press briefing on Sunday to clarify Michael T. Flynn’s role in the Trump campaign, claiming that his job consisted entirely of making coffee when George Papadopoulos was busy with other matters.

“Sometimes, we would ask for coffee and George was otherwise occupied,” the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said. “At that point, Michael Flynn would step in and make that coffee.”

When asked what role Flynn’s son, Michael G. Flynn, played in the campaign, Sanders indicated that he, too, was involved in coffee-making to the exclusion of all other responsibilities.

Andy, that’s less absurd than any of the balderdash coming from the Fuhrer and his Republican Reich! RESIST!!

From NY Times: A gunman clad in all black, with a ballistic vest strapped to his chest and a military-style rifle in his hands, opened fire on parishioners at a Sunday service at a small Baptist church in rural Texas, killing at least 26 people and turning this tiny town east of San Antonio into the scene of the country’s newest mass horror.

The gunman was identified by the Texas Department of Public Safety as Devin Patrick Kelley, 26. Mr. Kelley, who lived in New Braunfels, Tex., died shortly after the attack.

He had served in the Air Force at a base in New Mexico but was court-martialed in 2012 on charges of assaulting his wife and child. He was sentenced to 12 months’ confinement and received a “bad conduct” discharge in 2014, according to Ann Stefanek, the chief of Air Force media operations.

The motive for the attack was unclear on Sunday, but the grisly nature of it could not have been clearer: Families gathered in pews, clutching Bibles and praying to the Lord, were murdered in cold blood on the spot.

Mr. Kelley started firing at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs not long after the Sunday morning service began at 11 a.m., officials said. He was armed with a Ruger military-style rifle, and within minutes, many of those inside the small church were either dead or wounded. The victims ranged in age from 5 to 72, and among the dead were several children, a pregnant woman and the pastor’s 14-year-old daughter. It was the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history. At least 20 more were wounded.

We know very little about this Republican ammosexual, except that Texas Republicans granted him a concealed carry permit illegally, due to his domestic violence conviction history. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Open Thread – 11/5/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:48 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 052017

Wendy is due in forty minutes, and my Broncos start playing in 130 minutes, so I’m in a big hurry. I’ll publish after the game is over.

Wendy Left and my Broncos are getting clobbered so bad that they took the game off TV. Oh my POOR butt! Crying face

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:17 (average 5:32). To do it click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (SNL Channel): Paul Manafort’s House Cold Open

With that Airplane Trump, Melania will get the best sex she has had, since before her wedding day. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Donald Trump is hoping to keep his gross treatment of women out of court. The women who’ve come forward to tell their stories of being groped, kissed, and grabbed by Trump over the years are hoping that a lawsuit brought by one of them, former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos, will at least mean that their experiences are heard and taken as seriously as those of Harvey Weinstein’s victims. Or Bill Cosby’s. Or Kevin Spacey’s. Or Mark Halperin’s.

Not that any of those accusers got justice, even in the court of public opinion, quickly—but they didn’t have to watch their harassers or rapists be inaugurated president, either. The White House press secretary didn’t call them liars on national television. And it’s that response that’s at the center of the lawsuit that Trump’s victims hope will let them be fully heard

There is no excuse not to prosecute Trump. Upchuckabee-Sanders should be sued for defamation. RESIST!!

From Prisoner of the Census: The way the Census Bureau counts people in prison creates significant problems for democracy and for our nation’s future. It leads to a dramatic distortion of representation at local and state levels, and creates an inaccurate picture of community populations for research and planning purposes.

The Bureau counts incarcerated people as residents of the towns where they are confined, though they are barred from voting in 48 states and return to their homes after being released. The practice also defies most state constitutions and statutes, which explicitly state that incarceration does not change a residence.

The Bureau’s approach to counting incarcerated people dates back to the beginning of the census, when it was important only to count the number of people in each state to ensure equal representation in Congress. Congressional apportionment relied on the comparative populations of the states, not where people were relative to each other within each state. Now that Census data are used for redistricting at all levels of government, the specific location of populations is critical. The prison population has risen exponentially in the past couple of decades; counting the people in prison in the wrong place now undermines the Supreme Court’s requirement that political power be apportioned on the basis of population. The process of drawing fair and equal districts fails when the underlying data are flawed.

Click through for more info on this deplorable form of making some districts disproportionately powerful. Prisoners should be counted where they will return after serving their sentences, because those communities will need the resources to help reintegrate the prisoners. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Open Thread – 11/4/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:15 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 042017

I’m trying to relax and enjoy the weekend. Tomorrow is a Wendy day. It’s also a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. My Broncos visit the Eagles for morning worship, and it is televised here. I’ll have to ask Wendy for an application of Vaseline after my shower to prepare for the game. May the Holy Ellipsoid Orb bless your team, unless it is the one slaughtering mine.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:15 (average 6:02). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Jeff Merkley Channel): Senator Merkley Speaks Out Against Anti-Union Attack

Support AFSCME! Impeach Whoresuch! Defeat the Reich that sucks Koch! I could not be more proud of Jeff. Oregon leads the way. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Marc Lotter, former spokesman for the roundly denied by Americans Pence campaign and current mouthpiece for the trying-to-keep-Mike-Pence-out-of-jail-please campaign, was on Nicole Wallace’s MSNBC show Thursday. Wallace was holding a roundtable to discuss the current state of what we know about the Mueller investigation and more specifically how terrifying it must be for White House officials to know that George Papadopoulos had pled guilty months ago and may very well have been wired while having meetings with other officials. Lotter came on with the kind of incompetent bluster that usually only passes for a Fox News opening monologue where he said that Papadopoulos was both a low level guy with no access and also a guy with high level access who was incompetent. Did your brain freeze yet? Wallace was having none of it.

Barf Bag Alert!!

Woooo Hoooo Nicole! Did she tear that Pence troll a new asshole, or what? RESIST!!

From TPM: Democrats on Capitol Hill want answers from Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

This week’s deluge of fresh information from congressional and federal investigators revealed two previously undisclosed instances in which Sessions was allegedly directly informed about contacts between Russia and Trump campaign staffers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.

Though Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) cautioned that perjury allegations were based on a “very careful standard,” he and other top Democrats claim Sessions appears to have failed to disclose the extent of what he knew about these contacts in his testimony to Congress.

That testimony has varied in its specificity. In June, Sessions gave a flat “no” to the Senate Intelligence Committee when asked if he was “aware of any communications” between Trump campaign officials “about Russia or Russian interests in the United States” prior to Trump’s inauguration. He offered a narrower response before the Senate Judiciary Committee in October, saying only that he had seen nothing “that would indicate collusion with Russians to impact the campaign” when asked if he’d ever overheard conversations with campaign staffers “who talked about meeting with the Russians.”

However Sessions chooses to interpret lawmakers’ questions, we now know of at least three instances in which he was allegedly told about or personally participated in communications with Russian officials or institutions during the 2016 campaign.

Click through for the rest. While it is now possible to nail KKK Beauregard for perjury, I think we want him where he is, for now. He cannot interfere with the Mueller investigation, because he has recused himself. If Trump gets to replace Sessions, the replacement will definitely interfere. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Open Thread – 11/3/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:40 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 032017

It’s a busy day for me. I’m skipping my morning nap as I have so much writing to do, so please pardon my brevity. I’m also preparing for National Barf Day tomorrow. TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:10 (average 8:37). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (PBS Channel): Elizabeth Warren says 2016 Democratic primary was rigged

See my Open Thread from yesterday. Liz admitted it and wants to face it, understand it and make sure it never happens again, exactly like I recommended yesterday. Great minds really do fall in the same ditch. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: After a memorable Monday, in which the special counsel announced criminal charges against three men associated with Donald Trump’s campaign, millions of Americans were sort of hoping that Robert Mueller would arrest someone new every day, a new poll indicates.

According to the poll, Monday’s news that Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and George Papadopoulos had been charged may have unfairly raised Americans’ expectations that Mueller would be generating new arrests at the rate of at least three a day.

“Monday was one of the happiest days of my life,” one poll respondent said. “It started out great with Manafort and Gates, and then, bam, out of nowhere, Papadopoulos. I guess I started hoping all days would be like that.”

Andy, One a day just isn’t enough! RESIST!!

From The Miami Herald: This person managed to do the impossible: Shut down the Twitter account of the most powerful man in the world.

On Thursday, Trump’s digital mouthpiece vanished from cyberspace at around 6:45 p.m.

If you were looking for the president’s latest diatribe, you got the notice, “Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!”

Whoever that employee was, give him/her a promotion and a raise! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Open Thread – 11/2/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:31 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 022017

I’m about to leave for my Prosthetist appointment and will finish this when I return. I’ll do Sam’s vids tomorrow. This is my only article today.

I’m back. That should take care of George for the next six months.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:04 (average 5:11). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): Trump’s Trojan Horse Tax Plan I Robert Reich

The Reich on the Left is right. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: In what might be his most startling allegation against his former election opponent, Donald Trump on Wednesday accused Hillary Clinton of deliberately losing the 2016 election just so that he could be impeached.

“How could one of the most experienced politicians in history lose to the most unfit candidate ever?” Trump asked reporters. “Crooked Hillary lost on purpose because she wanted me to be impeached.”

Explaining Clinton’s motives for intentionally sabotaging her quest for an office she had coveted for decades, Trump said, “Hillary Clinton is more than a nasty woman. She is an evil woman, and her sick mind is capable of anything.”

Trump said that instead of reporting the “fake story” of his campaign’s collusion with the Russians, the media should focus on Clinton’s “diabolical scheme to lose the election.”

Dang, Andy! That is no more absurd than what he really says! RESIST!!

From Politico: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Secret Takeover of the DNC

When I was asked to run the Democratic Party after the Russians hacked our emails, I stumbled onto a shocking truth about the Clinton campaign.

Click through. Read the whole thing. Kudos to Bernie for the way he acted, even after he knew this. Kudos to Donna for the courage to tell the truth, even though she has been a Hillary supporter for years. This is tragic, but we need to face this, understand this, and make sure this never ever happens again. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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