Bernie or Bust Means Busted!

Posted by TomCat at 2:02 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 162016

You may tell me that I sound like a broken record, but this message is so important, that I’ll be hammering on it until I see plausible evidence that it has sunk-in. Nobody wants Bernie to win more than I do, but the more time passes, the more that looks like pie in the sky. "Bernie or Bust" people say that they don’t have to be loyal to The Democratic Party. I agree. but loyalty is not the reason that voting Blue is imperative.

…

Michael Moore loudly endorsed Bernie on the eve of Iowa caucuses and continues to have plenty of differences with Hillary. But when it comes to the general election, it’s a no-brainer:

Michael Moore is an avowed Bernie Sanders supporter and has been for years. But while the outspoken filmmaker and liberal activist says he’s with Sanders till the end, he quickly notes he’ll support former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton if she’s the nominee.

“Oh absolutely. She’s better than the alternative and she will do some good,"Moore said in an interview on Sunday.

Then there’s this philosophical giant who uses the same a-word when it comes to his support in November:

Noam Chomsky would “absolutely” choose Hillary Clinton over the Republican nominee if he lived in a swing state, but her primary challenger, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, “doesn’t have much of a chance," the MIT professor and intellectual said in a recent interview…

“Oh absolutely…my vote would be against the Republican candidate,” Chomsky told Al Jazeera English’s Mehdi Hasan…

Chomsky cited “enormous differences” between the two major political parties.“Every Republican candidate is either a climate change denier or a skeptic who says we can’t do it,” Chomsky said. “What they are saying is, ‘Let’s destroy the world.’ Is that worth voting against? Yeah.”

Bill Maher has also repeatedly made clear that he supports Sanders for the nomination, but he can see the writing on the wall and used a different a-word regarding the choice in November.

Last week on Real Time with Bill Maher, the brazenly liberal host tore into Sanders supporters who claim they’d rather vote for Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton. After outlining key differences between a Trump and Clinton presidency, Maher proclaimed,“That’s your choice. Don’t be assholes about it.”

These are just three examples, but there’s plenty more where that came from and much more on the way shortly. All you have to do is listen.

Bernie or bust? Are you sure about that? Because what it really means is that you’re fine with our entire country going "bust" in every way imaginable (economically, morally, judicially…you name it) for many years to come under the disastrous rule of *shudder* President Donald J. Trump.

If you care about what Bernie Sanders has stood for his whole life and what he continues to fight for to this day, "bust" is simply not an option… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

Like I said, loyalty is not the reason that voting Blue is imperative. Saving your way of life, the nation and the planet is the reason. Bernie said that, if he did not win the nomination, he would do everything he could to keep a Republican out of the White House. Bernie said the on her worst day, Hillary is infinitely better than any Republican.

Sadly, some Bernie or bust folks are actually saying Trump is no worse than Hillary. I even saw one comment that maybe Hillary and Rump Dump are in collusion. We are disrespectful to Bernie, if we spout wild conspiracy theories, with zero supporting evidence. That’s what Republicans do. Lets not imitate them.

Listen to me! Listen to Michael Moore! Listen to Noam Chomsky! Listen to Bill Maher! And most of all, listen to Bernie!!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who!

Open Thread – 5/16/2016

Posted by TomCat at 2:01 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 162016

I’m quite busy today, as I needed another Lona Nap this morning, so please pardon my brevity. My posting may be limited tomorrow, as I have to go out for labs for my pre-surgery physical.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:49 (average 6:32). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NPR: If Democrats take back the Senate in 2016, they’ll likely have women to thank for it.

The party is likely to have at least six female nominees who are challenging Republican incumbents in their top-targeted states, helping them flip the four seats necessary to take back Senate control, if Democrats hold the White House.

And Democrats believe they have the perfect storm brewing to help them do that — likely the first female presidential nominee coupled with a probable GOP nominee who has a well-documented history of controversial remarks about women.

"With Donald Trump’s toxicity permeating the Republican Party, never has there been a better time for a slate of Democratic women who remain focused on issues rather than insults," said Marcy Stech of EMILY’s List, whose group helps recruit pro-abortion rights women to run for political office.

And if women win in these top-targeted races, they’re on pace to break the current record of 20 women in the Senate. If Democrats run the table, women could make up nearly a quarter of the upper chamber come January 2017.

A woman’s place is in the House, and in the Senate, and if we can’t have Bernie, in the White House.

From OPB: Voters in Oregon are going to the polls Tuesday to vote in their presidential primary along with a host of state and local races. But Oregonians aren’t actually going to the polls because all of the state’s 2.3 million voters get their ballots through the mail.

In a special election in 1996, Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden became the first person ever elected to Congress exclusively through a vote-by-mail election. He remains a big fan of the system, which the state adopted for all elections in 2000.

Wyden held a press conference this month at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem to announce a bill that would expand the system nationwide.

“We’re interested in taking the Oregon way, vote-by-mail, into precincts all across America,” he said.

Wyden’s proposal would require all federal elections to be held through the mail. States could still do as they please for state and local races. He’s tried expanding vote-by-mail before to no avail. But he said maybe this year will be different. Wyden points to reports of people standing in line for hours to cast ballots in presidential primaries.

Once again, Oregon leads the way. If the US adopts Sen. Wyden’s proposal, the nation will be better off due to voter convenience, and a paper record.

From PoliticusUSA: In a shameful display, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough did his best to defend Donald Trump’s history of sexism, sexual harassment and misogyny that was uncovered by The New York Times…

…Here are some of the behaviors that Scarborough left out. Trump sexualized his then 16-year-old daughter by asking other men if she was hot. Trump made unwanted advances towards women. Trump engaged in inappropriate physical contact with women. The presumptive Republican nominee was revealed to have demonstrated a consistent pattern of sexual harassment towards women that he had the ability to exert authority or control over.

Barf Bag Alert!!

And MSNBC, the so-called librul network has 20 hours of Morning Jerk every week.

Cartoon:

0516Cartoon

Open Thread – 5/15/2016

Posted by TomCat at 3:05 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 152016

I’m running way late today, because I overslept this morning, and I still felt so tired, I needed another Lona nap after completing most of my research.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:13 (average 4:45). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

The light from the Holy Ellipsoid Orb will soon shine forth to bathe the world in blessing!

We have a Live draft which is set for Saturday, Aug 20, 2016 at 1:00pm PDT. If you played last year, but cannot do so this year, please let me know ASAP.

The new season kicks off on Thursday. September 8, the same way the last one ended. The Panthers will look to exact a measure of revenge for their defeat in Super Bowl 50 over the now Peyton Manning-less Sick smile Broncos.

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos (Classic 3/2016): This November 1922 article about Hitler in the New York Times should be a stark reminder just how dangerous rhetoric can be:

But, several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, and that he was merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as bait to catch messes of followers, and keep them aroused, enthusiastic and in line for the time when his organization is perfected and sufficiently powerful to be employed effectively for political purposes.

A sophisticated politician credited Hitler with peculiar political cleverness for laying emphasis and over emphasis on anti-Semitism, saying: “You can’t expect the masses to understand or appreciate your finer real aims. You must feed the masses with cruder morsels and ideas like anti-Semitism. It would be politically all wrong to tell them the truth about where you really are leading them.”

I’m not saying a Trump presidency would lead to mass genocide on the scale of the Holocaust. But, his rhetoric is already dangerous.

Does that sound like the lies that fascist Republicans are spewing about Rump Dump or what?

From NW Herald: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is abolishing the agency that currently investigates police misconduct and replacing it with a civilian department he said will have more independence and resources to do its work.

Emanuel’s announcement late Friday came a month after a task force recommended the move in a report that said police in the nation’s third-largest city have “no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color” and have alienated blacks and Hispanics for decades by using excessive force and honoring a code of silence.

The Task Force on Police Accountability had recommended replacing the “badly broken” Independent Police Review Authority, or IPRA, with a “new and fully transparent and accountable Civilian Police Investigative Agency.”

Dang!! That sure doesn’t sound like Rahmbo, He must be desperate to save his job to behave so far out of character.

From Crooks and Liars: Don’t look for old Stabby Ben to pull a Cheney and pick himself as Drumpf’s running mate, but he did give us a preview of who may be on his short list, and oh joy, and it includes the Quitta’ from Wasilla:

SNL had fun with Rump Dump’s VP search.

If Rump Dump actually picked Bloody Bullseye Barbie, aka Drill Baby Dingbat, I would have just two words: Woooo Hoooo!!

Cartoon:

0515Cartoon

Open Thread – 5/14/2016

Posted by TomCat at 1:51 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 142016

I’m getting a late start, because it’s shower day. Julie just came, so I’m a spit-shined puddy tat, and I’ve taken my fair share of abuse from Killer Dawg. George is much more stable with his new ankle, and the pain I was feeling came from a crease that had formed in his lining. It was digging into Stumpy. Sarah removed the crease and Velcro’d the lining into place, so I don’t crease it again. Both George and Stumpy are pleased, I’m going to try to rest this weekend, as I have three days of medical appointments next week,

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:12 (average 5:02). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: CNBC interviewed Target’s CEO Brian Cornell on Wednesday and discussed the company’s liberal stance against discriminatory laws like North Carolina’s HB2. Target now is experiencing a massive backlash and boycott by an anti LGBTQ conservative organization called American Family Association. It’s reported that AFA has 1.2 million signatures on its petition — people pledging to not shop at Target stores because of the retail chain’s pro-LGBTQ position.

Brian Cornell is not only unabashed and unapologetic about his company’s support of transgender and pro-LGBTQ rights, he doubles down on the decision with no indication of changing his mind.

Major Kudos to Target. It’s a better place to shop than Wal-Fart.

From YouTube (Jeff Merkley Channel): Merkley: Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground

Once again, Sen. Jeff Merkley and Oregon lead the way. Keep it in the ground!

From NY Times: The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced on Friday that it had imposed sweeping controls on the distribution of its products to ensure that none are used in lethal injections, a step that closes off the last remaining open-market source of drugs used in executions.

More than 20 American and European drug companies have already adopted such restrictions, citing either moral or business reasons. Nonetheless, the decision from one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical manufacturers is seen as a milestone.

“With Pfizer’s announcement, all F.D.A.-approved manufacturers of any potential execution drug have now blocked their sale for this purpose,” said Maya Foa, who tracks drug companies for Reprieve, a London-based human rights advocacy group. “Executing states must now go underground if they want to get hold of medicines for use in lethal injection.”

In other words, if states want to murder prisoners for breaking the law, they will not be able to do so without breaking the law themselves. Sadly, for red states, like Texas, Oklahoma, and other states dominated by the Pro-Death Party, breaking the law is part of their normal modus operandi for law enforcement.

Cartoon:

Originally posted in 2012. Far more urgent today.

Squatch’s Open Thread 14/05/2016

Posted by Lynn Squance at 11:09 am Open Thread, Politics

May 142016

Well it has taken me several days to get this OT finished because I am in the midst of a bout of sinusitis, which among other things, has played havoc with my eyes and my ability to concentrate (headaches). So now, with too much rest and some anti-biotics, I am starting to feel better. I must say though, the sun has been too bright for the eyes, and the temperatures too hot — 27C (80F). I have been binge watching Games of Thrones videos and NCIS:Los Angeles videos, which while enjoyable programmes, are too much for 3 days straight. My sweet Primo, who I affectionately call Primolicious, has been close at hand the entire time. He's not a lap cat but likes to be close.

Short Takes

CBC — The blackened landscape around Fort McMurray is far from a dead zone, despite a wildfire that has reduced more than 229,000 of hectares of boreal forest to cinders and ashes.

Amid the charred skeletons of spruce and still smouldering muskeg, Alberta's fire-loving insects are on the move.

"Its really spooky if you ever go to a burn after it's gone out," said Peter Heule, an insect expert with Edmonton's Royal Alberta Museum.

Tar sand beetle

These long-antennaed creatures move quickly into areas torched by wildfire to find a nicely charred spot to lay their eggs. (Royal Alberta Museum )

"Every step you take, there is just ash and soot, and you see these little beetles shimmering like little jewels on these black-burned trees, laying their eggs and doing their thing."

Out of the ashes of destruction springs new hope.

Politico — Nine House committee chairmen are formally uniting behind Donald Trump’s campaign, announcing their endorsement of the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee Friday as the only pathway to winning the White House in November.

Trump’s camp announced the endorsements of chairs Steve Chabot (Small Business), Michael Conaway (Agriculture), Jeb Hensarling (Financial Services), Candice Miller (House Administration), Jeff Miller (Veterans’ Affairs), Tom Price (Budget), Pete Sessions (Rules), Bill Shuster (Transportation and Infrastructure) and Lamar Smith (Science, Space and Technology). Though publicized in a statement encompassing the support of the range of chairs, some of the individuals named Friday had already voiced their support of the real estate mogul as recently as this week.

How the general election shakes out will largely be dependant on how Democrats respond to the Drumpf challenge. There is no room for complacency. No room for Bernie/Hillary supporter divisivness. VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO!!!

NY Times — After meeting with Donald J. Trump this week, SpeakerPaul D. Ryan uttered the words many in his party longed to hear: “I do believe that we are now planting the seeds to get ourselves unified.”

It is hard to win without party unity, as both Democrats and Republicans have learned. But neither party has confronted the prospect of a candidate denounced by some of its leading lights as a pathological liar unfit to be commander in chief and in need of therapy.

Here are four reasons congressional Republicans are desperate for unity this year, and for Mr. Ryan to endorse Mr. Trump.

1. Do the math

Congressional districts are far more gerrymandered than they were even 20 years ago; Republican members of Congress, by and large, come from very Republican districts. In the relatively few swing districts, Republicans cannot afford to alienate their base voters, many of whom may have voted for Mr. Trump in the primary (or other Republican presidential candidates) but could stay home in November if they are put off by party infighting.

And in Senate elections, no-show voters are a threat to incumbency. “Parties want to win, and if they have sharp divisions it makes it that much more difficult” down the ballot, said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian.

Click through for the other three reasons. Are Republicans really starting to unify behind Drumpf or is this all smoke and mirrors trying to present a unified face to voters?

Huffington Post — Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Friday his state would give up all federal education funding in order to avoid complying with the gender equity law Title IX in how trans students are treated.

The result of forfeiting the $10 billion currently flowing from the U.S. government to schools and public universities in Texas could leave thousands of college students without a way to pay tuition, grind to a halt a majority of research taking place on the campuses, and leave low-income children without support for meals.

“[President Barack Obama] says he’s going to withhold funding if schools do not follow the policy,” Patrick said Friday at a press conference. “Well, in Texas, he can keep his 30 pieces of silver. We will not yield to blackmail from the president of the United States.”

The bluebonnet state is at it again, or should that be still! It would endanger the lives of all Texas students by denying them a proper education rather than complying with a gender equality law. They sure do grow them bigger in Texas . . . right wing nutjobs that is!

NY Times — The casino magnate Sheldon G. Adelson told Donald J. Trump in a private meeting last week that he was willing to contribute more to help elect him than he has to any previous campaign, a sum that could exceed $100 million, according to two Republicans with direct knowledge of Mr. Adelson’s commitment.

As significant, Mr. Adelson, a billionaire based in Las Vegas, has decided that he will significantly scale back his giving to congressional Republicans and direct most of his contributions to groups dedicated to Mr. Trump’s campaign. The two Republicans familiar with Mr. Adelson’s plans spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

A while ago, I seem to recall that Adelson (and the Kochs among others) said he was stepping out of campaign financing finding the then crop of Republican presidential misfits lacking. Fast forward to today and the dye is cast with the drumpfing of all other candidates but he who must not be POTUS. Should we maybe say that Adelson is holding his nose as he writes the cheques? VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO!!!

My Universe —

Personal Update–5/13/2016

Posted by TomCat at 10:41 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 132016

It’s George’s ankle and exam day. I have to get gone.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:07 (average 4:36). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Take:

From Media Matters: Full Frontal’s Samantha Bee Details How "Crisis Pregnancy Centers Are An Illusion" And "A Complete Hustle"

Samantha Bee: "Crisis Pregnancy Centers May Look Sweet And Helpful, But They’re Really Full Of Toxic Bullshit"

BEEutifully done!

Women who vote Republican are like blacks that join the KKK!

Cartoon:

0513Cartoon

Wooo Hooo!! I crossed your path!!

Stewart Nailed Rump Dump Again!!

Posted by TomCat at 3:19 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 122016

I have to say one positive thing about Rump Dump Trump. Even Bloody Bullseye Barbie, aka Drill Baby Dingbat, has fallen way short of Rump Dump’s ability to present himself as a target sufficiently worthy of ridicule to guarantee full employment for America’s comics. And some of them use their humor for excellent political commentary, such as Samantha Bee, Bill Maher, and in this case, Jon Stewart.

Oh, how we miss Jon Stewart being on our television every evening. Jon Stewart was interviewed on The Axe Files, David Axelrod’s podcast interview show. Axelrod’s show is pretty good as his access to guests from Nancy Pelosi to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, and the respect he’s earned for being President Barack Obama’s Chief Campaign Strategist, gives his shows a certain gravitas. The interview covered quite a few topics but, being both political animals, it was only a matter of time before they spoke about Donald Trump (about two minutes). Axelrod made the joke that Stewart, when retiring from the Daily Show, had said that he had seen quite a few elections and the one coming up wasn’t going to be any “different.” This gets a laugh from the audience but Stewart isn’t laughing because he does not think there’s anything new about Trump.

I mean we talk about it like it’s something incredibly different, but in truth, how different is it, really? The media, as usual [is] focused on the wrong things and abdicating responsibility for the general filtration of toxicity. You have enormous amounts of money flowing into crazy people who are channeling populism of years past. I mean, if you took Sarah Palin’s head and jammed it on Trump’s body, would it make any more sense?

Stewart spoke initially about the traditional media’s inability to cover the veracity of Trump’s statements…

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

Here’s the video:

When the phone rings at 3:00 AM, and France is threatening to cut off the supply of his favorite hair tonic, do you really want this man-baby to have access to the nuclear football?

Vote Blue No Matter Who!!

Open Thread–5/12/1016

Posted by TomCat at 3:17 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 122016

I’m running quite late today, because I’m working on ways to compensate for the my poor vision slows down my ability to work at the computer. I’ve scheduled many of the appointments I will need to prepare for my eye surgery. Tomorrow I have an appointment to with Sarah to get George his new ankle, so I may post no more than a Personal Update.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:26 (average 5:54). To do it, click here. How did you do?.

Short Takes:

From FAIR.org: Ruth Marcus used her Washington Post column today (5/11/16) to present the speech that House Speaker Paul Ryan should give to Republicans in order to disassociate himself from Donald Trump. She has Paul Ryan being somewhat less than honest.

Most notably, she wants Ryan to say:

I have spent my life believing in, and fighting for, the ideals of the Republican Party: limited government, fiscal responsibility, free trade and free markets, the United States’ role as the world’s most important force for peace and liberty. It is not clear to me which, if any, of those convictions Mr. Trump shares.

Ryan doesn’t want limited government; he actually wants pretty much no government. He has repeatedly introduced budgets that call for eliminating all of the federal government except Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the military by 2050. His budgets provide zero funding for the Justice Department, the State Department, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Education Department, the National Park Service and everything else we think of as the federal government.

As a big supporter of stronger and longer patent and copyright protection, it is hard to see how Ryan can claim to be a supporter of free trade and free markets. As far as fiscal responsibility goes, Ryan has proposed huge tax cuts that would go disproportionately to the wealthy, which he claims will be offset by ending deductions which he has never named.

I fully agree with FAIR, except for the following. Lyin’ Ryan wants big intrusive government to control everything that happens between women’s and LGBT people’s legs. As for Rump Dump Trump, he’s for what the Republican party has supported for years, but they want to keep that support a secret.

From The New Yorker: In what is being hailed as a productive closed-door meeting between two leaders of the Republican Party, Donald J. Trump promised House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday that he would try to sound slightly less like the former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler.

Speaking to reporters at the U.S. Capitol after the meeting, the presumptive G.O.P. nominee said that Ryan had expressed concern that so many of the billionaire’s public utterances were reminiscent of the Third Reich.

“Paul basically said, ‘Can you help me out here? Can you not sound like Hitler all the time?’” Trump said. “And I was like, ‘Paul, I can absolutely do that for you.’”

As an example, Trump said, “Instead of saying I am going to round up people based on their religion, I’ll say that’s just a suggestion. Just like that, I’m fifty per cent less Hitlerish.”

Andy is reporting straight news again. Ryan’s concern is based only on how trump sounds, and that her not moderate his actual policies.

From NY Times: The director of the F.B.I. reignited the factious debate over a so-called “Ferguson effect” on Wednesday, saying that he believed less aggressive policing was driving an alarming spike in murders in many cities.

James Comey, the director, said that while he could offer no statistical proof, he believed after speaking with a number of police officials that a “viral video effect” — with officers wary of confronting suspects for fear of ending up on a video — “could well be at the heart” of a spike in violent crime in some cities.

“There’s a perception that police are less likely to do the marginal additional policing that suppresses crime — the getting out of your car at 2 in the morning and saying to a group of guys, ‘Hey, what are you doing here?’” he told reporters.

Mr. Comey was wading back into a dispute from last fall that pitted him against some of his bosses at the White House and the Justice Department and one that roiled racial tensions over confrontations between police officers and minorities.

What a load of hogwash! If cops are doing their job, as required by law, they have nothing to fear from videotaping. Such fear is an issue, only if they abuse their power. Comey is a Republican, a former GW Bush appointee, with a history of holocaust denial, that Obama appointed to show bipartisanship early in his Presidency. OOPS!!

Cartoon:

0512Cartoon

(Originally posted in 2012)

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