Politics Plus

It’s a muggy day here in the CatBox, and I feel very tired.  It was hot and humid last night, exacerbated by the heat my O₂ concentrator produces.  I slept very poorly.  TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:32 (average 5:20).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Late Show Channel): Samantha Bee Gears Up For 2019’s Not WH Correspondents’ Dinner

I can’t wait to see that one. Sam will skewer the Orange Obstructer. RESIST!!

From The Atlantic: [J]oe Biden is running. The former vice president will make his candidacy official with a video announcement next Wednesday, according to people familiar with the discussions who have been told about them by top aides.

Seriously, he’s actually made a decision. It’s taken two years of back-and-forth, it’ll be his third (or, depending on how you count, seventh) try for the White House, and many people thought he wouldn’t do it, but the biggest factor reshaping the 2020 Democratic-primary field is locking into place.

I’m actually disappointed. I had hope that Joe would assume a Senior Advisor role. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Gina Haspel, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, made a rare public appearance on Thursday to give a nostalgia-laced recruiting pitch to students at Auburn University. But she was confronted instead by a heckler shouting about her role in torturing suspected militants in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Ms. Haspel was recounting the excitement she felt at the start of her own career when the heckling began. “Tell these young children, tell them who you tortured. You know their names — they’re still in Guantánamo Bay,” an unidentified man shouted.

“You’re a decrepit human being,” he continued before being removed by security. “The only people you should be talking to is a prison guard in a jail cell.”

Kudos to the protester. Republican torturers belong in prison, not heading the CIA. RESIST!!

Cartoons:

It’s a very busy day, here in the CatBox.  Store to Door will deliver my groceries, and I have to unpack and put them away.  Later WWWendy is coming to de-stink the vile TomCat and help with chores.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:38 (average 5:23).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Trump 2020 GOP Challenger: ‘No Limit’ To Damage Another Trump Term Could Do

May this challenger, as bad as his fiscal policies are, weaken Trump so much that his landslide defeat spells the end of the Republican Reich. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Dollemore Channel): White House Officials Afraid They’ll be Punished for Telling the Truth to Robert Mueller!

Spot-on, Jesse. They are right to be afraid. When their Fuhrer says “Tell the truth”, he means “the ‘truth’ I want”. They brought it on themselves by taking jobs in his Republican Reich. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Donald Trump, deplorable in chief, has no qualms whatsoever about the increased number of death threats Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar has been receiving since he tweeted a video of edited 9/11 footage interspersed with remarks Omar had made to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Taken out of context, the video made Omar sound as if she was dismissive of the terror attack, when Omar was clearly making the case that more than a billion Muslims were not responsible for the actions of 19 hijackers, 16 of which came from Trump’s favorite ally, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless, Trump saw his moment to pounce and take the most racist track possible, loudly barking to his followers that Omar wasn’t American at all, and suggesting she had allegiances elsewhere. Of course, Trump has a history of questioning the loyalty of American citizens of color. Look no further than his racist birther attacks on President Obama for another crystal-clear example.

Why would Trump have regrets because of death threats against Omar. Those threats, especially if carried out, are the reason he did it. RESIST!!

Cartoons:

It’s a chilly day here in the CatBox.  Happy Infernal Revenue Day.  If you just filed and it was so painful that you can’t sit down, a gay friend recommends Butt Butter.  Oh God it’s Monday!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:16  (average 4:32).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Tales:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Rep. Mike Quigley Expects DOJ To Reveal “As Little As They Possibly Can” In Redacted Mueller Report

Mueller set a “very high bar”. To combat that, Trump and the Republican Reich set a very low Barr, or should I say Barrf? RESIST!!

From The Guardian: …Bernie Sanders will finish a four-day tour of Trump Country on Monday, with a town hall on the president’s favorite network: Fox News.

It is an unexpected partnership, between a self-described democratic socialist and a media outlet that dedicates primetime to pundits who rail against a purported “creep” of socialism.

The event will be staged in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a state Trump won by less than 1%, and it will be moderated by Fox anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.

Sanders is the first Democratic presidential candidate to appear on the network for such an event. He says it is a way to speak directly to Trump supporters, to make the case that the president is a “pathological liar” who has misled the working class. The booking is also important for Fox News, which was banned from hosting a Democratic primary debate.

Among Democrats, the booking has drawn criticism. Progressive groups are urging presidential contenders to boycott the network whose stream of pro-Trump commentary has led critics to liken it to unofficial “state TV”.

As much as I detest the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, I’m trying to remain open minded about this. The huge number of voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin get all their propaganda from Faux Noise. That may be the only way to expose them to truth about their Fuhrer. Nevertheless, I won’t be watching it. RESIST!!

From Alternet: CNN’s John Avlon on Monday ran down years’ worth of President Donald Trump’s lies in a short three-minute video.

During his “Reality Check” segment titled “Does Trump know we have video of his speeches?”, Avlon took the president and his White House to task for constantly reversing positions they’ve held in the past — and then shamelessly lying about it.

I’d make a two-faced graphic of Trump, except for one thing. No barf bag is big and strong enough to contain the response. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

News’ endless attacks on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

It’s a chilly day here in the CatBox.  I woke up in the middle of the night and could not sleep, so I feel very tired.  Tomorrow is a very busy WWWendy day, so please expect only a Personal Update or an Open Thread with no links messages on Care2.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:26 (average 4:30).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Fox News’ endless attacks on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Barf Bag Alert!!

The bizarre antics of the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, make it abundantly clear that AOC is a significant force for good in the US. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Bernie Sanders Channel): Bernie & Civil Rights in Chicago

Kudos to Bernie for his youthful activism. Like him, I was also arrested demonstrating in Chicago. It was in August, 1968. Bernie remains in my top three for 2020. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: In a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on insulin prices Wednesday, Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and fellow lawmakers blasted manufacturers and drug industry intermediaries for creating a situation in which as much as a quarter of the population with diabetes is rationing and skimping on lifesaving doses of the drug because of cost.

“I don’t know how you people sleep at night,” Schakowsky told the panel. “I just want you to know your days are numbered.” Lawmakers heard from patients with diabetes as well, including 28-year-old Kristen Whitney Daniels, who was kicked off her parents’ insurance plan when she reached 26, and started rationing insulin then. “Nobody cared or nobody understood that without this next vial of insulin, I wouldn’t live to see another week. […] I can’t really explain how isolating and how terrifying it is.”

It’s also totally unnecessary and completely unjustified. The man who discovered insulin nearly 100 years ago, Frederick Banting, refused to patent the drug under his name. With his co-inventors James Collip and Charles Best, he sold the patent for $1 to the University of Toronto, because they rejected the idea that people who needed this new wonder drug to survive would not be able to afford it. Since then, this drug that has been around since 1923 has become a potent symbol of corporate greed and everything wrong with our healthcare system. Pharmaceutical companies are holding diabetes patients hostage just because they can, because they can get away with continuing to jack up prices and profits.

It has to change. After I fall through the Medicare donut hole, my insulin costs me over $1,000 for a three month supply.  My Advair costs even more!  RESIST!!

Cartoon: