Politics Plus

Once again, it’s a busy day here in the CatBox.  Monday almost always is, as the weekends tend to be somewhat slow for news.  Finding stories for you takes more time.  OGIM!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:05 (average 4:56).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Vox Channel): How the Republican Party went from Lincoln to Trump (published 7/2016)

Almost 2.5 years later, the leaders’ choice is revoltingly obvious. Republican voters have two choices. They can goose-step with the Republican Reich or they can leave it. RESIST!!

From Huffington Post: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said there’s “no question” President Donald Trump is a racist, citing in an interview that aired Sunday the White House’s response to white supremacist groups and ongoing rhetoric about migrant communities.

“The president certainly didn’t invent racism. But he’s certainly given a voice to it and expanded it and created a platform for those things,” Ocasio-Cortez told “60 Minutes” correspondent Anderson Cooper during the segment. When asked if she believes Trump is a racist, she replied: “Yeah. Yeah, no question.”

I appreciate this woman’s straightforward honesty more and more: RESIST!!

From NY Times: Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is in the final stages of deciding whether to run for president and has told allies he is skeptical the other Democrats eyeing the White House can defeat President Trump, an assessment that foreshadows a clash between the veteran Washington insider and the more liberal and fresh-faced contenders for the party’s 2020 nomination.

Many Democratic voters, and nearly all major Democratic donors, are keenly interested in Mr. Biden’s plans because of their consuming focus on finding a candidate who can beat a president they believe represents a threat to American democracy. But there is also a rising demand in the party for a more progressive standard-bearer who reflects the increasingly diverse Democratic coalition.

Mr. Biden would instantly be the early front-runner if he ran, but he would have to bridge divides in a primary that would test whether Democrats are willing to embrace a moderate white man in his 70s if they view him as the best bet to oust Mr. Trump.

As much as I love Joe personally, I consider him a bad choice politically. His progressive credentials need bolstering, and he suffers from foot-in-mouth disease. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Would a volunteer please give a BJ to both Pence and Trump?

It’s another busy day here in the CatBox.  Anymore, just preparing my articles, squeezed in at an angle with a bent keyboard tray makes a day busy.  Things are about to get interesting.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:09 (average 4:36).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Fox figures repeatedly urged Trump to shut down the government over border wall funding

Barf Bag Alert!!

Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten shut it down to please the idiots at the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise! RESIST!!

From Vox: House Democrats have released their new proposal to change rules for how the House of Representatives conducts its business for the next two years — and there’s a lot in it.

Democrats are doing a number of things to decentralize power from leadership and open up the process of legislating.

The rules package is an important statement that shows what issues Democrats are elevating in their first few weeks of the session and how they intend to govern over the next two years. Basically, Democrats are trying to show they will behave much differently than House Republicans have over the past eight years.

With public trust in Congress at historic lows, Democrats are taking a number of steps to strengthen ethics rules and bring back regular order to the legislative process — giving bills with broad bipartisan support a chance to go through committee even if they don’t have leadership’s blessing.

Under the Republican Reich, no Bill could make it to the floor without the support of the Republican leadership, and the majority of the Congressional Reich. The Democratic Rules are how the House is supposed to be run. However, Pay-Go must be removed from the rules. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Two federal workers and their union have filed a lawsuit against the government over the wages they’re losing during Donald Trump’s shutdown. Justin Tarovisky and Grayson Sharp work in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and they’re still on the job as essential employees during the shutdown:

“They’re working a dangerous job, they’re critically understaffed, and now, they don’t know when they’ll next get paid,” [attorney Heidi Burakiewicz] said, adding that “essential” employees will continue incurring the costs of commuting to work, such as gas and child care. Without knowing how long the shutdown will last, many workers may be forced to make challenging choices.

"They may be paycheck to paycheck, have cellphone bills, mortgages. … It’s unacceptable for any employer, but especially for the U.S. government,” Burakiewicz contended.

A similar lawsuit by the same attorney was successful during the 2013 shutdown … but 25,000 federal workers are still waiting for the damages they’re entitled to, after an appeals process that ended just last year.

Frankly, they should sue the Republican Party and Faux Noise. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

In case you forgot, Mooseolini is Sarah Palin, aka Bloody Bullseye Barbie, aka Drill Baby Dingbat.

Because the Fuhrer is still Resident, we can look forward to another Crappy New Year, but we have hope for better things.  Holiday Hugs!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:00 (average 5:38).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Louis C.K. mocks Parkland survivors in leaked standup audio

Only one word is sufficiently despicable to describe a man that mocks kids, who suffered such a horrific experience. Call him a Republican, RESIST!!

From Washington Post: Democrats will take control of the House on Thursday with a stark challenge to President Trump, voting on legislation that would fund the federal government while denying Trump the money he has demanded to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

GOP leaders in the Senate said they would support only a proposal that has the president’s backing. And without additional wall money, the Democrats’ offer is unlikely to break the stalemate that has shuttered large parts of the federal government since Dec. 22.

But the strategy Democrats announced Monday would usher in a new era of divided government in Washington with a dare to Trump, aimed at forcing him and Senate Republicans to take their deal or prolong a partial government shutdown.

I don’t expect the bill to succeed, but that’s the best way to begin. Since the shutdown is Republican crap on the floor, it’s only right to rub their noses in it. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Japan, in many respects a model global citizen, has long been an outlier on whaling, an industry that most nations have abandoned as cruel, unnecessary and a danger to the survival of the great mammals of the seas, but that the Japanese claim as part of their culture. That divide has come to a head with Japan’s exit from the International Whaling Commission, a politically motivated decision Tokyo should reconsider.

Japan’s argument is that the commission was set up in 1946 to manage commercial whaling, not to ban it. After global populations of whales plummeted in the 1970s, the commission ordered a moratorium that went into effect in 1986 and looks to continue it indefinitely, despite intensive lobbying by Japan and other countries that defend commercial whaling, most notably Norway and Iceland.

In reality, Japan always flouted the moratorium, using a loophole that allowed “scientific research” to continue slaughtering thousands of minke, fin and sperm whales far from its shores and selling their meat on the domestic market.

That charade ends with Japan’s withdrawal from the whaling commission, which is good news for whales off Antarctica, since Japan said it would limit commercial whaling to its own territorial waters.

I fully oppose the killing of whales. The Sea Shepherds welcome the end of whaling in the southern oceans. I hope they begin to operate in Japanese territorial waters. RESIST!!

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