Politics Plus

WWWendy is due in an hour to destink the rancid TomCat and help with chores, including the dreaded task.  I’m treating her to Ribs.  Her shiatsus, Oh and Shit, get the bones.  I hope to finish writing by the time she arrives.  She may be a bit late, because Portland Pride is today.  It’s a few blocks away, not under my window, but it does suck up (no pun intended) all the downtown street parking.

WWWendy and I worked all morning.  I’m pretty pooped!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s  took me 4:09 (average 5:11).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Magazine: President Trump is still trying to avoid responsibility for his administration’s brutal policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the border, but a new report confirms that Trump and his advisors had been considering the extreme measures for as long as they’ve been in power. According to the New York Times, White House senior policy advisor Stephen Miller was “instrumental” in convincing the president to enact the policy, which applies a zero tolerance approach to prosecuting undocumented immigrants caught entering the U.S. — even if that means taking children away from their parents in the process.

I don’t have to tell you that the Republican claim that this is a Democratic policy is a lie. In fact the Republican Reich is setting up a Joe Arpaio style tent city to house kids ripped from their parents at the border. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Daily Kos: On one of the early afternoon shows yesterday on MSNBC, the host had two lawyers on, discussing the Trump Foundation civil charges. One of them was a long time New York attorney, and in just eight words, he described the Trump Presidency absolutely perfectly. He said, "The Trump Presidency is a bust out joint."

Being born in, and living most of my life in Chicago, I understood him perfectly. For those of you unfamiliar with mob terminology, I’ll briefly explain, and you’ll see what I mean.

A bust out joint is a legitimate business. One way or another, usually through either extortion, or unpaid loan shark money, the mob moves in and takes over operation of the business. Let’s just say it’s a bar. They go on a spending spree, using the bar’s lines of credit. The buy as much booze as the liquor distributor will give them on credit. They buy glasses, new cash registers, bar stools, anything they can buy on credit, until the place is maxed out. And when the bills come due, they empty the register, back up a truck, load everything into it and disappear. They sell everything as pure profit, and the bar goes belly up.

The Trump Presidency truly is a classic bust out operation.

In a word, Amen! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Nation of Change: A group of top Democrats are demanding the Trump administration present a plan to Congress to address growing poverty in the United States, following an excoriating report by the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston. Alston slammed the Trump administration’s policies for worsening the state of poverty in the United States. The report details how 40 million Americans live in poverty, and 18.5 million Americans live in extreme poverty. It also details how the United States has the highest rate of income inequality among Western countries and one of the lowest rates of intergenerational social mobility. We speak with Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty. He will be presenting his report next week in Geneva.

Here’s the video:

Make no mistake. Poverty is getting worse because that is what Trump and the Republican Party want and are intentionally causing. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

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Republicans are still screwing our vets.

I slept poorly last night, because the high pollen was setting off my hay fever, so please pardon my brevity.  TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:04 (average 8:57).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Busted: Comey Misused Personal Email During Clinton Email Probe

Here’s the bottom line. Republicans lied from the start.  Hillary was not guilty of wrongdoing. The FBI inadvertently influenced the election in favor of Trump, because Comey and others cared more about agency PR than long-standing policy. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From The New Yorker: As new details emerge from this week’s summit in Singapore, the White House has confirmed that Donald J. Trump unilaterally offered to let Kim Jong Un have Mike Pence as his personal manservant.

The offer reportedly came after Kim spoke glowingly to Trump about the Vice-President’s obsequiousness, sources said.

“Even by North Korean standards, Pence puts my toadies to shame,” Kim reportedly said.

Once the necessary paperwork is squared away, Pence could begin bowing and scraping in Pyongyang as early as next week.

Dang, Andy! Did the Fuhrer get a selection of Kim’s Army of Beauties in return? RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Think Progress: During an impromptu interview on Friday’s edition of Fox & Friends, President Trump indicated that he’d like it if Americans, particularly his staff in the White House, treated him the same way North Koreans treat totalitarian dictator Kim Jong Un.

I suggested that desire a few days ago. The article has video. I did not include it out of compassion for you. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

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2011: Remember?

I’m running a bit behind today, because Store to Door delivered my groceries late, and I needed to unpack and put them away.  WWWendy is bringing her niece for training this evening, since her niece will be filling-in when Wendy is away the first week in July.  It’s been a busy day, and I’m tired.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:41 (average 4:30).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): President Trump Military Exercise Giveaway To N. Korea Suits Putin’s Goals (19 min.)

Why give so much for nothing is a good question. My best guesses are that he did it as a distraction, or his master told him to. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (NY Times Channel): I Escaped North Korea. Here’s My Message for President Trump

Of course she’s right. The problem is, Trump envies Kim. He wants to exercise dictatorial power like Kim’s. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Daily Kos: As much as New York is a reliable blue state during presidential and senatorial elections, it is far from being a progressive utopia. Just look at congressional district 14, which is represented by one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress, with little to show for it.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s primary campaign against Joe Crowley had earned a little bit of coverage, but her press team couldn’t find any news outlet willing to premiere her new campaign ad. “They were like, ‘no, no, no,’ so I was like, alright, I’m just going to put it on Twitter,” the 28-year-old political organizer tells Progressives Everywhere. “Thankfully it turned out really well.”

Here’s the ad:

She has my endorsement! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

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It’s still pretty chilly at the CatBox and I’m going to work through this morning, breaking for lunch of course, until I finally complete the Monthly Report.  I don’t want to wait on that, as we have a major heat wave coming.  UGH!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:29 (average 4:58).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Politico: First lady Melania Trump attended the Ford’s Theatre annual gala on Sunday evening, paying tribute to President Abraham Lincoln’s legacy. It was one of her first public appearances since surgery last month.

"Tonight reminds all of us about the power the arts have in cultivating the American voice," the first lady, who served as the honorary chairman, said in a statement. "Thank you to Ford’s Theatre Society for tonight, and your continued dedication to education and leadership in the arts — the impact they have on society is invaluable and something we will continue to cherish throughout time.”

I can’t help but wonder, if the significance of Ford’s Theatre is wishful thinking on her part. If so, who could blame her. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Huffington Post: A future without net neutrality is here. Well, almost.

The Federal Communications Commission will take away the rights of internet users on Monday. Officially, the repeal of the 2015 net neutrality protections ― a repeal that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Trump pick, had pushed for ― will take effect.

That means that internet providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon will be able to block, throttle and otherwise interfere with online content without any real legal consequences.

Pai, a former Verizon lawyer, bucked the law, ignored public opinion and twisted the facts to make his ill-advised case for handing control of the internet to the anti-competitive cabal of giant phone and cable companies that control broadband access in the United States. In a moment of Orwellian arrogance, Pai said he did it to “restore internet freedom.”

The reality is quite the opposite: Pai is attempting to usher in an online regime that would resemble the internet in China. In that country, a powerful alliance between the central government and national telecom companies has created a digital dystopia, where websites and online services that fall out of favor load so slowly as to render them unusable. Others appear in a flash, thanks to cozy ties to the powers that be….

…You can be sure that Pai and his cronies in the phone and cable lobby will declare victory on Monday, but the expiration of the 2015 rules will be only a temporary hiccup. The fight is far from over in Congress, in the courts and across the country.

We must all refuse to give up the fight for Net Neutrality and inform others to do the same. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Daily Kos: …we can be extraordinarily confident that no substantive progress will be made towards the theoretical Actual Damn Point of the Trump-Kim summit, the suspension of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for, presumably, an easing of the international sanctions against them. This is because nobody on Trump’s staff has any concept of how to draft such a deal, what the specifics ought to be, and most importantly what measures are sufficient or insufficient for ensuring long-term verification of that deal. Trump nixed the disarmament treaty with Iran because he listened to longtime conservative hawks who simply wanted it gone, regardless of expert conclusions that the deal was working; he cannot hope to draft one on his own, at least one not written in the diplomatic equivalent of crayon, for the same reasons. And this, even without hardline neanderthals like John Bolton looking to sabotage the talks at every opportunity.

This is not to say the Donald Trump team will not be eager to broadcast some supposed “deal” in order to make our nation’s most successful traitor momentarily look good. Trump is under enormous pressure, at the moment, to accomplish even the most minor of diplomatic tasks without falling over his own feet. But don’t be surprised if didn’t fall over his own feet is treated, by his team, as a herculean accomplishment unmatched by any modern president, real or fictional, since Bill Pullman fended off interstellar invasion in his fighty-shooty jet.

The actual disarmament part? That would require an expertise nobody in this White House has—or can even put up with.

You can also be sure that Trump will demand a Nobel Peace prize, if he and Kim just share the golden glow of the same Russian hooker.  RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

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