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Open Thread – 3/6/2018

Posted by TomCat at 9:23 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 062018

I’m waiting for Amazon Prime Now to deliver groceries between 8:00 and 9:00 this morning. Tomorrow I have an appointment that will tie me up all morning, so please expect no more than a Personal Update or an Open Thread.

The groceries came, and I have put them away, so I’ll publish early and try to enjoy a restful afternoon.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 7:29 (average 8:31). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): The real story about ICE

Isn’t it time to put ICE on ice? RESIST!!

From CNN: North Korea is willing to talk to the United States about giving up its nuclear weapons, South Korea said Tuesday, in a remarkable development that followed unprecedented meetings in Pyongyang.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has also agreed to refrain from conducting nuclear and missile tests while engaging in dialogue with South Korea, Seoul’s national security chief Chung Eui-yong said after returning from talks with Kim.

Chung said Pyongyang expressed willingness to talk to the United States "in an open-ended dialogue to discuss the issue of denuclearization and to normalize relations with North Korea."

North Korea clarified that it had no reason to retain nuclear weapons if "the military threat to North Korea is resolved" and the country’s security can be guaranteed, Chung said.

It’s a startling statement from a nation that only months ago declared it could wipe the United States off the face of the Earth.

Poor widdle Donnie Tiny Hands, etc.! If the peace efforts he and his Republican Reich tried to prevent bear fruit, he may not get to play with his button and make the world go BOOM. RESIST!!

From DC Report: When our children are massacred we get “thoughts and prayers” from members of Congress instead of action to save lives.

But when it comes to their own safety, lawmakers act swiftly–and at our expense.

The House passed a resolution allowing them to use our tax dollars to buy bulletproof vests. And that’s not all. They can use their expense accounts to pay for security guards at official events or just to hang out in their district offices.

They can even use the money to install bulletproof glass in their district offices, although that has to be embedded in the rent, not paid for separately. One might read that provision as the first move on a slippery slope toward hiding security expenses.

So, is there a pressing need for this use of taxpayer dollars to protect our lawmakers from people with guns hell-bent on murder?

David Cay Johnston is spot on. Click through for more. Frankly, I think anywhere a Republican Politician is appearing should be an Open Carry zone, until they protect the children. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0306Cartoon

Open Thread – 3/5/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:05 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 052018

It’s another busy day here in the CatBox as grocery shopping on Amazon Prime Now is very time consuming. Wendy’s late arrival threw off my schedule, but I was more sorry she felt ill than inconvenienced. She just texted me that she is feeling better today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:00 (5:13). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): Trump’s Brand is Ayn Rand

Like I’ve said from the beginning, Rump Dump Trump is not an aberration from the Republican Reich. He’s a reflection of it. Our Reich (Robert) is better. RESIST!!

From NY Times: When Representative Daniel Lipinski, a conservative-leaning Democrat and scion of Chicago’s political machine, agreed to one joint appearance last month with his liberal primary challenger, the divide in the Democratic Party was evident in the audience that showed up.

Mr. Lipinski’s outnumbered supporters were the diminished lunch-pail Democrats that once dominated his Southside district. Those of his rival, Marie Newman, came from the party’s ascendant coalition — young progressives and women like Elizabeth Layden, a Patagonia-clad teacher who explained her opposition to Mr. Lipinski in blunt terms.

“Because he’s a dinosaur, ’cause he’s a phony, ’cause he’s a Republican who claims to be a Democrat,” said Ms. Layden, 49, who has been making phone calls and knocking on doors to help unseat Mr. Lipinski, a seven-term House member, in the primary race this month. “Hello, women’s rights, and hello, my reproductive rights. Get out of my uterus.”

As the midterm election season gets underway with races in Texas on Tuesday and Illinois on March 20, contests like this one illustrate the turmoil of the Trump-era Democratic Party. Democrats need to pick up 24 seats to take back control of the House and are hoping a surge of grass-roots energy, activism and fund-raising at levels unseen since the rise of Barack Obama can help play a crucial role.

Yet the backlash to President Trump’s divisive politics has also fueled a demand by the party’s progressive wing for ideological purity and more diverse representation, a tension that could reshape what it means to be a Democrat.

“This is part of the reason Donald Trump won,” Mr. Lipinski said in an interview, adding, “Democrats have chased people out of the party.”

Click through for an interesting read. I believe that the Democrats need to lean toward progressive ideological purity, but if Democratic voters choose a moderate, or even a DINO, over a progressive in the primaries, then we should support the voters’ choice. The worst DINO is far better than the best Republican. RESIST!!

From Alternet: Former MI6 spy Christopher Steele has reportedly told special counsel Robert Mueller that he believes the Russian government directly intervened to block President Donald Trump from appointing Mitt Romney as his secretary of state.

In a New Yorker profile of Steele published Monday, reporter Jane Mayer writes that Steele — who authored the infamous Fusion GPS dossier alleging deep ties between President Donald Trump and the Russian government — wrote a memo in late 2016 claiming that Russia worked to stop then-President elect Trump from making noted Russia hawk Romney his chief diplomat.

“This memo, which did not surface publicly with the others, is shorter than the rest, and is based on one source, described as ‘a senior Russian official,’” writes Mayer. “The official said that he was merely relaying talk circulating in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but what he’d heard was astonishing: people were saying that the Kremlin had intervened to block Trump’s initial choice for Secretary of State, Mitt Romney.”

He with the tiny hands, etc. would never disobey the man with the key to the pee tapes and a ton of other dirt. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0305Cartoon

Open Thread – 3/4/2018

Posted by TomCat at 8:55 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 042018

It’s a WWWendy w/wings day here at the CatBox, and in addition to fumigating the stinky TomCat, we have several chores, including the dreaded task. I miss my beloved Orb! Sad smile

I just heard from Wendy, who isn’t feeling well and will be late, so I’m rushing to finish, before she gets here.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:16 (average 5:10). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Jig Zone Puzzle:

From YouTube (SNL Channel): Presidential Address Cold Open

No wonder Melania likes Alec better, but Alec gave it away. He held up large hands. RESIST!!

From Newsweek: President Donald Trump has made no secret of his admiration for strongmen leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte.

And, according to a tape of closed door remarks Trump made at his Mar-a-Lago estate obtained by CNN, he supports President Xi Xinping of China’s move to extend his power indefinitely. “He’s now president for life,” Trump told Republican donors, after the Chinese Communist party last week moved to alter the constitution to allow Xi to remain in power beyond the two-term limit.

“President for life. And he’s great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll give that a shot some day.” [emphasis added]

Both the Fuhrer and the Republican Party would love that. But they only admit it when they think nobody is listening. RESIST!!

From NY Times: President Trump warned on Saturday that he would apply higher taxes on imported European cars if the European Union carried through on its threat to retaliate against his proposed stiff new tariffs on steel and aluminum.

“If the E.U. wants to further increase their already massive tariffs and barriers on U.S. companies doing business there, we will simply apply a Tax on their Cars which freely pour into the U.S.,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter [Fool delinked] from Florida, where he was spending part of the weekend. “They make it impossible for our cars (and more) to sell there. Big trade imbalance!”

It was the latest indication that Mr. Trump, despite pressure from foreign allies and American business leaders, is standing by his decision to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from all countries. The action is likely to be signed this coming week.

The fool claimed this measure would target China, but he appears to be after the EU and Canada. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I made this cartoon six years ago. We’re still trying!

Open Thread – 3/3/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:00 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 032018

I’m relieved that I have the start of the month routine behind me, because I have a busy week coming up. I have an appointment on Wednesday that will interfere with delivery from Store to Door, so I’ll have to use Amazon Prime Now instead. That’s always complicated. Then on Friday, I have semi-annual fasting labs for Megan, my PCP. I better get as much rest as I can over the weekend.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:32 (average 5:28). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Are Jared Kushner’s Businesses Tied To President Donald Trump Policies?

They’re doing it to pay for 666 5th Ave. And I looked, and behold an orange horse: and his name that sat on him was Trump, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Washington Post Channel): President Trump’s top 5 claims, updated

Barf Bag Alert!!

When Trump is awake and not lying, the Pope is not Catholic, and no bears, anywhere, are shitting in the woods. RESIST!!

From Think Progress: President Donald Trump proposed a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports on Thursday. On Friday he further claimed [Fuhrer delinked] that “trade wars are good.”

What the president seemingly fails to understand, of course, is that tariffs are not taxes, and Trump’s attempt to protect American industries in this manner is much more likely to harm American consumers than anything else.

Trump reportedly made his tariff proposal public without first alerting his advisers at the Treasury, State, or Defense Departments. His chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, adamantly opposes tariff increases and trade wars, complicating things even further.

So Trump is relying, it appears, mainly on his own knowledge to make major shifts in his administration’s economic and infrastructure policies, despite the fact that his understanding of the subject is relatively thin. When Trump talks about the economy, for instance, he touts stock market gains but neglects to mention slower-than-normal job growth, corporations spending very little on bonuses, and stagnant wages, among other problems.

Trump has made plenty of other comments in the past to buff up his own credentials — all of which sound more than a bit awkward now, given his hasty announcement on Friday.

1. He’s a financial genius

“I agree [that I am a financial genius],” Trump tweeted in November 2014, quoting one of his Twitter followers.

I shared one absurd boast from Resident Idiot. Click through for the other fourteen. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0303Cartoon

Open Thread – 3/2/2018

Posted by TomCat at 11:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 022018

It’s Monthly Report day, so I’m quite busy. I also solved a technical problem. Our Clustrmap disappeared from the site. I finally discovered that the problem was on my computer. I use AdGuard, and AdGuard blocked it as an ad. So, I set up an exception in AdGuard for PP and changed Clustrmap to a spinning globe.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:05 (average 4:42). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Jeff Merkley Channel): Senator Merkley Presses Army Corps to Support Tribal Housing Along the Columbia River

Kudos to Jeff for standing up for Native American rights. Oregon leads the way. We RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): "This Is How You Run A Banana Republic"

Painter was not even an Obama appointee. He worked in the GW Bush Regime. The best way to deal with a banana republic is to put banana Republican politicians out of work. RESIST!!

From The Daily Beast: At a time when insane is the new normal, our ability to be outraged is dulled amid daily incoming. But Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee—led by their chairman, Trump lackey Devin Nunes—somehow hit a new low with Thursday’s revelation that they leaked to Fox News texts from Senate Intelligence Committee Co-Chairman Mark Warner and a Russian businessman in a desperate attempt to discredit the senator. Those texts were then retweeted by our president, in a brushback pitch for Warner’s insistence on investigating Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election—and potential collusion with the Trump campaign—without fear or favor.

This bombshell story, first reported by The New York Times, is not your garden variety Trump-related drama. It’s worse. At a time when institutional checks and balances are needed more than ever, it underscored just how bad the blood is on Capitol Hill—not just between the two parties, but between the House and the Senate itself.

Devin Nunes—a California dairy farmer who degraded himself by becoming a congressman—deserves disproportionate blame for this pathetic mess. His committee has turned the pursuit of truth into a partisan mockery, choosing to do the White House’s bidding at the expense of honest inquiry and fact-based debate.

The author concludes that Lyin’ Ryan should remove Nunes. I fully agree, but I see far too big an orangish-brown smudge on Ryan’s nose for that to happen. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Just days after losing his top security clearance at the White House, Jared Kushner could soon be eligible to enter another high-security government facility, legal experts believe.

According to Davis Logsdon, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, Kushner could be on the verge of obtaining “long-term clearance” at this separate facility, which, like the White House, is owned and operated by the federal government.

Logsdon said that, although such a facility lacks some of the prestige of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Kushner would have access to government benefits there that far exceed what he has received as an unpaid adviser at the White House.

“All of his meals and housing would be fully paid for by the taxpayer,” Logsdon said. “And, if things play out the way some believe they will, Jared Kushner could be receiving these benefits for decades to come.”

Andy, you pictured a prison, but wouldn’t the GOP Gitmo Gulag be a better place for him? RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0302Cartoon

Open Thread – 3/1/2018

Posted by TomCat at 11:34 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 012018

Pardon my brevity, but today, I’m busier than a Russian Hooker at Trump Towers.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:53 (average 4:51). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Trae Crowder Channel): Liberal Redneck – The Right to Bear Harm

Amen Trae! He’s Southern Fried Borowitz! RESIST!!

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): Can Trump Fire Mueller?

So the bottom line is this. How desperate does the Fuhrer get and when? RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said on Wednesday that she was organizing a “Million Liars March” to support her co-worker Hope Hicks.

Calling on “American liars from every walk of life” to march, Sanders said that she had already received commitments from hundreds of liars in the White House, the Cabinet, and Congress.

“These people realize what’s at stake,” she said. “It’s not just Hope Hicks’s career—it’s the lying life style itself.”

“White lies like Hope’s were the lies of a promising beginner,” she said. “If Hope had been allowed to grow as liar, I have no doubt that someday she could have been as consistent a dispenser of ginormous whoppers as I am.”

Dang Andy! Upchuckabee-Sanders can recruit the rabid base of the Republican Reich. That’s around 20 million goose-stepping liars! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Open Thread – 2/28/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:38 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 282018

In breaking news, several sources inside the Mueller investigation have revealed that Mueller is probing into Trump’s prior knowledge of and involvement in the release of the DNC emails. The noose tightens. I don’t know why, but I had insomnia last night and slept poorly. Since this is such a busy day, this is my only article, and I’ll send no links messages on Care2.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:41 (average 5:49). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Jared Kushner Eyed Over Foreign Contacts, Vulnerability To Manipulation

In any other White House, this would be the biggest scandal in history. But in today’s Republican Reich, it’s just one of the daily dozen. RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Paul Ryan: ‘We shouldn’t ban guns for law-abiding citizens’

Barf Bag Alert!!

Republicans always use this "law abiding citizens" BS, coupled with the claim that we need to keep guns out of just the wrong hands. I can prove that they are lying. If that’s what they wanted, they wouldn’t keep refusing to close the gun show loophole. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: In a moment of high drama at the White House on Tuesday morning, Donald J. Trump dove under his desk after a can of Diet Coke opened with an unexpectedly loud sound.

Moments earlier, Trump had pressed a button on his desk, summoning Vice-President Mike Pence to the Oval Office to serve him the frosty beverage.

According to one aide, when Pence opened the can, it made “an unusually loud noise,” sending Trump ducking under his desk in a millisecond.

At a news conference, minutes later, the press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, attempted to tamp down speculation that Trump had acted in a cowardly manner during the Diet Coke incident. “The President prudently repositioned himself under his desk in an aggressive crouch,” she said. “He was ready for anything.”

Pence agreed with her assessment. “The President was putting himself in a position where, if need be, he could defend the entire country against an attack,” he said. “I, for one, am honored to serve a man of such valor.”

Dang Andy! Isn’t it miraculous that Donny Dump-in-Pants couldn’t find his nuclear button with his tiny hands? RESIST!!

Cartoon:

May the founding be undone ASAP!!

Open Thread – 2/27/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:10 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 272018

I’m waiting for Store to Door to call for my grocery order. Tomorrow is grocery delivery day and shower day. Then on Thursday and Friday, I get super busy with the new poll and the Monthly Report. It’s going to be hectic.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:59 (average 5:02). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The Last Word: Lawrence: Trump’s superhero fantasy world

President Trump said that he would’ve run into Stoneman Douglas High School without a weapon to save children from the shooter. Lawrence O’Donnell argues that this superhero version of Trump is a total contrast to what Trump has said — and done — in real life.

Wheelchair, aside, I doubt that I would have run into that school. I have not been trained or equipped for that. I know that I would run into a burning building to save lives, because, trained and equipped, I have done so a few times. That coward would turn tail and run from a kitty fart! RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Shortly after he declared that he would have run into a Florida high school unarmed to thwart a mass shooting, Donald J. Trump announced that he was planning a parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate his hypothetical act of heroism.

“Anyone can act with bravery in the moment,” Trump told reporters in the White House. “But it takes a very special kind of hero to tell people about the incredibly brave thing he would have done weeks after the thing happened.”

He added that it was one of his greatest regrets that bone spurs prevented him from serving in the Vietnam War, “because the really courageous things I would have done during that war would have been off the charts.”

Well, I see that Andy is doing straight reporting again. RESIST!!

From Alternet: For some reason, this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, seems to have gotten more attention than usual. That’s saying something, since for the last 15 years or so it’s gotten much more attention than it deserves. CPAC is like a 10-car pile-up — frightening and horrible, but you can’t look away.

Salon’s Jeremy Binckes and Matthew Sheffield have each weighed in on this year’s event — with Binckes making the case that it shows that the GOP is now thoroughly Trumpified while Sheffield argues that it’s now Trump who’s been absorbed by the Republican Party. I think CPAC shows that the Trump strain has always been slithering around under the rock of conservative movement politics, and 2016 just turned it over and let it run amok.

There is one good thing we can say about CPUKE. It’s over. RESIST!!

From TPM: Bernie Sanders’ son says he’s running for Congress in New Hampshire.

Levi Sanders is joining seven fellow Democrats and three Republicans in this year’s race for the 1st Congressional District. Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter is stepping down after her term ends.

The 48-year-old Sanders has lived in New Hampshire for 15 years. He’s in Claremont, in the 2nd Congressional District. The U.S. Constitution requires only that U.S. House members reside in the state they serve, not necessarily in the same district.

The son of the Independent Vermont senator proposes a “Medicare for all health care system;” tuition-free public college; a higher minimum wage; and “sensible gun legislation.”

Kudos to Levi! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Free Leonard Peltier!

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