Well, WWW/wW and I finished our chores yesterday.  I have an easy week this week, but next week medical mayhem will kick in.  I popped on George, skipped my morning nap, and tried to do extra research this morning, hoping to find a third article.  I found a couple extra short takes.  Today I am officially in mourning.  The Olympics distracted me, but now the absence of blessed light from the holy Ellipsoid Orb has become apparent.  Woe to the world!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:27 (average 5:25).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): HE DOESN’T KNOW THE TERRITORY – Parody of the opening scene from The Music Man

Beautifully done. Parody Project Parodied Projection. RESIST!!

From CNN: Lina Crisostomo’s SATs are coming up next week, but college test prep has taken a backseat to funerals, vigils and walkouts.

It’s been like that since a gunman stormed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing 17 people and sending Lina running from campus.

"Homework doesn’t really seem that important now," she said Friday, the day before her 17th birthday. "My attention has changed to fighting for these 17 lives."

Lina is one of many Stoneman Douglas students who’s been channeling grief into fighting the gun lobby since the February 14 shooting in Parkland, Florida. In little more than a week, the student-led movement made gains no one predicted, not even the students. Now, with classes set to resume on Wednesday, Lina and others worry about losing momentum.

"I know I have to get back to reality, but it just doesn’t seem as important as fighting," she said.

In a way, I partially understand her. I had to drop out of college in the 1960s, because my class attendance and assignment completion were too sporadic for me to pass. Fighting against the war and for civil rights just seemed more important at the time. RESIST!!

From NY Times: After President Trump signed the Republican tax cut into law, companies put out cheery announcements that they were giving workers bonuses because of their expected windfalls from the tax reductions. The president and Republican lawmakers quickly held up these news releases as vindication for their argument that cutting the top federal corporate tax rate to 21 percent, from 35 percent, would boost workers’ incomes even as it added $1.5 trillion to the debt that future generations would have to pay off.

Now corporate announcements and analyst reports confirm what honest observers always said — this claim is pure fantasy. As executives tell investors what they intend to do with their tax savings and their spending plans are tabulated into neat charts and graphs, the reports jibe with what most experts said would happen: Companies are rewarding their stockholders.

Businesses are buying back shares, which creates demand for the stocks, boosts share prices and benefits investors. Some of the cash is going to increase dividends. And a chunk will go to acquiring other businesses, creating larger corporations that face less competition.

We all knew this was coming! RESIST!!

From Liberals Unite: News website Axios reported late Sunday that Trump considers drug dealers to be worse than serial killers and would love the U.S. to pass laws making capital punishment mandatory for drug traffickers.

In Singapore, the death penalty is mandatory for drug trafficking offenses. And President Trump loves it. He’s been telling friends for months that the country’s policy to execute drug traffickers is the reason its drug consumption rates are so low.

“He says that a lot,” said a source who’s spoken to Trump at length about the subject. “He says, ‘When I ask the prime minister of Singapore do they have a drug problem [the prime minister replies,] ‘No. Death penalty’.”

A senior administration official told Axios that Trump “often jokes about killing drug dealers… He’ll say, ‘You know the Chinese and Filipinos don’t have a drug problem. They just kill them.’”

I oppose the death penalty. It is ironic, that the only possible exception, if any, is for treason. RESIST!!

From RWW: Last week, End Times pastor Paul Begley appeared on “The Hagmann Report,” where he stood by his claim that First Lady Melania Trump had ordered the White House to be “completely exorcised” before she moved in.

After Begley made this claim earlier this month, the story was widely circulated among those who saw it as a sign of President Trump’s growing Christian faith, which eventually prompted the Associated Press to contact the White House for comment, forcing the first lady’s office to declare that Begely’s claim was “not true in any way.”

But Begley is standing by his claim and insisting that the AP’s story denying the exorcism is “fake news.”

Assuming that the Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian (same as Antichristian) isn’t lying, the exorcism was a complete failure. The orange dung demon still tweets from there. RESIST!!

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WWWendy w/wings and I are back on schedule, and she is due to destink the needy TomCat and help with chores momentarily, so I’m rushing to get what I can done.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:43 (average 4:55).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Democrats Release Response to GOP FISA Memo

So far, it looks great for the good guys and rotten for the Republican Reich. I’m sure I’ll have more, once I have time to dig in depth. Or read it yourself.  RESIST!!

From Washington Post: Tentative plans for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to make his first visit to the White House to meet with President Trump were scuttled this week after a testy call between the two leaders ended in an impasse over Trump’s promised border wall, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.

Peña Nieto was eyeing an official trip to Washington this month or in March, but both countries agreed to call off the plan after Trump would not agree to publicly affirm Mexico’s position that it would not fund construction of a border wall that the Mexican people widely consider offensive, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential conversation.

Speaking by phone on Tuesday, Peña Nieto and Trump devoted a considerable portion of their roughly 50 minute conversation to the wall, and neither man would compromise his position.

One Mexican official said Trump “lost his temper.” But U.S. officials described him instead as being frustrated and exasperated, saying Trump believed it was unreasonable for Peña Nieto to expect him to back off his crowd-pleasing campaign promise of forcing Mexico to pay for the wall.

The Fuhrer was willing to be muy simpatico with Nieto, but only if the Latino was willing to keep his proper place at the feet and in the service of el Residente Pervertido! RESIST!!

From LA Times: The California Democratic Party decided not to endorse in the U.S. Senate contest on Saturday, an embarrassing rebuke of veteran Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Feinstein, who has represented California in the Senate for a quarter-century, is facing an insurgent bid by fellow Democrat, state Senate leader Kevin de León. Though De León did not get the endorsement, his success in blocking Feinstein from receiving it shows that his calls for generational change and a more aggressively liberal path have resonated with some of the party’s most passionate activists.

I agree.  Despite DiFi’s seniority and years of service, I would welcome a change to a more progressive Senator. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

The most recent was Vladimir Putin (R-RU) and his trained monkey-substitute. (I don’t want to insult the monkey).

Here at the CatBox, the outside temperature got down to 23° this morning, setting another record.  After today, it should start to warm up.  I hope you all have a wonderful, Republican-free weekend!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:12 (average 5:27).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): How conspiracy theories about Parkland shooting survivors spread

Barf Bag Alert!!

As usual, the Republican Reich has earned a PhD (pilled higher and deeper) in Bullshitology! RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Trump considers pulling ICE agents to punish California

Barf Bag Alert!!

If Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten pulled ICE from CA, wouldn’t most Californians call that a blessing, not a punishment? RESIST!!

From NY Times: The only armed sheriff’s deputy at a Florida high school where 17 people were killed took cover outside rather than charging into the building when the massacre began, the Broward County sheriff said on Thursday. The sheriff also acknowledged that his office received 23 calls related to the suspect going back a decade, including one last year that said he was collecting knives and guns, but may not have adequately followed up.

The deputy, Scot Peterson, resigned on Thursday after being suspended without pay after Sheriff Scott Israel reviewed surveillance video.

“He never went in,” Sheriff Israel said in a news conference. He said the video showed Deputy Peterson doing “nothing.”

“There are no words,” said Sheriff Israel, who described himself as “devastated, sick to my stomach.”

Two other deputies were placed on restricted duty on Thursday because they may have mishandled tips called in to the sheriff’s office over the past two years warning that the suspect, Nikolas Cruz, appeared intent on becoming a school shooter, Sheriff Israel said.

The revelations added to a growing list of failures and missed signs by the authorities that might have helped prevent one of the deadliest school shootings in American history.

Peterson should not be allowed to retire. His pension should be stripped, and he should be fired. The GOP/NRA "good guys with guns" mantra is hogwash! On the missed signs and mishandled reports, incompetence just what foolish voters get, when they elect Republicans. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump was reportedly “furious” on Wednesday morning after a purge of right-wing bots by Twitter left him with a total of fourteen remaining followers, aides have confirmed.

Rising at 3 a.m. to engage in one of his trademark early-morning tweetstorms, Trump was incensed to discover that his Twitter following had plummeted from more than forty-eight million to a little more than a dozen.

At Twitter headquarters, in San Francisco, a company spokesman confirmed that Trump had indeed lost 48,076,920 followers in the bot purge. “It turned out that over forty-six million of the President’s followers came from a single troll farm in Macedonia,” the spokesman said.

As of Wednesday, Trump’s fourteen remaining Twitter followers included his daughter Ivanka; his sons Eric and Donald, Jr.; several White House aides; and someone named Heinrich Himmler III.

Dang Andy! LOL!! I’m sure not surprised. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I’ve used this on this date for five years now.  It’s perennially relevant.

It’s a rough day here in the CatBox.  I was up early this morning with Republicosis.  On the second trip, I asked myself just how much crap could fit into one Puddy Tat.  A couple hours later, I broke the record I had just set.  I hope the Imodium AD kicks in soon.  At 8:00, I received a Robocall from Store to Door that, due to weather conditions, they have to cancel my grocery delivery this week.  Wendy has chains on her pickup, so she will do my shopping on the way here for my shower this evening.  Of course, I will pay her for the time she spends doing it.   This, for obvious reasons, is my only article today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:27 (average 5:49).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): Who Should Get Into the USA?

Democrats prefer admitting the needy. Republicans prefer admitting the greedy. The only restriction I would place is a criminal background check. RESIST!!

From Reuters UK: U.S. evangelist Billy Graham, who counseled presidents and preached to millions across the world from his native North Carolina to communist North Korea during his 70 years on the pulpit, died on Wednesday at the age of 99, a spokesman said.

He was an evangelical televangelism pioneer, who became a pioneer of Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity. RESIST!!

From CNN: Linda Belcher, a Democrat, won the special election for Kentucky’s House District 49 on Tuesday with 3,386 votes. Rebecca Johnson, a Republican, received 1,561 votes, according to official results from Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Johnson is the widow of Republican state Rep. Dan Johnson, who narrowly defeated Belcher, then an incumbent, in 2016 and committed suicide late last year. The lawmaker had been accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in 2013 in a report by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. He committed suicide a day after he denied the allegations.

Trump won the district with 72% of the vote in 2016.

That is a satisfying result. A Democrat has the seat, and the Republican that used to have it is talking politics with Scalia. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Vice President Mike Pence had planned to secretly meet with a high-level delegation of North Korean leaders while he was at the Winter Olympics in South Korea this month, but the North Koreans canceled at the last minute, according to the State Department.

If you believe that, how about buying some Eau de Puddy Tat for $250,000/kitty fart.  It has magical healing properties.  RESIST!!

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