Politics Plus

I’m a naughty Puddy Tat.   Because a Sunday without Wendy coming is so weird, I decided to treat myself to another pizza!   Yum!!  The Squatch has slammed Portland with an arctic blast, and we are entering the coldest days so far this winter.  The lows for the next four days will be in the 20°s.  I may actually have to shut my window!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:08 (average 5:06).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): Have We Lost the Common Good?

It’s not available in Audible yet. I want it. I believe that the common good is worth fighting for, and will do so as long as one person will stand with me. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): President’s Day Special – A New Verse for the National Anthem from Parody Project

Amen! To achieve that, the Republican Reich MUST me obliterated! RESIST!!

From LA Times: Ever since Sam Paredes crossed into the U.S. illegally from Mexico nearly 30 years ago, he followed a simple philosophy of keeping his head down and trying to stay out of trouble.

The 39-year-old put in long hours for little pay as an office manager at a clothing wholesaler. He paid his taxes and hoped that after many years of waiting, there would come an immigration reform that would grant him a pathway to becoming an American citizen.

But one glimmer of hope afforded many young immigrants escaped him: Because the New York resident came too long ago, he did not qualify for immigration relief under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA.

Now he watches as the White House and Congress continue to grapple and negotiate and argue — but at least talk about — the future of the so-called Dreamers.

"I’m very bitter. These DACA kids definitely have this sense of entitlement," Paredes said. "People fought for them and they got DACA and they got their work permit and then they went to sleep, instead of working to fight for the rest of us."

I think Sam’s anger is misplaced. DREAMers rejected the Trump plan that would have saved them. They were too decent to throw the undocumented workers like Sam under the bus, or should I say into the ICE bus? Since they wouldn’t, we shouldn’t either! RESIST!!

From Buzzfeed: An Australian politician joked about shooting "greenie punks" just days after one of the deadliest school shootings in the United States.

George Christensen is a conservative Nationals MP in the Australian parliament with a reputation for controversial remarks about gay marriage, immigration and firearms.

On Wednesday a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in south Florida allegedly shot and killed 17 students, in one of the deadliest school massacres in US history.

Christensen has been a prominent defender of firearm ownership in Australia. The country introduced strict gun control laws in 1996 after the Port Arthur massacre, and has not had a mass shooting since.

On Saturday Christensen posted a Facebook post from a shooting range of Australia’s peak shooting lobby, the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia, setting out his support for legitimate firearm owners.

In the initial post he defended sporting shooters, writing that "Gun owners aren’t criminals. They are olympians, Commonwealth games medallists, conservationists, farmers and many of them veterans."

But in a further comment below the photo, he posted an image of himself with a handgun, writing "You gotta ask yourself, do you feel lucky, greenie punks?".

I’m so sorry this creep is in their parliament. Are most Australian Conservatives also Republican Ammosexuals?  ¡¡ꓕSISƎꓤ

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I overslept this morning, but I’m doing OK, because I planned to skip my morning nap, anyway.  Tomorrow WWWendy is coming a day early, and I may have no more than an Open Thread or a Personal Update.  We have lots of chores to do, including the dreaded task.  In addition, we are celebrating Valentine’s Day.  I’ll just have to see how the day progresses.  TGIF!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:10 (average 5:05).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Right-wing media: It’s never the time to talk about gun violence

Bullshit Bag Alert!! ??

Lets not just talk about it. Lets DO something! RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Paul Ryan: No ‘Knee Jerk’ Reactions On Guns.

Bullshit Bag Alert!! ??

Lyin’ Ryan is doing what he always does: lying and prioritizing blood money over dead children. RESIST!!

From People: …“Consumers have no information,” said Thixton. “A consumer has to become a private detective to learn what’s really in their [pets’] food.”

To save pet owners the aforementioned detective work, ABC7 partnered with Ellipse Analytics, a lab specializing in food testing, to test pet food.

The station tested 62 samples of wet dog food from over 24 brands for pentobarbital multiple times over several months. Only one brand of food, Gravy Train, repeatedly tested positive for trace amounts of the euthanasia drug. Sixty percent of the Gravy Train samples came back positive.

And while the amount of pentobarbital found was not a lethal level, any trace of the drug is not permitted in pet food.

Gravy Train is made by the company Big Heart Pet Foods, which is owned by Smucker’s. Big Heart Brands is also responsible for the production of Meow Mix, Milk Bone, Kibbles’n Bits, 9 Lives, Natural Balance, Pup-Peroni, Nature’s Recipe, Canine Carry Outs, Milo’s Kitchen, Alley Cat, Jerky Treats, Meaty Bone, Pounce and Snausages.

The question still remains how the drug made its way into the food, since it is often only found in the systems of cats, horses and dogs put down by the drug. Some worry this means these animals are being put into pet food, reports ABC 7, while others are more concerned that the drug is there at all and what its presence means about the quality of the food we are feeding our pets.

Shortly after ABC7 shared its findings, Smucker’s announced Wednesday that it is voluntarily recalling shipments of Gravy Train, Kibbles ‘N Bits, Ol’ Roy, and Skippy dog food over concerns about the presence of pentobarbital, according to WebMD.

Since so many of our friends are animal lovers, I found this too upsetting not to share it. Click through. Isn’t it ironic that, just a few days ago, Infidel commented that Republicans could be putting cat meat in food boxes for the poor. RESIST!!

From Think Progress: There were many memorable moments during the first full week of the 2018 Winter Olympics, but the most indelible image might not be from the ice or the slopes, but rather, from the stands; it’s simply impossible to ignore the North Korean cheerleaders who have descended upon Pyeongchang.

Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten is so jealous of Kim Jong Un! He wants his own nubile “Army of Beauties” wearing MAGA hats and waving Nazi flags. RESIST!!

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It’s a nice comfortably cool day, and I slept well last night.  It’s been a strange winter.  I’m at the same latitude as the border between Wyoming and Montana, but I have not turned my heat on this winter, and I only closed my window overnight once.  I expect a grocery delivery from Store to Door in about an hour.  When I finish putting everything away, I’ll break for lunch.  Then I’ll finish here.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:03 (average 4:55).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Late Show Channel): Donald Trump’s Valentine’s Day Card To Melania Trump

Barf Bag Alert!!

How appropriate! Other than National Socialism, Trump loves only his own ego. RESIST!!

From Washington Post: When evaluating President Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen’s new admission that he paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket, it’s worth focusing on what he doesn’t deny: namely, that Trump had anything to do with it.

In a statement first reported by the New York Times and also shared with The Washington Post, Cohen says for the first time that he paid Daniels. The Wall Street Journal had first reported the payment as hush money to keep the adult-film actress from disclosing an alleged affair with Trump, but thus far nobody else had confirmed that the payment existed. Cohen’s hand was apparently forced by the watchdog group Common Cause, which last month announced it was filing a complaint arguing that Cohen’s $130,000 payment could be construed as an illegal 2016 campaign contribution.

I don’t buy it. Cohen is a Republican. Republicans don’t altruistically pay out big bucks like that. When it comes to their own money, they squeeze quarters so tight the eagle shits. Cohen, if not Trump, paid her with campaign money or with our money, both of which are criminal acts.  RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Millions of Americans on Wednesday demanded that Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, issue them checks in the amount of $130,000 for not having sex with Trump.

After Cohen revealed that he had issued such a check to Stormy Daniels, a porn star who he claims never had intimate relations with his client, there was widespread outrage among other Americans who had also not had sex with Trump but had not been paid for not doing so.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for Stormy Daniels,” Tracy Klugian, a florist in Santa Rosa, California, said. “I just want my check, too.”

Harland Dorrinson, a bank teller in Akron, Ohio, said that he had already e-mailed Cohen to demand payment. “I have never come close to having sex with Trump, and that should be worth something,” he said. “Specifically, $130,000.”

Andy, Dorrinson is wrong. Albeit non-consensual, he has had sex with Trump.  There isn’t an American in the poor and middle classes that Trump and the Republican Reich haven’t screwed. Where’s my $130,000? RESIST!!

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I’m rushing to finish in time for my appointment.  This is my only article today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s Took me 6:45 (average 7:14).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The Hill: U.S. figure skater Adam Rippon said he would boycott a visit to the White House.

Rippon — the first openly gay athlete selected to a U.S. Winter Olympic team — told the Daily Mail that he would not go to the White House in an effort "to support my community."

"No, I have no desire to go to the White House," he told the Daily Mail.

"But I would like to do something to help my community."

Rippon added he would want to do "something positive and not just stay at home" during the White House visit, such as planning his own event in support of gay rights.

The US would not have won a team figure skating medal, were it not for Rippon’s stellar performance. Hey GOP! Shove that up your Pence! RESIST!!

From The Daily Beast: Julian Assange Offered Hannity Impersonator ‘News’ About Top Democrat

The head of Wikileaks told @SeanHannity__ to seek ‘other channels’ for information on Sen. Mark Warner of the Trump-Russia investigation. ‘@SeanHannity__’ was a woman in Texas.

Anyone care to speculate what "other channels" Assange (R-RU) had for Hannity? RESIST!!

From Think Progress: \Industry-friendly lawmakers are waging a coordinated campaign with the Trump administration to strip Americans of their legal rights to use the courts to hold polluting companies and the government itself accountable for violations of bedrock environmental laws and other important public protections.

Members of Congress have introduced more than 50 bills over the past year that would make it extremely difficult or impossible for people to seek justice in a court of law, according to an in-depth analysis by the Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization. The proposed bills are targeting laws related to environmental protection, public health, consumer rights, and civil liberties.

The number of bills introduced in the current 115th Congress that would strip individuals of their legal rights to seek justice in a court of law have doubled from the previous Congress and quadrupled since the 112th Congress that ended in 2013. Similar to how credit card companies and other retailers block consumers from the use of a court of law to resolve disputes, these bills would have a similar effect by preventing aggrieved members of the public from filing lawsuits to ensure laws are enforced.

Even when polluters harm people directly and intentionally, the Republican Reich protects them from justice. RESIST!!

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