Personal – Page 383 – Politics Plus

Open Thread – 9/14/2017

Posted by TomCat at 10:24 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 142017

I’m enjoying another morning without the AC on, but I know that I will have to close the window and turn it back on as soon as the sun hits the wall. I slept pretty well last night, but feel as though I had been up all night. I still have a lot of catching up to do. Fantasy football players, have your lineup set before this evening. Staff, I have used up my free New Yorker articles for September, so it you want to post Andy, go for it.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:11 (average 4:40). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): The Media Doesn’t Understand What Trump is Doing

Perhaps we should raid ESPN to get commentators for political news. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Funny or Die Channel): Porn Stars Hate Ted Cruz

Barf Bag Alert!!

Probably TMI, but very true. They also hate the Fuhrer, except as a foul target. RESIST!!

From The Last Word: Did Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi roll Trump on DACA?

After their second big meeting with Pres. Trump, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi say he agreed to enshrine DACA protections into law without a border wall—but the White House scrambled to refute that on Twitter. Ron Klain & Jonathan Capehart join Lawrence O’Donnell.

Schumer and Pelosi are telling the truth. As soon as Trump’s handlers realized he had caved-in to superior intellect, they sent Sarah Upchuckabee Sanders to exercise her PhD in Bullshitology. El Fuhrer no tiene cojones!! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Open Thread – 9/13/2017

Posted by TomCat at 11:50 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 132017

I slept poorly again last night, because of the heat and extreme humidity. In fact, I overslept this morning, so I missed my nap. Today, I was able to turn off the AC for the first time in weeks. I may be able to leave it off, as long as the sun does not hit the wall. I expect Store to Door to deliver groceries within an hour, so there’s no point in trying to nap until this afternoon. It may be October, before I’m caught up on my sleep deficit.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:56 (average 4:57). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Robert Mueller is Zeroing in on Trump’s Cover Up

How wonderful! Trump’s blood is in the water, and Mueller is a shark. RESIST!!

From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): Hotter Seas & Bigger Storms

The Republican position is that this is not an appropriate change to discuss climate change. What more appropriate time could there be? RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: The pornography industry has likely suffered permanent damage as a result of its unfortunate association with the Texas senator Ted Cruz, industry sources said on Tuesday.

Porn, which takes in annual profits of fifteen billion dollars, could see those revenues decimated if, as some industry experts fear, users begin to have intrusive thoughts involving Senator Cruz.

“For porn producers, this is a crisis with no simple solution,” Harland Dorrinson, an industry insider, said. “If you warn viewers not to think about Ted Cruz, there’s a real danger that that’s all they’ll think about.”

In the hours since porn first became associated with the Texas senator, traffic to porn sites has plummeted in what industry sources are ruefully calling “the Cruz effect.”

Dang Andy! I’m no connoisseur of porn, but seeing Cruz cavorting with his TRUS would cause my kitty dingles to retreat and not come out again for months!! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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Open Thread – 9/12/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:35 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 122017

I didn’t get the sleep I had hoped I would. It was just to hot and sticky. Today is the last hot one, before several days of more temperate weather. Please pardon my brevity.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:50 (average 4:30). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Religious Ecstasy:

0911Broncos24-Chargers21

Phew! They came so close to screwing the pooch that I damn near had a heart attack! They blocked a field goal with 1 second on the clock.

Fantasy Football Update:

Here are the results from our league, Lefty Blog Friends.

Scores:

1Scores

Standings:

1Standings

Congrats to Pam and Seth for being in first and second. Condolences to our beloved Sasquatch, who has nobody under her big feet. Don’t forget to set your lineup by Thursday night.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): How Did Trump Remember 9/11?

It’s obvious enough. His handlers frog-marched him to the microphone to make his canned statement, but without power, profit, or pussy for him to grab, he had no real interest. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: CBS ignited a firestorm of controversy on Sunday night after it broadcast a shockingly graphic horror program [Bannon] without any viewer advisory.

Millions of viewers who unwittingly tuned in to the highly upsetting program recoiled in revulsion and took to social media to rip CBS.

“It’s appalling to think that you would even consider broadcasting such a thing at seven o’clock, when children could be watching,” one viewer wrote. “Shame on CBS.”

Another irate viewer complained that he was “in total disbelief” that CBS would air such disturbing content with no warning preceding it. “I may never get those nightmarish images out of my head,” he wrote.

Dang Andy! They should have included a Barf Bag Alert!! RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: As Hurricane Irma sweeps up the western Florida coast, the Trump "administration" will be wasting no time in demanding … "dramatic tax cuts."

“We will discussing our plan for dramatic tax cuts and tax reform. And I think now with what’s happened with the hurricane, I’m going to ask for a speed-up,” Trump said at the opening of a cabinet meeting at Camp David. “I wanted a speed-up anyway but now we need it even more so.”

If billionaires were injuring their backs carrying excess money to the bank, Republicans would still propose tax cuts that rip wealth from the poor, the middle class, hurricane victims, and especially YOU to provide even more welfare for the 0.1%. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

After 16 years, neither does his successor.

Open Thread – 9/11/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:54 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 112017

Portland is back to 90° today. Please let it be last time! I’m in a bit of a rush, because I slept poorly last night, and I need a nap. I’ll be up past my bedtime tonight meditating on the Ellipsoid Orb. May it shed its holy light on my Broncos.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:55 (average 6:01). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Media Matters: Fox News and other right-wing media outlets overhyped the threat of looting during their coverage of Hurricane Harvey last week. Some conservative blogs ran stories warning about looting that featured tweets from fake accounts, which have since been deleted. This coverage often had a racist element, either subtly or overtly accusing African-Americans of rampant criminal behavior.

In fact, looting has not been a widespread problem, according to law enforcement officials. Experts say the threat of looting is often exaggerated during disasters, and that appears to be the case with Harvey. "The Houston Police Department says very little looting occurred during the first week of flooding in the wake of Hurricane Harvey," Snopes reported on September 1. A spokesperson for the department told Snopes, "Looting is almost non existent in Houston. People have been cooperative not just with each other, but also with Houston PD. The weather is at its worst but Houstonians are at their best." Los Angeles Times correspondent Matt Pearce, who drove around Houston to report on Harvey, called claims of widespread looting "bullshit."

I have to wonder how many people, if any, were murdered by racist Republican vigilantes, their hatred piqued by the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: As part of its Nuclear Posture Review—the first since the 2010 review was completed—the Trump regime is said to be considering the building of a “mini-nuke,” a nuclear bomb with a low explosive yield. Advocates have long claimed this would improve U.S. deterrence. Approval of such a development would overturn the Obama administration’s policy of limiting reliance on nuclear arms and continuing to reduce the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Bryan Bender at Politico reports:

"The [nuclear review] has to credibly ask the military what they need to deter enemies," added another official who supports such a proposal, particularly to confront Russia, which has raised the prominence of tactical nuclear weapons in its battle plans in recent years, including as a first-strike weapon. "Are [current weapons] going to be useful in all the scenarios we see?" […]

"If the U.S. moves now to develop a new nuclear weapon, it will send exactly the wrong signal at a time when international efforts to discourage the spread of nuclear weapons are under severe challenge," said Steven Andreasen, a State Department official in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush who served as the director of arms control on the National Security Council in the Clinton administration. "If the world’s greatest conventional and nuclear military power decides it cannot defend itself without new nuclear weapons, we will undermine our ability to prevent other nations from developing or enhancing their own nuclear capabilities and we will further deepen the divisions between the U.S. and other responsible countries.

The button loving Fuhrer is a Republican Ammosexual on steroids. RESIST!!

From Alternet: Bannon was concerned that Trump’s delay on DACA will result in a Republican “civil war” that could cost them the 2018 midterm elections.

While many pundits anticipate that Trump’s harsh anti-immigrant policies could hurt the party’s long-term prospects by further alienating Hispanic voters, Bannon had a different concern.

“My fear is that with this six months down range, if we have another huge– if this goes all the way down to its logical conclusion, in February and March it will be a civil war inside the Republican party that will be every bit as vitriolic as 2013,” Bannon told Rose. “And to me, doing that in the springboard of primary season for 2018 is extremely unwise.”

This is only the fourth of eight lowlights from Steve "Trump’s Breitfart Nazi Barf" Bannon’s interview on 60 Minutes last night. Click through for the other seven. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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Open Thread – 9/10/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:03 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Sep 102017

It’s a slow day for news, because Irma [R-FL] dominates media coverage. All under her assault, even Republicans, remain in my thoughts and prayers. Wendy is due here in about forty minutes. It’s a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. My Broncos will not be worshiping until Monday Night, so today, may the Blessed Orb shine it’s holy light on your team.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:31 (average 5:07). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: In a finding that has wide-ranging implications for society, British researchers at the University of Leeds announced on Saturday that they have identified the gene for awfulness.

The study, which focussed on one adult male and three of his adult children, makes a persuasive argument that there is a “powerful dominant gene” that makes people heinous.

“When we began our research, we wanted to find an adult male with pronounced characteristics of horribleness,” Alistair Dorrinson, the scientist who led the study, said. “In studying three of his adult offspring, we found that they were all carriers of the gene that makes one smug, tone-deaf, and oblivious to the fate of others.”

Additionally, certain subtraits of awfulness, such as an inability to tell the truth, appear to be genetically mediated, Dorrinson said.

“If the father is unable to explain honestly why a meeting took place, for example, the son who carries the same gene will also tell crazy lies about that meeting,” he said.

But Andy, couldn’t you tell that Trump has defective genes just by looking at his face? RESIST!!

From NY Times: Almost from the moment Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act collapsed this summer and weary senators fled the capital, Senator Chuck Schumer began calculating how best to take advantage of the persistent Republican struggle to govern.

“Even when I was on vacation with my family in August, I started looking,” said Mr. Schumer, the New Yorker who leads Senate Democrats, as he recounted the buildup to the stunning debt limit deal that Democrats struck with President Trump this past week over the objections of gobsmacked Republicans.

In an interview with the New York Times podcast “The New Washington,” Mr. Schumer said he pursued an approach that would allow the Democrats to assert themselves as the minority party in coming showdowns over funding the government and increasing the debt limit, while denying Mr. Trump money for his border wall and seeking protection for the undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers.

“What’s our leverage?” Mr. Schumer said he kept asking himself. “We only had one thing as leverage at that point, which was the debt ceiling.”

From past experience, Mr. Schumer, like other congressional veterans, knew Republicans would have a difficult, if not impossible, task rounding up votes among themselves to increase the government’s borrowing authority because many conservatives simply won’t vote to do so, even at the expense of the nation’s fiscal stability.

I agree in principle with what Schumer did, but I think, since he had Trump by the short hairs, he should have extracted more concessions, such as permanent residence for Dreamers. RESIST!!

From John Pavlovitz: …I can barely figure out how my microwave works, let alone interpret how a horrific weather event is being wielded by God to teach you or me or gay couples a lesson—and I’d feel like a reckless fraud pretending I know what’s happening. I guess guys like Kirk Cameron and Joel Osteen and Pat Robertson know better, though I’m doubtful.

It’s ironic that Cameron refers to the book of Job. When Job loses everything and is stricken with grief, at first his friends show wisdom by simply sitting with him in his grief. Only later do they fall into the temptation of placing blame and playing God.

Maybe we who claim faith should refrain from pretending we understand how this world works when it comes to faith and pain and suffering.

Maybe we should admit the mystery, discomfort, and the tension that spirituality yields in painful, terrifying times.

Maybe when people are being terrorized by nature or by the inhumanity around them, instead of shouting sermons at them—we should shut up and simply try to be a loving, compassionate presence.

Maybe we should stop trying to make God into something as petty, hateful, judgmental, and cruel as we are.

If the God you’re following and preaching to people in their times of pain is an a-hole—it’s probably not God at all.

It’s probably just you.

Amen! God is not an asshole. Authentic Christians are not assholes. Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians ARE assholes! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0910Cartoon

Open Thread – 9/9/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:44 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Sep 092017

It’s a relatively lazy Saturday for a pooped Puddy. Thoughts and prayers for all in the path of Irma [R-FL].

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:19 (average 5:17). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (RWW Channel): Carl Gallups Says The ‘Deeply Demonic’ Deep State Is Working To Destroy Trump

Barf Bag Alert!!

The extent to which Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians goose-step behind Trump is proof that they are NOT Christians. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: An estimated 8,000 people are battling a series of 24 raging fires in Oregon, most notably Chetco Bar Fire, which has engulfed nearly 180,000 acres, and the Eagle Creek wildfire which is threatening the eastern edge of Portland. The Eagle Creek fire has burned 33,000 acres and while Oregon firefighters are starting to make some headway, containing about 5 percent of the fire through burnouts conducted on Wednesday, more resources are needed throughout the state. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports that Governor Kate Brown previously asked the Trump administration for help and they flatly refused any assistance:

But if there is wildfire management to second-guess, Oregon’s Democratic governor would direct it at the Trump Administration and its response to a request she made last month.

“I talked with the federal authorities two weeks ago, asking for additional federal assistance, I was told point-blank ‘no’,” said Brown.

The U.S. Forest Service has been helping, and Oregon is expecting the arrival of 200 active duty military from Joint Base Lewis-McCord in Washington.

But Gov. Brown argued federal officials should be directing more resources to Oregon, because of the disproportionate degree of fire danger in the state. Brown’s numbers and those from the National Interagency Fire Center tell a similar story: that Oregon accounts for nearly one-third of the scorched acres in the country. Of 1.5 million acres or more burning across the country about a half million acres are in Oregon.

I can personally attest to how severe it is. Coming back from the motel on Tuesday, the sky was brown, and the smoke in downtown Portland was like fog. I have been unable to keep my window open, because the air burns my eyes. It has also been setting off my COPD. I wonder if the Republican Reich is withholding aid, because Oregon Governor, Kate Brown, is openly bisexual. RESIST!!

From Think Progress:

Rush Limbaugh will be evacuating South Florida, just days after the popular conservative radio host claimed that Hurricane Irma would not hit the United States and that scientists and the liberal media were hyping up the hurricane as proof of their global warming “lie.”

“So there is a desire to advance this climate change agenda, and hurricanes are one of the fastest and best ways to do it. You can accomplish a lot just by creating fear and panic. You don’t need a hurricane to hit anywhere,” Limbaugh said on his show Tuesday. “All you need is to create the fear and panic accompanied by talk that climate change is causing hurricanes to become more frequent and bigger and more dangerous, and you create the panic, and it’s mission accomplished, agenda advanced.”

But on the show Thursday, Limbaugh said he would be off the air for the next few days.

“May as well… announce this. I’m not going to get into details because of the security nature of things, but it turns out that we will not be able to do the program here tomorrow,” Limbaugh said Thursday. “We’ll be on the air next week, folks, from parts unknown.”

Scheesch! How do you spell hypocrite? R-e-p-u-b-l-i-c-a-n. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Their more popular alternative is sheets and hoods.

Open Thread – 9/8/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:31 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 082017

Today’s forecast high is a refreshing 72° and my room is comfortable, even though the hallways and bathrooms in the building are still super-heated. Having just taken two doses of Immodium for Republicosis, and an Oxycodone shortly after breaking the tooth, I gutted out the rest of the day yesterday with no additional pain meds to minimize Republicitis. For once, today has been a disaster-free day, so far. Speaking of disasters, everyone is covering Irma constantly, so I’ll say only one thing. Any sane person’s responses to Florida and to the Republican Party must be identical. Get the hell out of there!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:03 (average 4:24). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Trump Will Soon Be the Ex-POTUS | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

From Keith’s mouth to God’s ear! However, I still cannot see goose-stepping Republican legislators impeaching their Fuhrer, until and unless they are convinced that failure to do so will cost them their jobs. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Funny or Die Channel): They Came From The Alt-Left!

Of course, there is no such things as the Alt-Left. If there was, they would be the both non-violent and well-intentioned folks that were way too fast to believe and parrot Russian propaganda about Clinton, and foolish enough to consider their own intellectual purity more important than saving America from Trump and the Republican Reich. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: This resident in the congressional district which Mike Pence used to represent in Indiana isn’t saying anything here that we don’t already know, but he does say what everybody needs to hear about Mike Pence. He is no savior waiting in the wings, he’s just a different flavor of GOP disaster. New York Times:

To the Editor:

For months I’ve been hearing comments, often from President Trump’s most ardent opponents, that in spite of the turmoil our country is in, fear not because Vice President Mike Pence is merely an impeachment vote or resignation away from the presidency. These folks should visit Indiana, where Mr. Pence served as governor for four years, and in my congressional district we were subjected to 12 years of Mr. Pence as our representative.

During his time as governor, Mr. Pence was the most divisive leader this state had ever seen. If he had not accepted Mr. Trump’s offer to be his running mate, he most likely would have lost a bid for a second term.

Make no mistake: Mike Pence is little different from his boss. He wears a smile on his face and his religion on his sleeve, but a President Pence would be no relief from what this nation is going through right now.

DAN DIERCKS, HAGERSTOWN, IND.

Thank you Dan Dierks for confirming from your personal experience what I’ve been saying all along. All the violence, greed and hate are Republican problems, not just Trump problems. Republicans were just better at hiding them, before Trump. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Open Thread – 9/7/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:01 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 072017

When it rains, it pours. I’m about to leave for an emergency extraction, because I broke a tooth earlier this morning. I’ll have to finish my writing when I return. ARGHOW!!

I’m back from the dentist, have three teeth left, am $315 lighter, and am mumbling and sucking gauze. I really needed this!

On Care2 the Glitch Monster seems to be in charge of news. Trying to open an individual C2NN article in Firefox, most of the page whites out. After about a minute, I get a message saying a website is slowing down my browser, and asking me to wait or stop it. After choosing stop it, I can interact with the page without difficulty. Chrome does not work at all, and neither does Edge, so Firefox is the only way to get in.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:56 (average 4:54). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Why We Must Talk About Trump’s Mental Health | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

The irony here is that any poll from the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, is based on a sample that is skewed right, so most of the respondents were Republicans or right-leaning Independents. Of course he’s crazy! RESIST!!

From YouTube (Funny or Die Channel): Trump Prays About DACA On National Prayer Day

Barf Bag Alert!!

I bet they had to clean his real prayer up to arrive at the more politically correct version shown above. RESIST!!

From All in: If there were a category 6 hurricane, Irma would be it

Meteorologist Paul Douglas joins Chris Hayes to help explain why Hurricane Irma is so enormous – and what we can expect.

As this happens, Trump and the Republican Party are cancelling Floridians’ federal flood insurance. I pray for them. The only positive thing about this is that, if it destroys Mar a Lago, my atheist friends will convert instantly. Winking smile RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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