As Seen From Afar 04/10/2018

 Posted by at 10:35 am  Plus, Politics
Apr 102018
 

DUTCH COMEDIAN ARJEN LUBACH URGES US TO FOLLOW HIM IN SAYING ‘BYE BYE FACEBOOK’

Perhaps you remember Arjen Lubach from an an earlier As Seen From Afar 2/4/2017, in which I described how his parody skit on President Donald Trump’s “America First” slogan, called “The Netherlands Second,” went viral, ending up with more than 26 million views on YouTube, and triggered dozens of copycat videos in other countries.

This time Lubach is going international again with this season’s last episode of his satirical television show “Sunday with Lubach,” which has more than 400,000 followers on Facebook. Lubach announced his program would delete its account on the popular social media site coming Wednesday, 04/11/2018, at 20:00 hours local time, joining a string of high-profile entertainers and tech executives who have urged users to do the same.

Although it’s impossible to know how many will follow through, 14,000 of Lubach’s Facebook followers said on the Facebook-event which Lubach has created for it that they would join him by deleting their accounts.

Watch the video of Lubach’s call below:

Facebook is under fire because of a privacy scandal. Recently, the company announced that the private data of possibly 87 million people (90,000 in the Netherlands) have been harvested by Cambridge Analytica – a political consultancy that worked on U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign. With this data profiles were created to send targeted information.

The #deletefacebook hashtag that resulted from this disclosure has gained prominence, and many celebrities have shut their Facebook pages, but the company itself maintains #deletefacebook has not had any meaningful impact on users to date and financial analysts say the controversy has had little impact on advertising or user engagement on the Facebook platform so far.

Lubach’s call may not have a massive impact either, but his skit explains rather well and in detail how Facebook, and others, works by gathering personal information to allow their advertising customers to send targeted ads and this and the event seem to have scared Facebook a little. Lubach has written on Twitter that the Bye-Bye-Facebook event is hard to find using Facebook’s search engines. Facebook has declined to comment on either the event or on the search engine problems.

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Bill Maher from 4/6

 Posted by at 12:30 pm  Plus, Politics
Apr 072018
 

It’s that time of week again, and I’m happy to share five fine video clips from Bill’s show last night.  Enjoy!

Monologue: Trump the Riffer

“No one knows what is happening anymore.” He sure got that right. Melania won’t speak. She’s too busy spending Trump’s money.

Geraldo Rivera

I’ll bet a buck that Geraldo will not pay when he loses. It’s unfair that Trump has the worst press since Andrew Johnson. Trump is FAR worse than Johnson.

Louie Anderson

Playing a woman must be incredibly hard.

I Don’t Know It For a Fact

I think that poor bunny has sore sphincter.

New Rule: Pencils Down

I could not agree more about his policies for teachers.

Good show!

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

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Open Thread – 3/17/2018

 Posted by at 12:59 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Plus, Politics
Mar 172018
 

It’s another busy day here in the CatBox.  The wheels for my chair arrives.  Hopefully they will go on without difficulty.  Keep your fingers crossed, please. Tomorrow, I may have no more than a Personal Update or an Open Thread.  WWWendy planned to celebrate TC day with me, and we’ll have to spend quite a bit of time on the wheels.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:17 (average 4:37).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): President Trump Shows Disturbing Pattern With Officials Critical Of Russia (22 min.)

I said that I thought Tillerson was fired, because he criticized Trump’s owner. Has Rachel developed that hypothesis, or what? RESIST!!

From YouTube (Oregonian Channel): How to make a DIY Shamrock Shake

That one is Oregon High Test!! Republicans give us all a reason to drink! RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Hours after an armed teacher in a Northern California classroom fired a gun and injured a student, the head of the National Rifle Association proposed placing a second armed teacher in every classroom, to shoot the first armed teacher before he or she can do harm.

“Had there been a second armed teacher in the classroom to shoot the first armed teacher, this regrettable incident would never have occurred,” Wayne LaPierre said. “The only thing that stops a bad teacher with a gun is a good teacher with a gun.”

The N.R.A. executive vice-president said, “In a perfect world, you would have a third armed teacher, in case the second one messes up, but right now I’d settle for two.”

Dang Andy! I believe it. Does Wayne LaMerde call the spare the designated Ammosexual? RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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Open Thread – 1/29/2017

 Posted by at 12:41 pm  Open Thread, Plus, Politics
Jan 292018
 

It’s  another super-muggy day, and I’m very tired, so I’ll be brief.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:03 (average 4:41).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Billboard: With no shortage of gripping political and social issues at hand, performers and presenters at the 2018 Grammys had plenty to tell the world during the televised New York City ceremony. From all the night’s speeches and salvos, here are the ones we found most gripping…

…1. Camila Cabello Salutes the DREAMers

​Camila Cabello introduced U2’s Statue of Liberty performance in dramatic fashion. She shouted out America’s immigrants, specifically those in the country under the DREAM Act. With the status of DREAMers under siege by the Trump administration, the Cuban-born artist — who emigrated to America at age five — did her best to make Lady Liberty’s meaning especially clear: "These kids can’t be forgotten and are worth fighting for."

 

Dream their dream!! I shared one of seven. Click through for the other six. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Tamesha Means had been pregnant for just 18 weeks when her water broke in 2010. In pain, she rushed to a hospital near her house in Michigan. But because it was a Catholic health center, doctors there did not tell her that continuing her pregnancy could threaten her health and that abortion was her safest option. Instead they sent her home. They did so again when she returned the next day, bleeding, with painful contractions. They were preparing to send her home for a third time when she miscarried at the hospital.

Cases like this, in which a provider’s religious beliefs take precedence over a patient’s needs, could become more common because of a series of recent White House decisions that please the anti-abortion movement. The decisions may make it more difficult for teenagers wanting to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases, for gay men looking to prevent HIV and even for women seeking breast exams or pap smears.

Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the creation of a “Conscience and Religious Freedom Division” to enforce laws protecting health care providers’ right to opt out of certain procedures, including post-abortion care or gender-affirming surgery, because of religious objections. (The website displays what appears to be a female Muslim doctor in a hijab smiling enthusiastically — a twist on the administration’s usual attitude toward Muslims.)

If the people running an institution will not provide all the care for all who need it, they have no business in health care. This is pseudo-Christian, hate-based RepubliCare. RESIST!!

From Vox: On a night that featured the biggest stars in music, it was Hillary Clinton who got one of the loudest reactions of the night. Clinton appeared at the end of a pre-taped skit in which various musicians read excerpts from Michael Wolff’s best-seller Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, purportedly auditioning for the audiobook most likely to take home Best Spoken Word Album at next year’s Grammys.

Here’s video.

 

If I worked at McDonalds, I’d feed him a turdburger!! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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Open Thread – 1/4/2017

 Posted by at 12:58 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Plus, Politics
Jan 042018
 

I’m slightly better, but still feeling ill, so I shall be brief.  I was tied up this morning scheduling future medical mayhem.  I had to change to Firefox for Care2, because Care2 locks up Chrome every time a requester pops up.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:19 (average 5:11).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Late Show Channel): Don’t Let ‘Button Dysfunction’ Destroy Your World

 

We need a Russian hooker to distract Dickless Donnie from his Armageddon complex. RESIST!!

From YouTube: What to expect from the ‘bomb cyclone’ traveling up the East Coast

 

If you are in its path, bundle up, and please keep yourself safe. Survive first. Then RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was caught crouching under Donald J. Trump’s Oval Office desk on Wednesday, in an attempt to disconnect Trump’s newly installed nuclear button.

The button, reportedly measuring a massive eight inches in diameter, has been a subject of considerable alarm for Trump’s national-security team since he had it installed on his desk, earlier in the week.

According to White House sources, Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, and the national-security adviser H. R. McMaster drew straws late Tuesday night to determine who would carry out the high-stakes disconnection mission.

After Tillerson drew the shortest straw, he decided to enter the Oval Office surreptitously [sic]Wednesday morning while Trump took a bathroom break.

Dang, Andy! I don’t think he disconnected it before Pseudo-pious Pence busted him. ARGH!! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0104Cartoon

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Open Thread – 7/8/2017

 Posted by at 1:28 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Plus, Politics
Jul 082017
 

After a two day absence, I’m back in the saddle again, and the heat returned with me.  I have a busy week next week, so I’d like to rest as much as I can during the weekend.  Please pardon my brevity.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:42 (average 5:01).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Newsweek: The first total solar eclipse to pass from the West Coast to the East Coast in almost a century will see parts of the U.S. plunged into darkness over the course of the day on August 21. With only a month to go, Newsweek spoke to Jay Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College, about what the eclipse is, what happens on the day—and what we can learn from the cross-coastal event.

0708solar-eclipse

Click through for more information and a video. Portland is in the path of totality. When Republicans deny that the eclipse is happening, RESIST!!

From NY Times: For years the United States was the dominant force and set the agenda at the annual gathering of the leaders of the world’s largest economies.

But on Friday, when President Trump met with other leaders at the Group of 20 conference, he found the United States isolated on everything from trade to climate change, and faced with the prospect of the group’s issuing a statement on Saturday that lays bare how the United States stands alone.

We can only hope that this is a temporary condition, and that we resolve it by removing the Fuhrer And his Republican Rectum Reich from power. RESIST!!

From The Last Word: GOP, White House plot ‘urgent blitz’ for repeal votes

The Trump White House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are planning a "final, urgent blitz" to persuade GOP senators to repeal and replace Obamacare, the Washington Post reports. Ari Melber discusses with Indira Lakshmanan and Joan Walsh.

 

I wonder what the TRUS pervert is getting for his part in this. I told you RepubliCare would be back. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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Open Thread – 5/7/2017

 Posted by at 1:01 pm  Open Thread, Plus, Politics
May 072017
 

I slept pretty well last night.  Today is forecast for sunny weather and a seasonable high of 65°, but it is still muggy, currently 90%.  Wendy is due soon.  When she leaves at around Noon, I’ll check for French election results, and may add a second article.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:53 (average 4:48).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (SNL Channel): Morning Joe Cold Open

 

Seriously, now that we know the two are involved, it’s easy so see why Mika let herself play the weak token opponent all these years. Joe couldn’t stand up to a real Democrat. Apologies to those where SNL is blocked.  RESIST!!

From NY Times: In a suburban Chicago district, Kelly Mazeski, a breast cancer survivor, used the day of the vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act to announce her House candidacy, vowing to make Representative Peter Roskam pay for his vote “to make Americans pay more and get less for their health care.”

In western New York, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul has stirred talk of a congressional race with her slashing criticism of Representative Chris Collins, who rallied fellow Republicans to vote for the health measure, then conceded in a national television interview that he had not read the bill.

And in suburban Philadelphia, Chrissy Houlahan, an Air Force veteran challenging Representative Ryan A. Costello, said she would make Mr. Costello’s decision to support the bill in committee, before opposing it on the floor, a central issue.

It is far too early to determine whether 2018 will bring a political wave, but the House’s approval of a deeply unpopular health care bill on Thursday has handed Democrats a potent line of attack for the midterm elections. While Republicans believe that fulfilling a seven-year promise on health care will energize their base next year, Democrats are anticipating a backlash that may put in jeopardy a Republican House majority that once seemed unshakable.

May this be the rope that hangs every House Republican! RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Let’s all enjoy (and by enjoy, I mean RAGE, RAGE, RAGE about) Rep. Glenn Grothman mansplaining to a crowd of men and women at a town hall that he’s A-OK with voting to defund Planned Parenthood because women can simply get birth control and reproductive services at the pharmacy or even the grocery store! Cancer screenings? Meh. Quit your whining, ladies.

Barf Bag Alert!!

 

Click through for transcript.  See the pig lie. Lie pig, lie. Why does the pig lie? The pig is a Republican. That’s why. Make the pig lie from an unemployment line! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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