Who Benefits?

 Posted by at 10:27 am  Politics
Jul 112019
 

Even this far away from the 2020 national election, Republicans are making it clear that the government of the United States would operate on behalf of whoever steals the election for them.  These include Resident Donald Trump. aka Putin’s Puppet, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, aka Bought Bitch Mitch, and almost the entire Republican Reich.  Anyone can reach that conclusion by examining their behavior and who benefits from it.

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Looking at the entire picture in context, consider Karl Marx’s favorite question: “Who benefits?”

Who benefits when the leaders of countries with sophisticated internet hacking capabilities (North Korea, Saudi Arabia) and no democratic oversight are told by Trump that as long as he’s in office he has their backs?

Might Trump and McConnell hope they’ll intervene in our election to keep in power a political party that now disdains democracy and a free press, and embraces dictatorial behavior like calling for the imprisonment of Trump’s political rivals, and of individuals in the intelligence agencies who have investigated him and the GOP?

Who benefits when countries with world-class internet hacking capabilities and less-than-democratic (Russia) or highly corrupted and oligarch-dependent (Netanyahu, Duterte, Modi) leaders become “good friends” of Trump and/or help Trump build or brand properties in their countries?…

Inserted from <AlterNet>

Click through for more superb analysis.

So the Trump family makes $millions.  Oligarchs get to bully their neighbors and take territory by force.  Most dangerous to Americans, Republicans get to continue their transformation of the US into a permanent, totalitarian, white nationalist Republican Reich, in which elections exist for show only, because Republicans decide who gets to vote and who counts the votes.

Watch Republicans working to enable election theft.

 

I see our defense as turnout  I think a popular vole advantage 10% can win it, as long as attend to kitchen table issues, as well as special interests, so the heartland does mot feel abandoned.  In addition, we must support our primary choices, without savaging their Democratic opponents.  You know that everything said now will haunt us in the general.  Finally, when the nominee is a sure thing, all bickering among the left must end.  We need to go forward with a united front.

RESIST!!

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Open Thread – 7/11/2019

 Posted by at 10:26 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 112019
 

It’s another muggy day here in the tiny old CatBox and I’m very tired.  I missed half my nap yesterday, because my Store to Door driver was 90 minutes late.  Then I got to bed late, because WWWendy was late, and after my  supper, I need to digest for at least an hour before I lie down.  Excessive humidity makes my little A/C less efficient.  That won’t be a problem in the shiny new CatBox with a built in A/C unit. 🙂

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:07 (average 5:30).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Acosta Makes Himself Look Worse With Defense Of Epstein Deal

 

Acosta’s greatest mistake was his failure to make his Fuhrer the star of the speech. There was no high praise for him, and Acosta did not emulate him with attacks on the Clintons, the Democrats or the press. The Fuhrer is now less likely to protect him. I think Acosta needs to fear the terminal tweet from Resident Twit. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Fox News meltdown over Megan Rapinoe and USWNT

Barf Bag Alert!!

 

I’ll let the vile hatred of the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, speak for itself. However, I would like to note that Megan Rapinoe has purple hair as a tribute to her college soccer team: the Portland University Pilots. Seven other USWNT women play for the Thorns, Portland’s pro team. Oregon leads the way! RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Following the resignation of its Ambassador to the United States, Kim Darroch, the government of the United Kingdom has disclosed that it has been unable to find a replacement for Darroch who does not also think that Donald J. Trump is a blithering idiot.

At a press conference at 10 Downing Street, the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, revealed that the search for a new ambassador who does not believe that Trump is an imbecile has thus far come up empty.

“We did not want a repeat of the unfortunate Kim Darroch incident, so we made the first question on the job application, ‘Do you think Donald Trump is a moron?’ ” May said. “So far, none of the applicants has checked the ‘no’ box.”

May acknowledged that the government might have to expand its search for applicants beyond those with diplomatic experience in order to find a replacement for Darroch who does not consider Trump a dolt.

Dang, Andy! Somewhere in the UK, there must be a Brexit Bridiot, who wants to adopt Trump as Fuhrer. RESIST!!

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A Shiny New CatBox

 Posted by at 9:35 am  Personal, Politics
Jul 102019
 

I’m 99.44% sure that my upcoming move to the Madrona Studios is legit.  I can’t take possession this week, because they need to finish cleaning and painting, so I have an appointment to sign the lease and get the keys a week from today.  Unfortunately, due to Wendy’s schedule (out of town guests) I cannot move until 8/1, but as long as I know I’m moving, that’ll do.  Here are some pictures.

First, this is where I’ll be making my infamous green-cloud chili.

0710Kitch

This will be my view.

0710View

This will give you an idea how big it is.

0710WindMe

Finally, when I get infested with Republicans, this is where I’ll go to get rid of them.

0710Bath

And my main task in the shiny new CatBox will be this:

RESIST!!

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Open Thread – 7/10/2019

 Posted by at 9:34 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 102019
 

It’s another busy day here in the tiny old CatBox.  Store to Door is delivering groceries later.  It’s also muggy as hell: 98% humidity.  Thank God it’s Wendy day.  I’m sticky!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:31 (average 6:12),  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Migrant Children Describe Sex Assault, Retaliation By Border Agents

 

The Republican Reich sure does love to torture Latino children, I would not be surprised to learn that Putin’s Pervert has hired Epstein to train that DHS employee and Acosta to represent him. RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Mitch McConnell’s 2020 challenger speaks out

 

If she gets the nomination, I will give her money. It will be a small amount, because I’m a poor man, but if this Oregonian can help America be rid of Bought Bitch Mitch, it’s worth it. RESIST!!

From TPM: Last week, the high court announced it would hear arguments in the infamous ‘Bridgegate’ case, where officials in former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s office were convicted of fraud and abuse of office for engineering a traffic jam as a form of political payback.

The court’s decision to hear the case follows two decisions over the past 10 years that have tamped down laws traditionally used to bring corruption cases against public officials.

Bridgegate could be a third notch in what legal experts described to TPM as a trend in the Supreme Court’s thinking on the topic, moving to limit the scope of statutes traditionally used to hold public officials accountable for corruption. This has stoked concern that the court may be poised to define public corruption so narrowly as to extinguish future prosecutions. 

Actually, that makes perfect sense. Were it not for Republican corruption 5/9 of SCOTUS and 100%of SCROTUS (Republican anti-Constitutional VD) would not have their jobs. RESIST!!

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Personal Update – 7/9/2019

 Posted by at 7:24 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 092019
 

I’m hurrying to go to the Madrona Studios.  This is my only article today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s tool me 2:49 (average 4:22).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: The British Ambassador to the United States, Kim Darroch, explained on Monday that he had tried to conceal insulting remarks from Donald Trump by writing his cables in English.

“I believed that, by writing these messages in English, that would serve the same purpose as encryption,” Darroch said. “The fact that Trump was somehow able to decode them remains deeply mysterious to me.”

Darroch said that, “out of an abundance of caution,” he took further steps to make the cables indecipherable to Trump, deploying multisyllabic words such as “dysfunctional.”

“Clearly, I did not take into account the possibility that one of his aides might read these cables aloud to him and explain what all of the long words meant,” he said. “I was not aware that there was anyone at the White House capable of performing such duties.”

That explains it, Andy. I wonder if it was Barrf. RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Jeffrey Epstein, Called ‘Terrific’ By Trump, Charged With Sex Trafficking

 

How about that? Being a pervert must run in the Barrf family too. Now the Fuhrer’s pervert party can include Barrf, Judge Roy more, Injustice Teabag Thomas, Injustice Kava-Nazi, Epstein and many more. RESIST!!

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Kudos to US Women Soccer

 Posted by at 9:34 am  Plus, Politics
Jul 082019
 

Kudos to the US Women’s  Soccer team.  They won another World Cup yesterday, playing against an excellent team, except that they dressed in the color of the vile orange Fuhrer.  I’ll leave the discussion of excessive pro athletes’ pay for another day.  Excessive or not, women deserve pay equity with men.  FIFA and the US Soccer Federation claim that men get more, because their games bring in more money.  That is not true.

0708USWomen

After the U.S. women’s national soccer team defeated the Netherlands on Sunday to claim its fourth World Cup title, chants of “Equal pay!” rang out in the crowd as fans expressed support for the athletes in their fight for equity with their male counterparts, who consistently earn far more money more despite performance….

…Aware of this yawning disparity, the crowd gathered inside Lyon Olympic Stadium in France backed the women’s fight for basic equality:

As Buzzfeed reported Sunday, “women’s soccer games have generated more revenue than the men’s over the past three years.”

“From 2016 to 2018, women’s games generated $50.8 million in revenue,” according to Buzzfeed, “compared with $49.9 million for the men’s matches.”

Speaking to the Associated Press May, star forward Megan Rapinoe—who made headlines recently by calling President Donald Trump “a man that warrants no respect” and vowing to turn down an invitation to the White House—criticized the “incremental” changes that have been put forth by FIFA and the U.S. Soccer Federation….

Inserted from <Common Dreams>

Her statement that the Fuhrer deserves no respect makes Megan a hero.  Here’s a report on the game.

 

And here is the pay equity complaint.

 

Women deserve pay-equity!

RESIST!!

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Open Thread – 7/8/2019

 Posted by at 9:33 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jul 082019
 

It’s a busy day here in the CatBox.  WWWendy and I had Subway yesterday.  Tomorrow please expect no more than a Personal Update with no links messages on Care2.  Anne from CCC and I are going to the Madrona Studios for a look-see at what I hope will be the new CatBox.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:33 (average 5:01).  To do it it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Jesse Dollemore Channel): WATCH Emma Vigeland From The Young Turks Try Her Best to Reason With Off-The-Rails MAGA Lady!

I have to agree with Jesse. Most Republican Sheeple are so far gone that their political IQ is lower than their weekly intercourse count. And Sheeple sex life is BAAAA-A-A-A-A-AAD! RESIST!!

From Reuters: U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials knew in 2016 about a private Facebook group where border agents posted racist and misogynistic comments, acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan said on Sunday.

McAleenan said on ABC’s “This Week” that he had been told about an allegation in 2016 “that was investigated, followed up on, and that discipline was meted out on an agent that made an offensive post on that website.”

The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) service came under fire over the issue last Monday, when the nonprofit news site ProPublica reported that offensive content had been posted on a private Facebook group for current and former CPB officers.

Posts included jokes about the deaths of migrants and sexually explicit comments referring to U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the news outlet said.

Clearly the CBP racism problem existed before this Republican Reich, but now that racism is the avowed administration policy, it has become epidemic. RESIST!!

From NY Times: The death threats started in 2015, when Walter Lübcke defended the refugee policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel. A regional politician for her conservative party, he would go to small towns in his district and explain that welcoming those in need was a matter of German and Christian values.

Hateful emails started pouring in. His name appeared on an online neo-Nazi hit list. His private address was published on a far-right blog. A video of him was shared hundreds of thousands of times, along with emojis of guns and gallows and sometimes explicit calls to murder him: “Shoot him now, this bastard.”

And then someone did.

On June 2, Mr. Lübcke was fatally shot in the head on his front porch, in what appears to be Germany’s first far-right political assassination since the Nazi era. The suspect — who made a detailed confession last month, only to retract it this past week under a new legal team — has a violent neo-Nazi past and police record, renewing criticism that Germany’s security apparatus, with its long track record of neglecting far-right extremism, is still failing to take the threat seriously enough.

The German Nazi Party inspired today’s Republican Reich. Now today’s Republican Reich inspires the resurgence of Nazism in Germany. RESIST!!

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Sunday Smile: One If by Land, Two If by Sea and Three If by Air

 Posted by at 8:23 pm  Politics
Jul 072019
 

In Twitler’s “Salute to America” his rambling speech gave the Twitterverse a wonderful Meme to work with.  And the Tweets did not disappoint.

Background Premise:

TRUMP:

“The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown. Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do. And at Fort McHenry, under the rockets’ red glare, it had nothing but victory. And when dawn came, their star-spangled banner waved defiant.”

Besides the hilarious quote about the Continental Army (which was in service from 1775 to 1783) taking over the airports, the Continental Army would also have not been at Fort McHenry – which wasn’t built until 1798.

Well, the Tweets started flowing and have only recently started slowing down.  By far, my favorite:

 

In truth, our Founding Father, Gen. George Washington, was at first a bit leery about planes.  But the aggressive promotion of the commercial airlines’ reward programs pretty much forced his hand.

And it wasn’t long before all our Founding Fathers joined in with the flying.

Being the astute General that he was, Washington soon recognized the huge advantage that planes would provide.  He shortly thereafter began taking military flight lessons, and it wasn’t long before he and his sidekick were bantering back and forth: “I feel the need … the need for speed!”

Shortly thereafter, George earned his wings:

But taking over the airports wasn’t all fun and games.  Who can forget the tragic losses sustained at the Battle of the Baggage Claim Carousel?

The details of that battle tragedy was shared by one of those brave soldiers to his wife:

 

As we all know, this new mode of air travel did not always go smoothly.  It played particular havoc with many of our Founding Fathers efforts trying to get to Philadelphia to sign our Declaration of Independence – as depicted in John Trumball’s famous painting.

Through my dedicated research, I was able to locate the actual photo commemorating this solemn event which, because of major flight delays, actually took place in the American Airlines waiting area on Concourse D, Gate 31 at LaGuardia:

(There can be little doubt that Trumball’s rendition is much more pleasing to the eye.) 

Now, as back then, we all realize that the misery of missing a flight only leads to other travails:

Additionally, without a doubt, Trump’s YUGE revision of American history has forced others to revise their efforts.

People are saying that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is busy working on updating his “Paul Revere’s Ride” poem.  [OK – Longfellow is long-since dead – I’m working on “Poetic License” here]  And oddly enough, Julian Assange hacked Longfellow’s quill and scroll, and released these teasers:

Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the Red Eye flight of Paul Revere …

[snip]

One if by land, two if by sea and three if by air

And Longfellow was not the only one needing to head back to the drafting board.  Thomas Plane Paine has now updated his famous plea:

“Give me a parachute or give me death”

And for all of us who have felt sorry for media Fact Checkers’ endless task, forced into long, arduous hours given Trumps never-ending lies – on this July 4th Trump gave them a virtual day off with an easy-peasy gaffe:

 ADDENDUM

 I was getting ready to segue from “Friday Fun” through “Saturday/Sunday Smile” to “Monday Mirth”.

But fortunately I was FINALLY able to complete all the calculations and paperwork WRT my County Real Estate Appeal.

Using their own figures, I was able to justify lowering my Assessment increase from 15% to 5%.  And I emailed it to them today – as the deadline is tomorrow.

Time will tell whether the Board agrees with me.  But at least I made the effort, and it really was a very interesting undertaking.

(And who among us wouldn’t mind saving 10% on a tax bill?)

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