Open Thread – 6/21/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:48 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 212018

It’s cooler today, but it will take a couple days for the building to lose the heat. The restrooms and hallways are still in the 80°s, and the CatBox would be too, if I didn’t keep it buttoned up and the AC on. I’m ready for another shower, but that’s three days away. My guy in prison, for whom I recently wrote a letter to the Parole Board, received a date and will be released in December. I feel very proud of him. For our Pagan friends, Blessed be.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:53 (average 4:25). To do it, click here. How did you do?

TC Controls the Seasons:

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Did President Donald Trump Executive Order Make It Worse?

It’s not news to me that Trump is a coward. Cowardice is what bullies do. Note that 11 million children still cry in misery in GOP Gulags. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Daily Kos: It is World Refugee Day, and President Barack Obama just posted his thoughts on the matter. It is also transcribed below…

…Today is World Refugee Day.

If you’ve been fortunate enough to have been born in America, imagine for a moment if circumstance had placed you somewhere else. Imagine if you’d been born in a country where you grew up fearing for your life, and eventually the lives of your children. A place where you finally found yourself so desperate to flee persecution, violence, and suffering that you’d be willing to travel thousands of miles under cover of darkness, enduring dangerous conditions, propelled forward by that very human impulse to create for our kids a better life.

That’s the reality for so many of the families whose plights we see and heart-rending cries we hear. And to watch those families broken apart in real time puts to us a very simple question: are we a nation that accepts the cruelty of ripping children from their parents’ arms, or are we a nation that values families, and works to keep them together? Do we look away, or do we choose to see something of ourselves and our children?

Our ability to imagine ourselves in the shoes of others, to say “there but for the grace of God go I,” is part of what makes us human. And to find a way to welcome the refugee and the immigrant – to be big enough and wise enough to uphold our laws and honor our values at the same time – is part of what makes us American. After all, almost all of us were strangers once, too. Whether our families crossed the Atlantic, the Pacific, or the Rio Grande, we’re only here because this country welcomed them in, and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like, how our last names sound, or the way we worship. To be an American is to have a shared commitment to an ideal – that all of us are created equal, and all of us deserve the chance to become something better.

That’s the legacy our parents and grandparents and generations before created for us, and it’s something we have to protect for the generations to come. But we have to do more than say “this isn’t who we are.” We have to prove it – through our policies, our laws, our actions, and our votes.

Amen and Kudos to Obama! Republicans celebrated World Refugee day by listening to the screams from GOP gulags for refugee children. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Raw Story: [A]n inebriated airline passenger who gave a Nazi salute and tried to strangle his flight’s pilot was jailed and made bail for the physical altercation involving multiple airline employees.

The Belfast Telegraph reported that 51-year-old Paul Anthony Burgoyne became erratic and disorderly when a flight attendant asked him to raise his window blind so the plane could take off at the Belfast International Airport earlier this year.

“All right, mein Fuhrer,” Burgoyne, originally from Northern Ireland, told the attendant before giving a Nazi salute. The captain came down during the altercation, and that’s when the passenger began yelling at the pilot, telling him he was going to punch him.

Burgoyne eventually tried to grab the pilot by the throat and missed, grabbing his collar instead.

After being ejected from the plane, the passenger attempted to commandeer a “tug vehicle” and managed to grab its wheel and joystick before being physically hauled off of it. He then tried to fight another airline employee before being arrested, and police reports indicated he was under the influence of both drugs and alcohol.

Rumor has it that this individual is being rushed through immigration to fill a high level staff position for Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Vintage 2011. Still fits.

Republicans on Parade – 6/20/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:17 pm Politics

Jun 202018

Here is the one hundred twenty-third article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is Republican white supremacist and former Trump Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski. He is so honored for the Republican way he expresses Republican racist hatred of disabled children.

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has created a stir by dismissing a story about a girl with Down syndrome with a sarcastic "Wah wah." Lewandowski appeared Tuesday on Fox News Channel to discuss Mr. Trump’s hard-line immigration policy.

The policy has led to the practice of taking migrant children from parents charged with entering the country illegally.

Earlier Tuesday, a Mexican official said one of those children was a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome.

When another Fox panelist, Democratic strategist Zac Petkanas, mentioned that story, Lewandowski responded with "Wah wah."

"Did you just say ‘Wah wah’ to a 10-year-old with Down syndrome being taken from her mother?" Petkanas asked Lewandowski.

"What I said is you can pick anything you want … but the bottom line is very clear: When you cross the border illegally, you have given up the rights of this country," Lewandowski said while Petkanas was saying "How dare you."…

Inserted from <CBS News>

Here’s the video:

Few things are more typical of the Republican Party than mocking the plight of a child with downs syndrome, who has been ripped from her parents’ arms and confined in a Republican concentration camp.

RESIST!!

VOTE BLUE!!

Open Thread – 6/20/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:16 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 202018

Yesterday we set another all time record high for the date. Today is the hottest of the heat wave. Store to Door delivered my groceries, and I put them away. WWWendy has an appointment, so she’s coming to destink the TomCat a couple hours early, so I’m rushing. I hate days, when I will be sweat soaked between leaving the shower and getting to my room. Hot Hump Day Hugs!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:09 (average 5:27). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Washington Post Channel): Is there a law that requires families to be separated at the border? | Fact Checker

There is no law that requires families to be separated. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (Vox Channel): The voices of children separated at the border

Listen to want Republicans call mud children, who Trump says infest our nation. You are hearing the sound of Republican "love" for these children. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Alternet: In Portland, Oregon, the prison used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement is housed in a nondescript building tucked between a highway and the waterfront south of downtown. The tan three-story structure has darkened windows and no identifying marks. It’s surrounded by an 8-feet high metal fence, guarded by a security checkpoint, and cameras outside cover every angle.

Since Sunday night, dozens of protesters under the banner of #OccupyICEPDX have been maintaining a round-the-clock vigil outside the prison. They are demanding an abolition of ICE and an end to the Trump administration’s policy of forcibly separating children from parents fleeing across the U.S. border from violence-ravaged countries.

On Monday ICE personnel showed up as usual to implement Trump’s deportation policies. By the end of the workday, the number of protesters swelled to about 70 and they sprang into action.

Three cars with darkened windows exited a garage and attempted to drive out the entrance. Some twenty protesters formed a line and locked arms. Staring down the drivers, “They blocked them from leaving the facility,” said Jacob Bureros, an organizer with the Direct Action Alliance.

The vehicles went back inside the ICE garage. Two officers with the Department of Homeland Security showed up to negotiate with the protesters. Jenny Nickolaus, another organizer with DAA, said a couple of dozen people engaged with the police in bulletproof vests. The two cops asked for “reasonable accommodation from the protesters.”

When asked what that meant, says Nickolaus, the DHS police pleaded with protesters “to allow nine ICE employees stuck inside to be able to ‘to go home to their families.’”

Kudos to the protestors for showing ICE Republicans the meaning of family separation! Oregon leads the way! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Republicans on Parade – 6/19/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:33 pm Politics

Jun 192018

Here is the one hundred twenty-second article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is Republican white supremacist and head of Women Vote for Trump PAC, Amy Kremer. She is so honored for the Republican way she supports racist hatred of and violence against children.

Amy Kremer used to run the Tea Party Express, and now she runs the Women Vote Trump PAC. As you might expect, she’s a bit wacky.

Watching her attempt to dominate three intelligent and well-versed women on CNN last night was like watching a monkey at the zoo. Joan Walsh and Erin Burnett tried to make sense of Kremer’s rantings, and finally April Ryan stepped in to put her in her place.

Why does CNN keep inviting these idiots? Ratings, I guess. She’s certainly not smart…

From <Crooks and Liars>

I’m hard pressed to understand how the three ladies kept from losing their cookies on the set.

This moron and more vile hoards just like her will goose-step to the polls on November 6 in blind obeisance to their Fuhrer and their Reich! If Democratic voters don’t outnumber them by at least ten percent, they will win.

RESIST!!

VOTE BLUE!!

Open Thread – 6/19/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:32 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 192018

The heat wave is continuing, but more recent forecasts show that it might not be quite as severe. I’m staying hunkered down and moving as little as possible.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:28 (average 4:45). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Trey Crowder Channel): Liberal Redneck – Space Forcing Families Apart

Trey nailed it. White unborn children are the only ones Republicans care about! They wish they had death rays that don’t work on white people. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): The right-wing reactions to separating families at the border are atrocious

Barf Bag Alert!!

Excuse me, while I go puke! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From NY Times: President Trump said on Monday that he would direct the Pentagon to establish a sixth branch of the armed forces dedicated to protecting American interests in outer space, an idea that has troubled lawmakers and even some members of his administration, who have cautioned that the action could create unnecessary bureaucratic responsibilities for a military already burdened by conflicts.

During a speech at a meeting of the National Space Council, Mr. Trump announced plans to protect American interests in space through monitoring commercial traffic and debris, initiatives he said would be “great not only in terms of jobs and everything else, it’s great for the psyche of our country.”

Minutes later, the president zeroed in on Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and tasked him with the undertaking of creating another branch of the military.

Bend over. The Republican Reich wants to claim Uranus. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Squatch’s Open Thread 19 June 2018

Posted by Lynn Squance at 10:25 am Open Thread, Politics

Jun 192018

We are in the midst of a heat wave getting to 32C (90F) yesterday and very muggy. Today is more of the same. I think later this afternoon I will go play under my neighbour’s garden hose to cool off. One is never too old to have some good old fashion play time! To make things hotter, the Orange Ogre is being his loathsome self and tweeting right, left and centre about illegal immigration. In yesterday’s tirade, he used the word ‘infest’ in talking about illegal immigrants and conflated immigrants with gang bangers. But there was good news — Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State and Drumpf acolyte, was handed his walking papers by a judge.

Short Takes

Mamamia — And in an uncomfortable turn of events, Donald Trump may have just been caught fibbing about his height as he innocently stood next to Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

This photo taken during the G7 summit in Quebec has, unfortunately for Trump, gone viral. And when you stop ogling at Trudeau, you might just see why. …

Photo by Edward Hardy, photojournalist

Trudeau, you see, is standing taller than Trump. Which is difficult to explain when Trudeau is 6″2, and Trump claims to be 6″3. At least, that figure is according to Trump’s physical exam results which were released in January this year by the White House doctor. …

Here’s where it gets even more confusing: Trump’s New York driver’s licence stated he was 6″2. Did the 71-year-old President have a sudden… growth spurt?

OK, OK! Who cares how tall Trump is . . . is it really all that important? Well in this case, Trump’s height is a measure of the man so it is of some importance. He is shorter than Justin Trudeau but his narcissistic personality has to say “I am the leader” or in this case “I am tallest”. Is the demonstration of the height difference the source of his disdain of Trudeau. But “fibbing”? I call this outright lying which is all Drumpf knows how to do. In these politically hot times, I’ll leave this with you for a good laugh! . . . at the Liar-in-Chief’s expense of course!

Mother Jones — A federal judge on Monday struck down a 2013 Kansas law that required people to provide proof of citizenship such as a passport or birth certificate in order to register to vote. The decision deals a major blow to efforts by conservative activists to erect barriers to voting under the pretense that voter fraud is rampant. The law, Judge Julie Robinson determined, violated the 1993 National Voter Registration Act and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. …

Instead, Kobach and his team repeatedly failed to follow basic rules of evidence, requiring the judge to lecture him on what she called “Evidence 101.” (As it turns out, Robinson really did think Kobach needed to study up. In her opinion Monday, she ordered Kobach, a Yale-educated attorney, to take six hours of continuing legal education on the subject of how to introduce evidence at trial.)

In the words of Jackie Gleason, “How sweet it is!” It is about time that this legal weenie pipsqueak got his comeuppance! I doubt that this is the end of this. As noted in the article, Kobach was earlier found in contempt of court “for failing to comply with a court order to register Kansas voters whose applications had been held up by his proof-of-citizenship law. “I wonder what Kobach thinks about karma!

NY Times — President Trump said on Monday that he would direct the Pentagon to establish a sixth branch of the armed forces dedicated to protecting American interests in outer space, an idea that has troubled lawmakers and even some members of his administration, who have cautioned that the action could create unnecessary bureaucratic responsibilities for a military already burdened by conflicts.

The US’s original Space Cadet during a meeting of the National Space Council on Monday, when he waded into a policy debate about space that has spanned administrations. Credit Tom Brenner/The New York Times

The creation of a sixth branch of the military to join the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard would require congressional authorization and approval. Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, who is on the Senate Commerce Committee overseeing the nation’s space program — and who once spent six days in space — said that the president’s order lacked the support of the generals who would be required to carry it out.

The most recent proclamation from the US’s original “space cadet”, Drumpf. With 40 million Americans living under the poverty line as noted by the UN Special Rapporteur and Drumpf giving big tax concessions to the wealthiest Americans and corporations, where the hell does he think the money will come from for this folly? That’s right, after all those campaign promises for better health care etc, Drumpf will yet again cut programmes that are sorely needed. Is it any wonder that mental health professionals are saying Drumpf is NUTS??? (my word for brevity’s sake)

DC Report — The federal court suit over the Affordable Care Act became a potent threat to pre-existing conditions when the Justice Department filed a brief arguing that as of Jan. 1, 2019, those protections should be invalidated. The Justice Department argued that the judge should strike down the section of the law that protects people buying insurance from being charged higher premiums because of their health histories.

According to a 2016 analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, approximately 52 million Americans under the age of 65 could find their access to health insurance at risk because of a wide range of pre-existing conditions, from diabetes to cancer to pregnancy. Health insurers have for years been raising premiums, complaining about uncertainty and withdrawing from the business of selling individual insurance plans; more changes could further destabilize the market.

As a follow-up to TC’s article yesterday, read through David Cay Johnston’s interesting take on just where healthcare in the US is going. It can’t be said too often that the only healthcare that Republicans have is Republicare . . . pay or die. And these are your elected officials.

My Universe — Don’t let this be you with Republicans!

Resist!!!

Posted to Care2

RepubliCare is Coming

Posted by TomCat at 1:18 pm Politics

Jun 182018

Republicans have been lying about health care since long before the ACA, affectionately and hatefully known as ObamaCare passed. Republicans are still lying about health care, but now they have almost finished dismantling ObamaCare. The handwriting is on the wall. RepubliCare is coming.

Senate Republicans really want you to believe that they want to keep all the popular consumer protections in the Affordable Care Act, like coverage for pre-existing conditions. "Everybody I know in the Senate—everybody—is in favor of maintaining coverage for pre-existing conditions," Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says. "There is no difference in opinion about that whatsoever." The chairman of the Health committee, Sen. Lamar Alexander agreed, saying "Congress specifically repealed the individual mandate penalty, but I didn’t hear a single senator say that they also thought they were repealing protections for people with pre-existing conditions."

So what’s Alexander doing sending a letter to the Trump administration, along with 30 other Republican senators, telling Trump to speed up the rules for allowing people to by junk insurance, that doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions?

Alexander and team (look, there’s Nevada’s most endangered Republican, Sen. Dean Heller!) say that allowing association health plans (AHPs) can provide "a lower cost alternative with the same sort of consumer protections and tax breaks that apply to employees who receive health care insurance from large employers." Except as the proposed rule is written, the plans would not have to comply with some of Obamacare’s coverage requirements and patient protections. So cheap, skimpy plans that don’t cover actual health issues would be allowed again… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

As soon as such plans are allowed, they will become the norm of what will be subsidized for people who cannot afford full converge. Republicans will take tax money from citizens and give it to greedy insurance companies. The beneficiaries who cannot pay will still get the free RepubliCare Death Benefit. They get to die for no additional charge.

RESIST!!

VOTE BLUE!!

Open Thread – 6/18/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:17 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 182018

The heat wave is upon us, with an all time record high yesterday. So far the AC is holding it’s own. I spent a lot of the morning doing paperwork and scheduling more medical mayhem. The surgery to straighten my eyes is scheduled for 12/12. Dang! Seeing only one WWWendy will be a 50% reduction in gorgeous. Smile with tongue out

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:00 (average 4:53). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Pressure Grows On President Donald Trump To Change Border Policy For Kids

Whether and how the Reich responds will depend on the balance between their hatred of poor Latino children, and their fear that the current exposure of that hatred will cost them their power. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (Daily Kos Channel): "Fox & Friends" hosts defend use of cages

Barf Bag Alert!!

What Republican garbage! When families go to the checkpoints, where they are supposed to receive an amnesty interview, they are told to leave and come back when hearings officers are available. Republicans have made sure that none are ever available. After repeated attempts at legal entry, desperate families cross the border illegally. Republicans separate the families, jail the parents, and cage the children. A chain link enclosure you can’t open is still a cage. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Portland Tribune: Love was the treasure at the end of every rainbow during a Sunday spectacle in Portland.

Thousands marched, pranced, danced, jiggled, giggled, swaggered, stomped, sashayed, prayed, hip-hip-hoorayed and — above all — stood tall during the 2018 Portland Pride Parade on Sunday, June 17 in downtown Portland.

0618pride

I did not attended, and I go for lady cats, not other TomCats, but I’m proud of PRIDE and my LBGT friends. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

The Republican Reich has abandoned and violated it.

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