Open Thread – 5/25/2018

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 252018
 

It was supposed to be cloudy today, but the sun is on the wall.  61° outside.  78° in my chair.  ARGH!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:57 (average 5:58).  To do it click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Things conservatives blame for mass school shootings instead of guns

Barf Bag Alert!!

 

It’s the guns, STUPID! RESIST!!

From Reuters: U.S. President Donald Trump’s cancellation of a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatens further strain on U.S.-China ties amid a trade dispute that had been intertwined with Beijing’s pressure on isolated Pyongyang.

The United States and China are also increasingly at odds in the disputed South China Sea. The Pentagon this week withdrew an invitation for China to take part in a major naval exercise in Hawaii, and Beijing has ramped up pressure on self-ruled Taiwan, armed by Washington but claimed by Beijing.

Trump on Thursday released a letter to Kim announcing his withdrawal from the planned June 12 meeting in Singapore, which would have been the first between leaders of the two countries.

Although Chinese state media called for continued engagement between Washington and Pyongyang, Trump’s move could mark a split between China and the United States over how to deal with North Korea and its nuclear weapons, experts said.

It also risks adding fuel to simmering trade tensions, just days after China and the United States pulled back from the brink of a full-blown trade war.

The Fuhrer never was never willing to negotiate and Kim knows it. Bolton’s Libya plan was clear. Trump mistakenly cancelled, because he thought Kim would, leaving Kim, another mad man, but smarter than Trump, the moral high ground. RESIST!!

From Think Progress: Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) just tried to set gay rights back 20 years, lost a major endorsement as a result — and then made it clear he didn’t care.

“Every homeowner should be able to make a decision not to sell their home to someone [if] they don’t agree with their lifestyle,” Rohrabacher told members of the Orange County Association of Realtors last week when asked about extending federal protections to the LGBTQ community. It was a blatant endorsement of anti-LGBTQ housing discrimination, which has been illegal in California for nearly two decades.

The National Association of Gay and Lesbian Real Estate Professionals expressed outrage over the remarks, prompting the 1.3 million-member National Association of Realtors (NAR) to rescind its endorsement of Rohrabacher. The NAR code of ethics prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Kudos to the NAR. Discrimination of all kinds is standard for the Republican Reich, especially the ones with a wide stance! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

When will the next Bankster be convicted?

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Friday Fun: Few Things to Make You Smile & Warm Your Heart

 Posted by at 4:58 am  Politics
May 252018
 

Since every week with Twitler in the Oval Office is, by definition, a dismal week, I thought I’d focus on a few things that will make you smile and warm your heart.

While not exactly proud of it, the fact that we learned this week that George Zimmerman, forced to file court financial disclosure papers related to ANOTHER run-in with the law, is $2.5 MILLION dollars in debt and has NO source of income did, in fact, make me smile and warmed my heart.

NOTE to George Zimmerman: Karma is, indeed, a “female cur”!

Moving on to more magnanimous Smile-Inducers-and-Heart-Warmers, CEO Martha Fuerstenau of American 1 Credit Union based in Jackson, MI has directed that 186 of the firm’s 187 employees be given raises that total almost $1 MILLION ($950,000)!

The one employee that CEO Martha Fuerstenau elected to NOT include in the generous raises was the herself!

And these were not nickel and dime raises – but ones that averaged more than $5,000 per employee.  Additionally, 76 percent of the increase went to hourly employees, with only 24 percent going to management.

NOTE to Fortune 500 CEOs: THIS is how you should do “Trickle Down”!

http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2018/05/combined_1_million_worth_of_ra.html

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/5/24/1766856/-Michigan-credit-union-gives-generous-raises-to-every-employee-except-one

This one is made extra poignant by the fact that it happens down in Clinton, MS.

Few things are as heart-warming as a three-year little boy’s unbridled joy induced by a weekly visit from his best buddies … the garbage men!

It all began when Grandma Reynolds had her grandson Kyler help her take the trash out and was greeted with friendly waves from the crew.  It has now become a weekly routine with a definite Win-Win for everyone!

(For a real treat, I’d encourage you to read the full story about their bonds at the YouTube site itself.  Just click on the YouTube logo in the lower right corner when it plays.)

NOTE to racist republicans (or is that redundant?): This is how we can all get along – by treating others with kindness and respect.  So take your hate-mongering bigotry and Go Cheney Yourselves!

Tomorrow will mark the one-week anniversary of a wedding that was not only pitch perfect but had lessons that began before it even happened, and they continued in its afterglow.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle asked guests and well-wishers to forgo wedding gifts and instead make a donation to one of seven charities that reflect their passions for helping others.

(You can read about the seven they selected either from the Tweet’s link or here:)

https://www.royal.uk/wedding-charity-donations

Of course, we knew it was going to be beautiful – and no doubt all you Anglophiles were chuffed at how blinding beautiful it was.

And afterwards Prince Harry and the now Duchess of Sussex continued showing world leaders their true compassion by donating all those gorgeous flowers, now made into stunning bouquets, to charities – including the St. Joseph Hospice in London, which has a long history involving the Royals.

Meet one of the lucky recipients, Pauline Clayton, who “is no stranger to royal family weddings. As a 19-year-old, Clayton, now 89, worked for royal dressmaker Norman Hartnell and helped embroider the wedding dress of Queen Elizabeth II, according to the BBC. Clayton worked with three other girls, earning nearly 50 hours overtime on the dress’ train alone.”

http://www.wivb.com/news/world/prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-donate-royal-wedding-flowers-to-hospice-patients/1191568614

All except for the Bride’s Bouquet, which by tradition that began when Queen Elizabeth, who married King George VI in 1923, placed her bouquet on the Grave of the Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey “in memory of her brother Fergus who was killed in 1915 at the Battle of Loos during the First World War.”

NOTE to Trump: THIS is how true leadership looks.  GROW UP!  Better yet – RESIGN!

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Samantha Bee from 5/23

 Posted by at 1:01 pm  Politics
May 242018
 

It’s that time of week again, so here are three excellent video clips from Sam’s show last night.  Enjoy!

The Good & The Ugly: GA Primaries & Abortion Restrictions

 

Go Stacey (Black woman, not white Republican asshole) Go!

Abolish ICE

 

That Ronnie Ray Gun must have been a damn librul! I’m for abolishing ICE, except what comes from my freezer.

We Will Make You Care About Yemen

 

Republicans just aren’t happy unless they are killing Muslims for Republican Supply-side Jesus, the polar opposite of the real Jesus. She’s right that CAT is where it’s AT!

I missed Sam during her week off.  A smile helps to…

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

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Open Thread – 5/24/2018

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 242018
 

Here in the CatBox, I’m enjoying the fresh air as long as I can.  The sun will be coming out soon and turning my wall into a radiator, so it will be button up and AC time.  I won’t have time to research this today, but I hear the Fuhrer screwed the pooch in his North Korea deal.  Kim has been acting nasty since Bolton announced North Korea will be on the Libya plan.  You can’t blame Kim, considering the US role in the fate of Daffy Qaddafi.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:31 (average 4:45).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): James Clapper Russia Assessment Calls Donald Trump Legitimacy Into Question (almost 20 min.)

 

Flake, who is quitting and keeps goose stepping on the way out, may be right, but every time I think we’ve hit bottom, the Republican Reich redefines low downward. RESIST!!

From Huffington Post: The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Ohio to strike down the state’s congressional map, saying it was intentionally drawn to so egregiously benefit Republicans that it violates the Constitution.

Since 2012, Republicans have consistently won the same 12 of Ohio’s 16 congressional seats, while winning between 51 and 59 percent of the state’s popular vote. The suit alleges that Republicans maintain this remarkable advantage because they controlled the redistricting process in 2011 and worked in secret to draw a map to guarantee just that outcome each year.

The suit was filed Wednesday in federal court on behalf of 16 voters in each of the state’s congressional districts, the Ohio chapter of the League of Women Voters and the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a labor and civil rights group.

Kudos to the ACLU and all parties bringing the suit. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: NBC29 has the awful report of a Louisa County, Virginia four year old who shot and killed his two-year-old brother by accident in his home on Tuesday morning.

Tyler “Ty” Aponte was shot around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 22. Authorities say his 4-year-old brother thought the gun was a toy when he accidentally shot Tyler. […]

"It’s horrible, it’s devastating. You come into a scene like this and you see all the carnage. You see everything," said Major Donnie Lowe, Louisa County Sheriff’s Office.

Linda Eddy, a neighbor, said she has no idea how the children could have found a gun: "There is no way that they would leave a loaded gun out. They’re good people, they’re Christians. They’re good people, and take care of their children and make sure they have everything they need."

Republican Ammosexuals would be relieved that the gun was not harmed, since they obviously care more for their guns than for their children. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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No Democrats Allowed!

 Posted by at 1:15 pm  Politics
May 232018
 

When there is to be sharing of classified information with anyone in Congress, we have have an established protocol for doing that.  The information is shared with a group of Senators and Representatives called the Gang of Eight.  Four are the leaders of each of the two parties in the House and Senate.  The other four are the Chair and Ranking Member of the Intelligence Committees in both the House and Senate.  They are security cleared and sworn to secrecy.  However, when it comes to secret documents from the investigation into Trump’s criminal conspiracy with Russia, the Republican Reich is proceeding a different way.  It’s a way with no Democrats allowed!

0523NoDems

Key congressional leaders are set to meet Thursday with federal law enforcement and intelligence bosses amid a slow-motion standoff over secret documents in the Russia investigation, the White House said on Tuesday.

Press secretary Sarah Sanders said that the White House had brokered a meeting at which two key Republican chairmen would hear from the leaders of the Justice Department, FBI and the intelligence community following weeks’ worth of requests for the classified material.

No one from the White House is scheduled to be present, Sanders said — nor, at this point, are any senators or any Democrats, in defiance of a request from the Senate minority leader.

The members of Congress set to attend are Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the chairman of the House intelligence committee, and Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

Those scheduled to attend from the executive branch are Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O’Callaghan, Sanders said…

Inserted from <NPR>

Here’s what Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had to say.

I could not have said it better.  Nunes has an orange/brown smudge on the end of his nose, and, if Hillary had won, Gowdy would still been screaming about Benghazi.  They are the most outrageous conspiracy theorists in Congress.  The least harmful thing they would do is provide Rudy 911 the details of the case against the Criminal he represents, and that’s horrid!

RESIST  THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

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Open Thread – 5/23/2018

 Posted by at 1:14 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 232018
 

It’s another hot, busy day here at the CatBox.  I’m waiting for Store to Door to deliver my grocery order.  They are due any time now.  After I unpack and stow them, I’ll have lunch and finish here.  Next, I have a letter to write to the Parole Board on behalf of one of my guys.  This evening WWWendy comes to destink a very needy TomCat.  Happy Hump Day to all, but be warned.  The Psychiatrist General has determined that Trump Humping is hazardous to your brain.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:22 (average 5:16).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): Beyond Trump: A Federal Jobs Guarantee

The Reich on the Left is right. The Reich on the Right is Republican. We need either Robert’s plan, or a guaranteed living minimum income. RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Stacey Abrams Makes History With Georgia Win

 

Excellent! Not only is she a true progressive and an authentic Democrat, but also, she has the balls to RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump said on Monday that he is “a-hundred-per-cent positive” that an F.B.I. informant infiltrated his 2016 campaign but that he has “absolutely no idea” who that mole might be.

“I’ve been trying to figure out who would have the opportunity and the motive to do something like this,” he said. “But I keep coming up empty.”

“Opportunity-wise, you’d need to be someone who’s in my inner circle and who could get close to me without raising suspicions,” he said. “But, then again, the person would have to be able to suddenly disappear for periods of time and report back to the F.B.I. I can’t think of anyone in a position to do that.”

Andy has a guess!

0523Borowitz-TrumpFBIInformant

RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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Trump Compromising DOJ

 Posted by at 9:29 am  Politics
May 222018
 

In what has to be his strongest move to obstruct justice in over a year, Resident Donald Trump, aka Putin’s Puppet, is trying to fleece DOJ for evidence, sources and methods key to pursue the investigations against him for conspiracy, which may well be treason, racketeering for his emoluments and more, and obstruction of of justice.

0522TrumpBusted

Stop waiting for the constitutional crisis that President Trump is sure to provoke. It’s here.

On Sunday, via Twitter, Trump demanded that the Justice Department concoct a transparently political investigation, with the aim of smearing veteran professionals at Justice and the FBI and also throwing mud at the previous administration. Trump’s only rational goal is casting doubt on the probe by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, which appears to be closing in.

Trump’s power play is a gross misuse of his presidential authority and a dangerous departure from long-standing norms. Strongmen such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin use their justice systems to punish enemies and deflect attention from their own crimes. Presidents of the United States do not — or did not, until Sunday’s tweet: [Pervert delinked]

“I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes — and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!”

Rather than push back and defend the rule of law, Justice tried to mollify the president by at least appearing to give him what he wants. The Republican leadership in Congress has been silent as a mouse. This is how uncrossable lines are crossed…

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Pardon me for the humorous self-aggrandizing and wishful thinking in the meme.

Rudy "911" is drooling on evil glee as he waits for the most sensitive material to be illegally given to him.

And this isn’t the worst of it.  Rachel Maddow spent almost 26 minutes digging out more.

I am also very uncomfortable with the accommodations and feel they may set a precedent so dangerous that the only way to un-ring the bell is for Congress to pass a law.

Time will tell how much what Rosenstein is doing is empty posturing, and how much is an actual cave in.  From here, it does not look good.

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

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Open Thread – 5/22/2018

 Posted by at 9:28 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
May 222018
 

I have a hot one on tap here at the CatBox, and my plan for the day is to get my articles up early, and before it gets too hot out, and then, to go to the bank, so I have a supply of money with which to pay WWWendy.  When I return, I plan to hide from the heat for the rest of the day.  I understand that least a couple Care2 denizens have not been getting the daily messages I send to help Care2 "fiends" find our articles.  If you have not been receiving yours regularly, please let me know.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:44 (average 4:46).  To do it click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): DON’T WORRY – Parody of Don’t Worry, Be Happy

 

It would be nice, but it’s easier said than done. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): What abortion coverage looks like on Fox News

Barf Bag Alert!!

 

Pure Bullshit! A culture of death has taken root between the ears of Faux Noise Sheeple! RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Millions of Americans are demanding an investigation into why, if F.B.I. operatives managed to infiltrate the 2016 Trump campaign, they utterly failed to prevent a nightmarish despot from being elected.

In interviews across the country, Americans expressed dismay and, in some cases, despair at the news that F.B.I. infiltrators might have had a golden opportunity to prevent the nation’s current unspeakable nightmare from unfolding but did not get the job done.

“The thought of F.B.I. infiltrators being inside the Trump campaign but not sabotaging it is, in a word, devastating,” Carol Foyler, of Akron, Ohio, said. “If it turns out to be true, I will totally lose my faith in F.B.I. infiltrators.”

Dang Andy! That’s a more realistic investigation than the one the Fuhrer wants!  RESIST!!

Cartoon:

A foot deeper, he would have voted Trump!

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