Open Thread – 5/18/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:52 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 182018

It’s another comfortable day here in the CatBox, and I have a busy weekend coming up, so I plan on being as lazy as possible. Pray that Mueller does not imitate me.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:04 (average 5:20). To do it, click here. How do you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): How to End Partisan Gerrymandering

The Reich on the Left is right. The Reich on the Right gerrymanders! Amen!! RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Bill Gates Dishes About President Donald Trump Meetings In Exclusive Video

I have many bones to pick with Bill Gates, but for now, TomCat hears that Trump is an incompetent pervert. What’s the difference between HIV and GOP? The latter is far more deadly! RESIST!!

From Alternet: It was noon in early 1942 as Johann Grüner approached the ‘German House’ in the Polish town of Nowy Targ for lunch. As a mid-level Nazi bureaucrat in occupied Poland, he enjoyed the privileges of power and the opportunity for career advancement that came with duty in the East. The German House, a mix of cultural centre, restaurant and pub, was one of the privileges enjoyed by the occupiers. As he entered the building, he could hear a boisterous celebration within. At the front door, a clearly inebriated Gestapo official passed by, a beer coaster with the number 1,000 written in red pinned to his blouse. Addressing Grüner, the policeman drunkenly bragged: ‘Man, today I am celebrating my 1,000th execution!’

At first glance, the incident at the German House might appear to be a grotesque aberration involving a single depraved Nazi killer. However, such ‘celebrations’ were widespread in the occupied Eastern territories as members of the notorious Schutzstaffel (SS) and the German police routinely engaged in celebratory rituals after mass killings. In fact, among the perpetrators of genocide, heavy drinking was common at the killing sites, in pubs and on bases throughout Poland and the Soviet Union.

Republicans are planning a venue, where such celebrations may be held at taxpayer expense: Trump Towers.

Cartoon:

The morning it blew, I walked into the office from the jobsite, covered in wet ash. Our secretary asked if I was planning to join the NAACP.

Friday Fun: Sleuth Like You’re Sherlock Holmes

Posted by SoINeedAName at 6:43 am Politics

May 182018

This is a quickie because I’m heading out the door to a morning doctor appointment. But this is what greeted me for my daily computer wallpaper:

Captivated by the urban Peregrine falcon, I immediately knew what city she lived in.

But I wondered if I could figure out what building it was taken from along with the address, the apartment number and who lived there.

And I did!

So put on your deerstalker hat and do your best Sherlock Holmes imitation to see how many you can check off:

City:

Building:

Address:

Apartment Number:

Owner:

BONUS: Any other tidbits pertaining to THIS peregrine falcon.

And if no one has figured it out by the end of the day, I’ll give a Hint: the name of the photographer.

Good luck!

BONUS ADDITION

[HEADS UP NOTE: Take Hints where you can find them]

I declare, Joanne has independently hit on the right track!

Kansas City is a nice size city – but we don’t have a skyline like that. This is the KCMO downtown skyline looking north from the Liberty Memorial:

And the downtown skyline looking south:

Panorama photo of downtown Kansas City, Missouri skyline, taken from Chouteau Bridge.

But the biggest hint is focusing on the huge, black building in the background that I’ve highlighted here:

If you look closely, you’ll noticed that it tapers the higher it goes. And that’s your huge Hint!

Well, at least I had fun with it – but probably won’t be doing another one of these for a long time.

ANSWER:

OK – some of the hints were quite obtuse. I had hoped the “declare independently” might get someone to the “Declaration of Independence” which might lead you to “John Hancock”. And anyone with a passing knowledge of Chicago knows the Hancock Center.

http://www.aviewoncities.com/gallery/showpicture.htm?key=kveus4019

Joanne was definitely heading in the right direction when she said it probably is a city I was familiar with. As I’ve mentioned before, I went to medical school in Chicago. The first year I lived in the dorm and my window had an unobstructed view of the Hancock building – so it’s an old friend to me.

I tried to help by pointing out the building and the noting that it’s sides’ taper. And you can see that in the above photo.

But to get to the location I just Googled [“peregrine falcon” Chicago] – voila, right there on the front page is our photo!

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22peregrine+falcon%22+chicago&ie=&oe=

So I clicked on the photo and it got me here:

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22peregrine+falcon%22+chicago&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=bZXLQ45XASsoqM%253A%252CsH8Veo5Y1tX8iM%252C_&usg=__AHBK0y0lQKT2r0b7Y6hoPNri1rA%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKwKed95HbAhUGz2MKHUlYCOsQ9QEIXTAE#imgrc=bZXLQ45XASsoqM:

So I clicked on the “Visit” option, and it took me to the Audubon article about her:

https://www.audubon.org/news/peregrines-and-photographer-bunk-out-chicago-mans-apartment

And reading the article you learn that the falcon had commandeered an empty flower box on the 28th floor of Dacey Arashiba’s condo balcony.

So plugging in Dacey Arashiba’s name into an excellent, dedicated person search engine, you can see she lives on Belmont Ave. But that’s probably enough doxing on my part. You can connect the rest of the dots on your own if you want an exact address.

But the Audubon story is definitely worth a read! It tells about how Linda and Steve (the names Darcy gave the Peregrines) came to the condo balcony, and sadly lost their first clutch of three eggs. But amazingly returned the next year to the same balcony and had another clutched that hatched!

And how an award-winning photographer in The Netherlands found out about the falcons and came to America to photograph them. And the photos are quite interesting!

So for me, at least, it was a worthwhile sleuthing search.

Republicans on Parade – 5/17/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:15 pm Politics

May 172018

Here is the one hundred seventeenth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is one of Trump’s personal Republican pseudo-Christian, so-called pastors, Rodney Howard Brown. He is so honored for the way he showed love of Republican Supply-side Jesus, the opposite of the real Jesus, for politicians who refuse to obey his Fuhrer.

[W]hen promoting his new book on a Christian TV network, a conspiracy theorist pastor that once laid hands on President Donald Trump in the Oval Office said high-ranking government officials guilty of treason should be taken out by firing squad.

Right Wing Watch reported Wednesday that Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne made the comment about the executions of government officials and Supreme Court members on the Christian Television Network while discussing “The Killing of Uncle Sam: The Demise of the United States of America,” a book he’d co-written.

“Personally, I think a firing squad would just be great,” Howard-Browne said. “Stick ’em up against a wall and take them out.”

The right-wing pastor who also appeared on Infowars to promote his book later claimed that Hollywood is against Trump because his election meant they would not be subsidized by the government… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Raw Story>

Barf Bag Alert!!

He wants to shoot those evil libruls for Republican Supply-side Jesus! If that doesn’t rate a parade, what does?

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 5/17/2018

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

May 172018

It’s another comfortable day here in the CatBox, and I completed all my tasks yesterday. Unfortunately, my brain was still racing, when I went to bed, and it took hours to relax enough to get to sleep.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:06 (average 4:42). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Four FBI Vets Discuss One Year Of Robert Mueller’s Russia Investigation

Had the FBI been as circumspect about Hillary Clinton as they were about Donald Trump, we would likely have a President. Mueller, from everything I can tell, has Donnie Do-wrong by the short hairs. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump has ordered a replica of the Nobel Peace Prize and is displaying it prominently on his desk in the Oval Office, the White House confirmed on Wednesday.

The replica of the Nobel medallion is mounted on what the White House described as a “tasteful black-velvet background” with an engraved plaque reading, “Donald J. Trump, 2018 Winner.”

At the daily White House briefing, the press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said that Trump “took the initiative” to award himself the Peace Prize rather than “waiting around” for the Nobel committee, in Oslo, to bestow it on him.

“What with his successes in Syria, Iran, North Korea, and whatnot, the President already knows he’s a lock for the Nobel,” she said. “It’s just a formality at this point."

Great minds fall in the same ditch, Andy. I said this week that the Fuhrer would demand the Nobel Peace Prize for moving the Doomsday Clock closer to Midnight. RESIST!!

From Alternet: President Donald Trump engaged in deeply disturbing rhetoric about immigrants on Wednesday at a Cabinet meeting on immigration, echoing some of the worst and most dangerous language he used on the campaign trail.

"We’re taking people out of the country, you wouldn’t believe how bad these people are," he said. "These aren’t people, they’re animals."

Denying the humanity of certain groups — as well as wildly exaggerating their rates of committing crimes, as the president frequently does — is a rhetorical technique often used to promote racist and bigoted ideas.

The Fuhrer does not set the tone for Republican racism. He merely reflects it. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0517Cartoon

Republicans on Parade – 5/16/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:37 pm Politics

May 162018

Here is the one hundred sixteenth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is Republican Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate Christopher Barnett. He is so honored for the way he showed typical Republican compassion for the disabled.

Oklahoma Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Barnett apparently made repugnant comments over the weekend advocating euthanasia for poor and disabled people who are unable to support themselves — but he now argues that the remarks were fraudulently made in his name.

The issue first erupted when a series of posts and comments raised the disturbing ideas on Barnett’s campaign Facebook [pig delinked] page. The remarks have since been removed, but several outlets and others documented them before they were taken down.

The comments came in reply to an initial poll posted on the page asking: “Should a person be required to apply for 2 jobs a week if receiving Food stamps and take any job offered to them to gain employment and if they refuse, they lose their food stamps?”

In reply to some of the comments, Barnett’s account wrote, "The ones who are disabled and can’t work…why are we required to keep them up? Sorry but euthanasia is cheaper and doesn’t make everyone a slave to the Government.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Alternet>

Barnett is completely worthy of a parade, because he has applied his party’s standard for health care to disability and hunger: the RepubliCare Death Benefit. If you can’t pay, you get to die!

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 5/16/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:37 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 162018

Finally! A comfortable day! I’m waiting for Store to Door to arrive with my grocery order. They are running late. When they arrive, I’ll break to unpack and stow. (Done!) This evening WWWendy comes to destink the TomCat, who id sufficiently rancid to make well needed. I also have a couple hours of banking paperwork to complete.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:47 (average 6:32). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Disgraced Former Representative Blake Farenthold Gets Hired As A Lobbyist

Where have all the perverts gone? Long time passing. Where have all the perverts gone? Long time ago. Where have all the perverts gone? To the lobbies everyone! When will we ever learn? When will WE ever learn? RESIST!!

From USA Today: A senior North Korean official warned Wednesday that Pyongyang may cancel its summit meeting between Kim Jong Un and President Trump scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, if it is going to be pushed into giving up its nuclear arsenal.

If the Trump administration pressures Pyongyang to unilaterally abandon its nuclear weapons, North Korea would have to reconsider the summit, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

I deal in that left North Korea with nuclear arms would reflect the standard Republican incompetence level, and leave Trump demanding the Nobel Peace Prize for moving the doomsday clock closer to midnight. RESIST!!

From The Oregonian: Oregon’s liberal Democrats notched key wins Tuesday in [State] legislative primaries that focused on such hot-button issues as housing affordability and the state’s public pension crisis.

With the Legislature likely to consider proposals on tax increases, public pension reform and greenhouse gas emissions next year, the constituencies that support and oppose those plans – businesses, public employee unions and environmentalists – poured money into certain primary contests.

The vote also set the stage in a couple of swing districts that are likely to be intensely contested in November’s general election, as Democrats attempt to win a supermajority and Republicans do their best to block them. Democrats need to pick up just one seat in the House and Senate to achieve the three-fifths supermajority necessary to pass bills raising revenue without Republican support.

Tuesday’s primaries included 16 seats up for grabs in the Senate, with five Democrats running unopposed. All 60 seats were up in the House, with seven Republicans and 24 Democrats running unopposed.

Oregon leads the way! We’re doing our job. How about your state? RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Bernie on the Iran Nuclear Deal

Posted by TomCat at 12:58 pm Politics

May 152018

Last night Senator Bernie Sanders hosted town hall meeting on how Donald Trump and his Republican Reich abandoned the international nuclear weapons deal with Iran. Here is the complete video. I’ll just let Bernie and his panel speak for themselves, without comment, but you need to know that the video is over an hour long.

Senator Bernie Sanders describes himself as “somewhat of a technology Luddite,” but that hasn’t stopped the Vermont senator from embracing the power of live-streaming. Earlier this year, Sanders reached millions of Americans by broadcasting live town-hall meetings on Medicare for All and inequality in America on Facebook, Twitter, and other outlets. “It turns out that live-streaming is revolutionary,” he recently told The Nation.

Tonight (May 14, 2018) at 7 pm EST, the senator will host another town hall on the consequences of Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. The event takes place as Iran and Israel continue to clash in Syria…

Inserted from <The Nation>

Correction – 1 comment:

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 5/15/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:57 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 152018

It’s cooler today, but the building is still hot, and I am still worn out. Tomorrow should be better.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:53 (average 4:43). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Trump only does TV interviews with his friends

Barf Bag Alert!!

These aren’t just sycophants. They are suckophants! RESIST!!

From Rolling Stone: Though the Trump administration is celebrating Monday’s official opening of the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, the move does not appear to have brought about any semblance of peace. An estimated 35,000 Palestinians lined the fence separating the Gaza Strip and Israel in protest, and at least 58 have been killed by Israeli Defense Forces. At least 2,700 have been injured, according to Palestinian officials and the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Protests along the border have raged since March 30th, and follow a call to action by Palestinian journalist Ahmed Abu Artema, who in January posted to Facebook an invitation for a peaceful demonstration, along with the hashtag #GreatMarchOfReturn, a reference to the desire for Israel to allow the return of Palestinian families who were removed from Israel when the state as founded in 1948. Organizers have said that it was Trump’s announcement in December that he would move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem that inspired the protests. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, over 100 people have died and around 11,500 have been injured since the protests began.

This blood stains the hands of the entire Republican Reich! RESIST!!

From NY Times:

Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas needed a favor: Before retiring, he wanted to anoint a local activist as his successor. Mr. Hensarling, a veteran conservative, reached out to President Trump for help, but the White House hesitated to intervene, according to a person familiar with the overture.

Instead, Mr. Hensarling found a willing ally at Mr. Trump’s right hand: Vice President Mike Pence. Mr. Pence backed the congressman’s favorite, Bunni Pounds, last month in a tweet [sphincter delinked] that blindsided key White House aides…

…Republican officials now see Mr. Pence as seeking to exercise expansive control over a political party ostensibly helmed by Mr. Trump, tending to his own allies and interests even when the president’s instincts lean in another direction. Even as he laces his public remarks with praise for the president, Mr. Pence and his influential chief of staff, Nick Ayers, are unsettling a group of Mr. Trump’s fierce loyalists who fear they are forging a separate power base.

In addition to addressing dozens of party events in recent months, Mr. Pence has effectively made himself the frontman for America First Policies, an outside group set up to back Mr. Trump’s agenda. He has keynoted more than a dozen of its events this year, traveling under its banner to states including Iowa and New Hampshire. And Mr. Pence has worked insistently to shape Mr. Trump’s endorsements, prodding him in the contests for governor of Florida and speaker of the House, among others.

Word of the internal tensions is getting out beyond the walls of the White House: one prominent lawmaker said the complaints of high-ranking Trump officials were starting to circulate on Capitol Hill.

That pseudo-Christian fascist may seem inoffensive and soft-spoken, but he’s bright enough to see that the Fuhrer is on the way out, so he’s trying to seize the reins of the Reich. His policies are probably worse that Trump’s, but he’s sneaky and keeps the most extreme secret. RESIST!!

Cartoons:

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