It’s a rough day here in the CatBox.  I was up early this morning with Republicosis.  On the second trip, I asked myself just how much crap could fit into one Puddy Tat.  A couple hours later, I broke the record I had just set.  I hope the Imodium AD kicks in soon.  At 8:00, I received a Robocall from Store to Door that, due to weather conditions, they have to cancel my grocery delivery this week.  Wendy has chains on her pickup, so she will do my shopping on the way here for my shower this evening.  Of course, I will pay her for the time she spends doing it.   This, for obvious reasons, is my only article today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:27 (average 5:49).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): Who Should Get Into the USA?

Democrats prefer admitting the needy. Republicans prefer admitting the greedy. The only restriction I would place is a criminal background check. RESIST!!

From Reuters UK: U.S. evangelist Billy Graham, who counseled presidents and preached to millions across the world from his native North Carolina to communist North Korea during his 70 years on the pulpit, died on Wednesday at the age of 99, a spokesman said.

He was an evangelical televangelism pioneer, who became a pioneer of Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity. RESIST!!

From CNN: Linda Belcher, a Democrat, won the special election for Kentucky’s House District 49 on Tuesday with 3,386 votes. Rebecca Johnson, a Republican, received 1,561 votes, according to official results from Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Johnson is the widow of Republican state Rep. Dan Johnson, who narrowly defeated Belcher, then an incumbent, in 2016 and committed suicide late last year. The lawmaker had been accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in 2013 in a report by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. He committed suicide a day after he denied the allegations.

Trump won the district with 72% of the vote in 2016.

That is a satisfying result. A Democrat has the seat, and the Republican that used to have it is talking politics with Scalia. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Vice President Mike Pence had planned to secretly meet with a high-level delegation of North Korean leaders while he was at the Winter Olympics in South Korea this month, but the North Koreans canceled at the last minute, according to the State Department.

If you believe that, how about buying some Eau de Puddy Tat for $250,000/kitty fart.  It has magical healing properties.  RESIST!!

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Here in tropical Portland, it’s snowing.  Store to Door has not called to take my grocery order yet, so I called them.  They still plan to call, but it’s possible they may be unable to deliver  my groceries tomorrow due to weather.  ARGH!  I still have not had to turn heat on, but I did have to put on a long sleeve shirt.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me  3:39 (average 5:34).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Huffington Post (Hat-Tip JL A): New York Magazine is laying out a case for the possible impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

The cover story, penned by former executive editor of The New York Times Jill Abramson, described Thomas’ rise to power and his apparent immunity to scrutiny during the height of the #MeToo movement. Citing conversations with three women who worked with Thomas, Abramson also detailed a history of lies told by the judge, beginning during his confirmation hearing.

His dishonesty, not the allegations of impropriety, “raise the possibility of impeachment.”

“Lying is, for lawyers, a cardinal sin. State disciplinary committees regularly institute proceedings against lawyers for knowingly lying in court, with punishments that can include disbarment. Since 1989, three federal judges have been impeached and forced from office for charges that include lying. The idea of someone so flagrantly telling untruths to ascend to the highest legal position in the U.S. remains shocking, in addition to its being illegal,” Abramson wrote.

Impeaching TEAbag Thomas is a wonderful idea, but we need to wait for the votes to convict the pervert in the Senate to remove him. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): Your 3 Choices When It Comes to Trump

I opt for number three, the choice to RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Guess Who Comes In Last In New Ranking Of Presidents?

Forget Buchannan. Most Americans used to agree that Crawford Caligula was the worst ever, and he is dancing for joy, because he no longer is. RESIST!!

From NY Times: …So what happened to the character of the G.O.P.? I’m pretty sure that in this case the personal is, ultimately, political. The modern G.O.P. is, to an extent never before seen in American history, a party built around bad faith, around pretending that its concerns and goals are very different from what they really are. Flag-waving claims of patriotism, pious invocations of morality, stern warnings about fiscal probity are all cover stories for an underlying agenda mainly concerned with making plutocrats even richer.

And the character flaws of the party end up being echoed by the character flaws of its most prominent members. Are they bad people who chose their political affiliation because it fits their proclivities, or potentially good people corrupted by the company they keep? Probably some of both.

In any case, let’s be clear: America in 2018 is not a place where we can disagree without being disagreeable, where there are good people and good ideas on both sides, or whatever other bipartisan homily you want to recite. We are, instead, living in a kakistocracy, a nation ruled by the worst, and we need to face up to that unpleasant reality. [emphasis added]

This is Paul Krugman’s conclusion, and I could not agree more. Click through for the rest. RESIST!!

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Outside the temperature has warmed up to a sunny 32°.  I did close the window last night, but had no need to turn on the heat.  Now the sun has been hitting my wall, warming the brickwork, and radiating heat into the room, where it is now 75°.  I may have to open the window.  Now, perhaps you understand how hot things get here in the summer.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:15 (average 6:13).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Washington Post Channel): Meet the business tycoon Trump nominated to be ambassador to The Bahamas

Donating big bucks to the Fuhrer, abusing women, and lying during Senate confirmation is the Republican path to an Ambassadorial post. RESIST!!

From Chicago Sun Times: Facebook will soon rely on centuries-old technology to try to prevent foreign meddling in U.S. elections: the post office.

Baffled in 2016 by Russian agents who bought ads to sway the U.S. presidential campaign, Facebook’s global politics and government outreach director, Katie Harbath, told a meeting of the National Association of Secretaries of State in Washington on Saturday that the company would send postcards to potential buyers of political ads to confirm they reside in the U.S.

The recipient would then have to enter a code in Facebook to continue buying the ad. The method will first apply to ads that name candidates ahead of the midterm elections in November, said Facebook spokesman Andy Stone.

So what? It would be child’s play for Russian Republicans to maintain US mailboxes to receive the automated Facebook mailings. The Trump Reich would probably provide staff to monitor and reply, without colluding, of course. RESIST!!

From Gizmodo: Asteroid mining is about more than just heading up into space and bringing back a rock full of platinum—you actually need to land something on just the right asteroid.

Falcon Heavy, the world’s most powerful rocket launched by Elon Musk-led SpaceX two weeks ago, may have changed the game, says one astronomer.

“Instead of a few hundred we may have thousands of ore bearing asteroids available,” Martin Elvis from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told an audience at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Austin, Texas.

This is what I meant when I said that transporting billionaires into space for the day will be just the means to pay for the project’s real work, obtaining natural resources. RESIST!!

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I’m a naughty Puddy Tat.   Because a Sunday without Wendy coming is so weird, I decided to treat myself to another pizza!   Yum!!  The Squatch has slammed Portland with an arctic blast, and we are entering the coldest days so far this winter.  The lows for the next four days will be in the 20°s.  I may actually have to shut my window!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:08 (average 5:06).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): Have We Lost the Common Good?

It’s not available in Audible yet. I want it. I believe that the common good is worth fighting for, and will do so as long as one person will stand with me. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): President’s Day Special – A New Verse for the National Anthem from Parody Project

Amen! To achieve that, the Republican Reich MUST me obliterated! RESIST!!

From LA Times: Ever since Sam Paredes crossed into the U.S. illegally from Mexico nearly 30 years ago, he followed a simple philosophy of keeping his head down and trying to stay out of trouble.

The 39-year-old put in long hours for little pay as an office manager at a clothing wholesaler. He paid his taxes and hoped that after many years of waiting, there would come an immigration reform that would grant him a pathway to becoming an American citizen.

But one glimmer of hope afforded many young immigrants escaped him: Because the New York resident came too long ago, he did not qualify for immigration relief under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA.

Now he watches as the White House and Congress continue to grapple and negotiate and argue — but at least talk about — the future of the so-called Dreamers.

"I’m very bitter. These DACA kids definitely have this sense of entitlement," Paredes said. "People fought for them and they got DACA and they got their work permit and then they went to sleep, instead of working to fight for the rest of us."

I think Sam’s anger is misplaced. DREAMers rejected the Trump plan that would have saved them. They were too decent to throw the undocumented workers like Sam under the bus, or should I say into the ICE bus? Since they wouldn’t, we shouldn’t either! RESIST!!

From Buzzfeed: An Australian politician joked about shooting "greenie punks" just days after one of the deadliest school shootings in the United States.

George Christensen is a conservative Nationals MP in the Australian parliament with a reputation for controversial remarks about gay marriage, immigration and firearms.

On Wednesday a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in south Florida allegedly shot and killed 17 students, in one of the deadliest school massacres in US history.

Christensen has been a prominent defender of firearm ownership in Australia. The country introduced strict gun control laws in 1996 after the Port Arthur massacre, and has not had a mass shooting since.

On Saturday Christensen posted a Facebook post from a shooting range of Australia’s peak shooting lobby, the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia, setting out his support for legitimate firearm owners.

In the initial post he defended sporting shooters, writing that "Gun owners aren’t criminals. They are olympians, Commonwealth games medallists, conservationists, farmers and many of them veterans."

But in a further comment below the photo, he posted an image of himself with a handgun, writing "You gotta ask yourself, do you feel lucky, greenie punks?".

I’m so sorry this creep is in their parliament. Are most Australian Conservatives also Republican Ammosexuals?  ¡¡ꓕSISƎꓤ

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