Open Thread – 12/7/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:59 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 072017

It’s another sunny day, so once again, I’m fighting the difference between cold air and a hot radiating wall. Sweating and chilling at the same time really tires me out.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:36 (average 5:07). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: As Minnesota Sen. Al Franken announced Thursday that he would resign over sexual misconduct allegations, he also drew attention to the undeniable irony of his exit amid congressional Republicans’ continued allegiance to a self-professed assaulter and hearty embrace of a sexual predator.

I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office, and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party. But this decision is not about me. It’s about the people of Minnesota.

Franken did the right thing by his constituency and the thirty-some Democratic senators who called on him to resign left him little choice.

We need more women in government. A woman’s place is in the House! And it is in the Senate! And for Elizabeth Warren, it is in the White House! RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: In a new poll conducted on Wednesday, a sweeping majority of Americans said they support moving Donald J. Trump to Jerusalem.

The sixty-three per cent of survey respondents who approved relocating Trump to Jerusalem placed few conditions on such a move, other than that it take place “as soon as possible” and that it be “permanent.”

In other poll results, an overwhelming majority of respondents said that they would support relocating Trump to any number of other foreign destinations, including Russia, the Philippines, and “that station where scientists live at the South Pole.”

Andy, let him move to the origin of Ted Cruz: Uranus! RESIST!!

From TPM: Fresh off Project Veritas’ failed attempt to undermine the credibility of the Washington Post and other news outlets, the group’s leader, James O’Keefe, was honored as a “hero” Wednesday night by the conservative group United for Purpose.

O’Keefe accepted an “Impact Award” from Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, at the Trump hotel in Washington, D.C. [emphasis added]

Every pervert in the Supreme Court is one pervert too many. Impeach TEAbag Thomas for multiple conflicts of interest. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

1207Cartoon

This was the most devastating attack by a foreign power in US history, until Russia attacked us in November 2016.

Trump Holds a Match to Middle East

Posted by TomCat at 11:57 am Politics

Dec 062017

I am listening to Trump announce his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The fool is blubbering about wanting peace, while holding a match to one of the world’s most dangerous tinder boxes, the Middle East. Foes and allies alike are appalled. Thump has effectively overruled the two state solution and ensured more and more violence for years to come.

Not content with taking the US to the brink of nuclear conflict with North Korea, Donald Trump is now set to apply his strategy of international vandalism to perhaps the most sensitive geopolitical hotspot in the world. With a speech scheduled for later today that’s expected to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and reaffirm a pledge to move the US embassy to the city, he is walking into a bone-dry forest with a naked flame, the world’s most intractable conflict. It is the issue that has foiled multiple efforts at peacemaking over several decades. Both Israelis and Palestinians insist that Jerusalem must be the capital of their states, present and future, and that that status is non-negotiable.

But it’s not just important to them. The Old City of Jerusalem contains the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest mosque in Islam, to say nothing of its enormous significance to Christians, meaning that even the slightest move there is felt by billions. It is a place where diplomats have learned to tread with extreme care. There is a reason why no US administration, no matter how pro-Israel, has changed its policy toward the city in the nearly 70 years since Israel’s founding.

But here comes Trump, oblivious to precedent and indeed history – even in a place where history is a matter of life and death – stomping through this delicate thicket, trampling over every sensitivity. The risk is obvious, with every Arab government – including those loyal to Washington – now issuing sharp warnings on the perils of this move, almost all of them using the same word: “dangerous”.

Let us be clear. Most advocates of an eventual two-state solution believe the only way to resolve the Jerusalem issue is for it to serve as the capital of both states: East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Then, and only then, would be the right moment to start moving embassies and issuing statements of recognition. Until that day, any act that pre-empts an agreement between the two parties on the city’s future is reckless and needlessly incendiary… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Alternet>

Trump has succeeded in doing something nobody else has ever done. He has united Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iran in outraged opposition to this policy. He has also made it much more likely the Muslim terrorists will strike back.

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 12/6/2017

Posted by TomCat at 11:55 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 062017

It’s another busy day. I’ve changed my schedule to accommodate grocery delivery from Store to Door, which I expect in about an hour. This evening, WWW is coming to de-stink the TomCat. I slept well, but feel much more tired than normal. I think it’s because of the temperature. It’d 44° outside, 55° on the open window side of the room, an d 78° on the computer side of the room from the radiator effect of the sun hitting the wall. ARGH!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:06 (average 4:48). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): Jeff Sessions: No One is Above the Law

Beauregard Barf Bag Alert!!

You can be sure that KKK Beauregard will do a complete about face on this issue now that his Fuhrer is the subject. It will be interesting to see how he tries to sidestep this statement. RESIST!!

From Washington Post: Time magazine has named “The Silence Breakers” as its 2017 Person of the Year, recognizing the women (and some men) who came forward with stories of sexual harassment and assault and helped force a nationwide reckoning.

The magazine calls them “the voices that launched a movement.”

The woman who have reported Trump and others are a far better Person Of The Year than Putin’s pussy grabbing pervert could ever be. This is the last good year, because Time is about to start sucking Koch. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Several prominent Nazis said on Tuesday that they feel “neglected and hurt” by what they see as the Republican Party’s decision to court child molesters instead.

After the Republican National Committee agreed to fund the alleged child molester Roy Moore’s campaign for the United States Senate, aggrieved Nazis called the move a blatant attempt to pander to the child-molester vote.

“It seems like just last summer President Trump was saying what ‘fine people’ we were,” Heinz Dorrinson, an embittered Nazi from Mississippi, said. “Now it seems like all he can think about is his precious child molesters.”

Dorrinson warned that, in their frenzy to woo the child-molester vote, Republicans were playing a dangerous game by taking the Nazi vote for granted.

Andy, I think the Nazis are foolish. They have nothing to worry about. Republican child molesters, like Moore, are Nazis too. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

1206Cartoon

Collusion OK?

Posted by TomCat at 1:34 pm Politics

Dec 052017

We are witnessing a major change in the way that the Republican Reich is defending their Fuhrer, Donald Trump, Putin’s Piddle Puppet. Prior to now, the Reich had denied both contacts and collusion with Russia, and denied obstruction of the investigation. Now that Trump’s guilt is obvious, the Reich have changed their tune.

At first, it was all so simple. The Trump White House said there were “no contacts” — zero, zilch — between Trump’s campaign and Russia. But in time this elegant defense encountered a formidable opponent: reality.

And so for a year now, Trump and his advisers, facing mounting evidence of their campaign’s entanglement with Russia, have redrawn lines of defense and revised talking points with such daring that it has amounted to a veritable Marshall Plan for the moving of goal posts.

As details of campaign contacts with Russia piled up, Trump and his officials instead said there had been “no collusion.” As more evidence came in showing attempts at high-level collusion, the White House retreated to another line of defense: Trump himself didn’t collude. “Nothing about the actual facts published to date suggests that the president . . . colluded with anybody,” was White House lawyer Ty Cobb’s careful phrasing.

Now, with four Trump campaign officials indicted and two of them, including Trump’s former national security adviser, pleading guilty, even that distinction no longer seems safe.

One of Trump’s attorneys, Jay Sekulow, just told the New Yorker that it doesn’t matter whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, because “there is no crime of collusion. Another Trump attorney, John Dowd, told Axios that technically the president “cannot obstruct justice, because he is the chief law enforcement officer.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

I urge you to click through and read the entire article. I’ very well documented.

It might be easy to miss the importance of this change in strategy, but Rachel Maddow analyzes it extensively, filling in all the blanks.

On the two lies…

Pence knew from the beginning. He should be indicted, convicted and incarcerated with Trump.

The reason Michael Flynn lied to the FBI is to cover up the quid pro quo between Trump and Putin.

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 12/5/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:34 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 052017

I found an alternate delivery service for the time Store to Door is closed. It’s a family business and costs much more than Store to Door, or Safeway.com, but I’d rather pay more than do business with Safeway.com, after the way they treated me.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:06 (average 4:59). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest from our own fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends.

Scores:

13Scores

Vivian’s tight end reamed my poor kitty butt so bad that my tight end isn’t tight anymore. I don't know smile

Standings:

13Standings

Congrats to Vivian and Seth, who lead the league. Condolences to Jack, who remains under the Squatch. The coming week is the last in our regular season. Playoffs start on week 15.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Full Frontal Channel): Web Extra: Speaking Of Cutting Taxes For The Rich

Thanks Sam! Bingo! RESIST!!

From LA Times: Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, stepped down today after his support among fellow Democrats collapsed amid accusations of sexual harassment by several female employees.

Here is the difference between Democrats and Republicans. We pressure our scandal-plagued members to leave office. Republicans give theirs a formal endorsement from their pervert Fuhrer and extra campaign cash from the RNC. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Hoping to put to rest a mystery that has long bedeviled the nation, Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer, John Dowd, revealed on Monday that it is actually his voice that appears on the notorious “Access Hollywood” tape.

Speaking to reporters, Dowd said that the so-called locker-room talk attributed to Trump had actually been carefully crafted by the former reality-show host’s legal team and then read aloud by Dowd himself.

Additionally, Dowd said that comments widely thought to have been made by Trump indicating that he believed that Frederick Douglass was still alive were also Dowd’s handiwork.

“President Trump was about to say something about whether Frederick Douglass was alive or not, and I stepped in at that moment and said that he was,” Dowd said. “I stand by that statement.”

Dang it, Andy!! You just gave them the idea!! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

1205Cartoon

Pervert Endorses Pervert

Posted by TomCat at 1:32 pm Politics

Dec 042017

Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten is desperate to keep Jeff Flake’s Senate seat in Republican hands. He’s so desperate that he’s willing to confront comparisons like the one shown below in order keep the Republican agenda on track. That is to transfer wealth from the poor and middle classes to the super-rich, and more important, to establish a permanent Republican Reich, a Nazi plutocracy in which elections exist for show only, because Republicans have predetermined the outcomes.

Donald Trump on Monday threw his full support behind embattled Republican Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race.

Trump tweeted early in the day that “Democrats refusal to give even one vote for massive tax cuts is why we need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama.

“We need his vote on stopping crime, illegal immigration, Border Wall, Military, Pro Life, V.A., Judges 2nd Amendment and more. No to Jones, a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet!”

Referring again to the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, Trump added: “Putting Pelosi/Schumer Liberal Puppet Jones into office in Alabama would hurt our great Republican Agenda of low on taxes, tough on crime, strong on military and borders…& so much more.”

It was Trump’s most full-throated endorsement yet of Moore, who has lost the backing of many top Republicans since the Washington Post first reported allegations of sexual misconduct with young women decades ago… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Guardian>

We have eight days to return Moore to the unemployment line.

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread -12/4/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:31 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 042017

Yesterday was a crazy day. WWW had a great time with her niece at Santa’s pancake breakfast and got here at about 10 AM. After we de-stunk the TomCat, I worked getting the blog published and messages out. By the time we got done, I was completely pooped, so I fell asleep during meditation upon the Ellipsoid Orb. I had thawed a package of turkey bird leftovers, do I feasted on bird and stuffing. I still have a 2 lb. pkg. of frozen turkey in addition to the frozen soup base. Store to door will be off two weeks at the end of December, so I’m trying to arrange alternative delivery to avoid Safeway.com.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:17 (average 5:17). Top do it, click here. How did you do?

Religious Agony:

1203Broncos9-Dolphins35

They are now effectively out of the playoffs, so that leaves only next season. Each loss increases the draft value.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): Dreamers send Paul Ryan a Billboard Pushing for a Clean Dream Act

I support them, but expect to see the Stanley Cup played in Hell before Republicans pass it. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Breaking his silence on Alabama’s embattled Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, Donald Trump warned on Wednesday that dumping Roy Moore could start a “dangerous trend” of believing women.

“I think we need to be very, very careful here,” Trump told reporters. “This is not just about Roy Moore. This is about our country deciding that we are going to start believing women, something that we have never done before.

“This is a very dangerous road we’re heading down,” he said.

Trump cautioned that, if instituted, a new practice of believing women would “totally destroy” the system that the country already has in place. “For years we’ve had a system of believing men,” he said. “It’s worked very well. It’s done a great job.”

Andy, are you planning a return to satire? RESIST!!

From Alternet: President Donald Trump’s lawyer claims his client cannot be guilty of obstruction of justice because he is the president.

John Dowd, the president’s outside lawyer, insisted he drafted Trump’s tweet over the weekend that seemingly confessed to obstruction but argued the social media posting did no such thing, reported Axios.

“The tweet did not admit obstruction,” Dowd told the website. “That is an ignorant and arrogant assertion.”

The attorney insisted Trump could not possibly be guilty of obstruction because he was the chief executive.

That sounds like Crawford Caligula’s Unitary Executive hypothesis. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Proof of Conspiracy

Posted by TomCat at 12:07 pm Politics

Dec 032017

Ever since it became evident that Michael Flynn, the main Republican facilitator between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, the Republican Reich has claimed that Flynn was a rogue player, doing things without authorization from or report to the Reich. Now we have have proof that the Reich was in the loop on Flynn’s discussion of quid pro quo with Russia.

When President Trump fired his national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in February, White House officials portrayed him as a renegade who had acted independently in his discussions with a Russian official during the presidential transition and then lied to his colleagues about the interactions.

But emails among top transition officials, provided or described to The New York Times, suggest that Mr. Flynn was far from a rogue actor. In fact, the emails, coupled with interviews and court documents filed on Friday, showed that Mr. Flynn was in close touch with other senior members of the Trump transition team both before and after he spoke with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, about American sanctions against Russia.

While Mr. Trump has disparaged as a Democratic “hoax” any claims that he or his aides had unusual interactions with Russian officials, the records suggest that the Trump transition team was intensely focused on improving relations with Moscow and was willing to intervene to pursue that goal despite a request from the Obama administration that it not sow confusion about official American policy before Mr. Trump took office.

On Dec. 29, a transition adviser to Mr. Trump, K. T. McFarland, wrote in an email to a colleague that sanctions announced hours before by the Obama administration in retaliation for Russian election meddling were aimed at discrediting Mr. Trump’s victory. The sanctions could also make it much harder for Mr. Trump to ease tensions with Russia, “which has just thrown the U.S.A. election to him,” she wrote in the emails obtained by The Times… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

What the Times missed is the fact that puts the final nail in the coffin. KT McFarland’s email was shared with Reince Priebus, Trump’s then chief of staff; Steve Bannon, Trump’s then-senior strategist; Sean Spicer, Trump’s future press secretary; and others. While Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten was not on the list himself, I find it inconceivable that he would not have known what was clearly common knowledge to the senior transition officials.

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

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