It’s a strange but busy day here in the CatBox. The weather is temperate, but muggy, and grass pollen is still very high. Store to Door is delivering groceries later, and I have to unpack and put them away. That WWWendy won’t be here until tomorrow evening makes it strange. Happy Hump Day!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:06 (average 4:44). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (Washington Post Channel): Hannah Explains: How to check your gender bias while watching the primary debates
While, I think I can make an honest evaluation about which candidate is best for America, must I check my opinion that it’s about time we put a woman in the Oval Office? RESIST!!
She has a plan for that. As usual, it’s impeccable. RESIST!!
From CNN: Eric Trump, son of President Donald Trump, said Tuesday he was spat on by an employee at a Chicago-area restaurant.
“It was purely a disgusting act by somebody who clearly has emotional problems,” the President’s third child told conservative site Breitbart News [Breitfart delinked] by phone Tuesday evening.
The Chicago Police Department was on the scene and assisted Secret Service, per CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
“CPD was on scene and assisting the United States Secret Service with a law enforcement matter. Any and all inquiries regarding a federal protectee must be directed to the Secret Service,” Guglielmi tweeted.
A United States Secret Service spokesperson declined to comment to CNN, and did not respond to inquiries on whether charges had been filed.
Eric Trump cast blame for the incident, which took place at upscale cocktail bar and restaurant Aviary, more broadly on the Democratic Party.
Dang, spit? The attacker got a letter wrong. An H would have been better than the P. 😉 RESIST!!
From NY Times: A divided House voted on Tuesday to send $4.5 billion in humanitarian aid to the border to address horrific conditions facing a crush of migrants, attaching significant rules on how the money could be spent in the first action by Democrats to rein in President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
But the package — which passed by a vote of 230 to 195 nearly along party lines, only after Democratic leaders toughened restrictions on the money to win over liberal skeptics — faces a tough path to enactment. A similar measure with many fewer strings binding Mr. Trump has drawn bipartisan support in the Senate. And the House bill faces a veto threat from White House advisers, who regard the Senate bill as the surest way to speed the needed aid to strapped agencies dealing with the migrant influx.
Hours before the House bill passed, Mr. Trump said that he did not like some of the restrictions that lawmakers were seeking to place on the humanitarian funding, but that he badly needed the resources.
Trump and the Republican Reich do not want funding that stipulates how children have proper food, living conditions and medical care. The Reich has been charging taxpayers and paying cronies $750 per day per child for cement floors, no showers, too little junk food, and no medical care. RESIST!!
The author of my source article recommends a tactic for Democratic 2020 candidates, and I think I agree. Senate candidates, especially, should not run against Trump. They should run against the only major politician, who is even more hated than Trump is. And who might that be? Who else! Run against Bought Bitch Mitch!
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) arguably was everything President Donald Trump stood for politically long before Trump was even taken seriously as a presidential candidate.
Gallons of ink have been spilled about how he is a worse threat to democratic institutions than Trump. He has blocked any and all progressive reform, engineered a right-wing takeover of the federal courts, rewrote Senate rules to enforce GOP ideology, and did all in his power to undermine campaign finance and corruption laws. In the historical record, he is probably matched in his power and anti-democratic tendencies only by Joseph Gurney Cannon, the early 20th century House speaker who essentially ruled Congress with an iron fist.
McConnell is also one of the most toxic and despised politicians in America — even more than Trump. And some Democratic strategists now believe the key to winning in 2020 is to make the election a referendum on him.
According to the Huffington Post, a poll conducted by End Citizens United across 10 battleground states showed that anti-McConnell messaging is more effective than anti-Trump messaging. Democrats started with a 3-point advantage on the generic ballot, but among voters who were exposed to messaging about McConnell, it grew to a 12-point advantage. Trump messaging only generated a 6-point advantage…. [emphasis added]
Let me start with the caveat that running against any representative of the evils of the Republican Reich will not put Democratic butts in elected seats, unless it is secondary to this. Democratic candidates must also demonstrate to voters how Democratic policies will make voters’ lives better.
That said, every Democrat running for the Senate should paint their Republican opponent with this image.
It’s a muggy day here in the CatBox. USPS did deliver the next day, so I’ll get my medicine Thursday when WWWendy comes, right before I run out. She is going to Vegas this weekend, so she’ll be coming Thursday this week and next and Monday instead of this Sunday. She says she’s visiting a friend, but I thinks she has naughty intentions.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 5:23 (average 7:41). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): ‘These People Couldn’t Even Get An Internship On Capitol Hill’
If a Republican goose stepper were competent for service as a dawg catcher, he/she would have already left the Republican Reich. RESIST!!
From NY Times: President Trump on Monday again denied assaulting a columnist for Elle magazine in the dressing room of a high-end clothing store more than 20 years ago, countering her explosive accusation by asserting that he would not have assaulted her because “she’s not my type.”
Bullshit! Putin’s Pervert prefers two types: women with Russian urethras and women with pussies close enough to grab. RESIST!!
Here is the one hundred sixty-second article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s winners are two anonymous Republican hate-criminals. They are so honored for beating a black man almost to death, while screaming the Republican mantra, “You’re dead, nigger.”
Two white men over the weekend were caught on camera brutally beating a black man and his friend while yelling racial slurs.
Local news station KFOR reports that Shawn Carolina of Shawnee, Oklahoma this weekend was in the parking lot of the local Bricktown Brewery, where he had just finished having drinks with a friend.
In the parking lot, the two men were confronted by two other men who had been in the brewery with them. The two men proceeded to viciously beat Carolina and his friend — and as they walked away from them, one of them shouted out, “You’re dead, n*gger!”
You may ask how I know they are Republicans, if they are anonymous. Party registration is not required, when people follow the example of their Fuhrer.
I’m running way behind, because of trying to find a way to talk to a human at USPS. I get my packages delivered to Wendy, because I can’t get them here, and they clearly went to the wrong place, because they say they “could not get access to the building” Saturday, but someone was home all day, and no attempted delivery slip was left at the door. The USPS website recognizes my tracking number, but the customer service number does not and will allow me to proceed no further. ARGH! Oh God, it’s USPS Monday!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:52 (average 4:42). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (a blast from the past): Teach Your Children
Ah… the memories! RESIST!!
From Washington Post: On the campaign trail, Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., largely faced a warm reception as he emerged from relative obscurity to become a promising Democratic presidential contender. But when he addressed a majority-black audience on Sunday afternoon in South Bend, things were markedly different.
This time, Buttigieg wasn’t speaking as a candidate but as the mayor of a city where emotions have run high since a white police officer shot a black man last week and failed to capture the fatal confrontation with his body camera. The town hall meeting, which Buttigieg convened to respond to the rising tensions, descended into chaos as community members shouted their anger and frustration. At times, the mayor struggled to speak amid the interruptions, and he was repeatedly heckled and booed.
This is a disaster for Mayor Pete, a candidate, who ran an excellent campaign, until now. South Bend PD has a long history of Racism. Mayor Pete fired South Bend’s first and only black Police Chief for recording officers making racist remarks. The officer who killed the unarmed black man has had multiple complaints of using excessive force against blacks. I fear Mayor Pete’s failure to clean up the Republican PD in his own back yard first will spell the end for him. RESIST!!
From Alternet: Children in immigrant detention centers are reportedly going without basic supplies like soap and toothbrushes but Vice President Mike Pence insisted on Sunday that it’s the fault of Congress.
During an interview on CNN, host Jake Tapper asked the vice president to “talk about the kids” who have been detained for crossing the border.
“The administration was actually arguing in court this week that the administration should not be required to give soap or toothbrushes or showers to children detained at the border,” Tapper added. “Aren’t toothbrushes and blankets and medicine and basic conditions for kids, aren’t they a part of how the United States of America — the Trump administration — treats children?”
“Well, of course they are, Jake,” Pence replied with a shake of his head. “It’s one of the reasons we ask for more bed space.”
The vice president, who is an evangelical Christian, argued that the Trump administration will not give soap to detained immigrant children because of Congress.
This article is incorrect. Pence is NOT a Christian. He is a Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian, the exact opposite of a real Christian. No authentic Christian could defend such Republican crimes. RESIST!!
It’s a busy day here in the CatBox. WWWendy will be here in an hour. We have lots of chores, so this is my only article today, with no links messages on Care2.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:40 (average 5:06). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (A blast from the past): George Harrison – Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)
Ah… the memories! RESIST!!
From Crooks and Liars: Brave New World creates films intended to drive home a point in a short period of time. “Families Torn Apart: America’s Deadly Immigration Policy” does just that about our Abuser-In-Chief’s masochistic policy targeting migrant children, toddlers, and babies.
Every American should see this. Click through. RESIST!!
From TPM: Oregon’s state Senate has cancelled its session scheduled for Saturday, citing a “credible threat” from militia groups over the showdown between the state’s Democratic legislators and GOP senators.
The Oregon Capital Bureau obtained an email from the Senate’s Democratic caucus telling its members on Friday to stay away from the Capitol on Saturday.
“The State Police superintendent just informed the Senate president of a credible threat from militia groups coming to the Capitol tomorrow,” the email read. “The superintendent strongly recommends that no one come to the Capitol and President Courtney heeded that advice minutes ago by adjourning until 10 a.m. Sunday. Please make sure your staffs know not to come in tomorrow.”
This latest development is a dramatic escalation of the ongoing conflict roiling in Oregon’s state government.
Oregon Republican Senators have called in Nazi storm troopers to help them evade the just consequences of breaking the law to help polluters pollute. RESIST!!
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
Since Juneteenth was this week, and I forgot to recognize it, and others have said they weren’t aware of it, I thought it might be a good time to do a little back story on it, and this article from The Conversation does a pretty good job with explaining why it matters – and how African-American independence is tied to the criminal justice system
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Juneteenth: Freedom’s promise is still denied to thousands of blacks unable to make bail
Black men occupy a disproportionate share of prison cells in the U.S. sakhorn/Shutterstock.com
June 19 marks Juneteenth, a celebration of the de facto end of slavery in the United States.
For hundreds of thousands of African-Americans stuck in pretrial detention – accused but not convicted of a crime, and unable to leave because of bail – that promise remains unfulfilled. And coming immediately after Father’s Day, it’s also a reminder of the loss associated with the forced separation of families.
On a very personal level, I know how this separation feels. Every Father’s Day since 2011, I’ve been reminded of the unexpected death of my dad at the age of 48. But also on a professional level, as a criminologist who has been researching mass incarceration for the past decade, I understand the disproportionate impact it’s had on African-Americans, destabilizing black families in the process.
Blacks behind bars
Juneteenth is a celebration of African-Americans’ triumph over slavery and access to freedom in the U.S., which occurred in Galveston, Texas, in June of 1865, over two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
While Juneteenth is a momentous day in U.S. history, it is important to appreciate that the civil rights and liberties promised to African-Americans have yet to be fully realized. As legal scholar Michelle Alexander forcefully explains, this is a consequence of Jim Crow laws and the proliferation of incarceration that began in the 1970s, including the increase of people placed in pretrial detention and other criminal justice policies.
There are 2.3 million people currently incarcerated in American prisons and jails – including those not convicted of any crime. Black people comprise 40 percent of them, even though they represent just 13 percent of the U.S. population.
Protesters march through Harlem in the March for Justice. Rainmaker Photo/MediaPunch/IPX
Not yet guilty but not free
More troubling is the number of incarcerated individuals currently held in jail for crimes of which they have not yet been convicted.
In local jails alone, over 300,000 people are awaiting trial for property, drug or public order crimes. And again, these disproportionately black defendants are confined and separated from their families, friends and jobs simply because they lack the means to post cash bail – the only reason they can’t get out.
Toll on families
It should be no surprise, then, that 1 in 9 black children now has a parent behind bars, compared with the national rate of 1 in 28.
Being the partner of an incarcerated individual is another often stressful experience that also falls disproportionately on black citizens, particularly women.
Some good news
The good news is that such injustices are receiving growing attention nationwide.
Just City, a nonprofit organization working to reduce the harms of the criminal justice system, has campaigned to raise funds and promote awareness of its Memphis Community Bail Fund project for Father’s Day – in part because nearly half a million of the black men behind bars are dads.
The aim of the project is to provide both financial and legal support for defendants lacking resources to independently secure their pretrial release, with the goal of the campaign being the release of jailed fathers so that they could be with their kids for the holiday.
On one hand, the multiplication of these organizations is encouraging and reason for optimism. On the other, their growth is another reminder that many of the freedoms celebrated on Juneteenth remain unrealized.
Children suffer. Parents struggle. Relationships deteriorate. And as a result, so too do so many African-American communities. Lost wages matter to families, but they also matter to communities. The lower tax base that results makes it more difficult for struggling public institutions, like schools, to progress. And with such a large share of individuals removed from some communities due to incarceration, and branded as felons upon their release, these communities lose potential voters and the political capital they carry. They are too often disenfranchised and stripped of their full power and potential.
Juneteenth celebrates the freedom of black Americans and the long, hard road they were forced to traverse to gain that freedom. But as criminologists like me have maintained time and again, the U.S. criminal justice system remains biased, albeit implicitly, against them.
============================================================== Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, please join activists in helping to equalize our criminal justice system so the free people can actually live in freedom.
And for all of us who want to share the Juneteenth message with people we know who may never have heard of it, let alone know anything about it, here’s a video – three minutes long – which may help to make it more easily sharable.
Even before he wrote The Case for Impeachment, I considered Lichtman America’s premier political historian. He makes a lot of sense. Ignoring him is risky. But we do know who will meddle in the election and on whose behalf.
I disagree. Mueller could not have laid out a better case for Obstruction of Justice. But Oprah? Give me a break! We already have a TV actor in the White House, and he’s the worst Resident in history.
Two white men over the weekend were caught on camera brutally beating a black man and his friend while yelling racial slurs. 
