Open Thread – 3/27/2019

Posted by TomCat at 10:33 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 272019

It’s a very busy day today, and I’m so worn out that I overslept for an hour. Store to Door will deliver groceries soon, and I have to unpack and put them away. WWWendy is coming this evening. Her sons’ father passed away, and she is taking her son to Iowa for the funeral. She will be gone from Thursday until Monday night. Her cousin is filling in Sunday. We have a ton of tasks to complete. Today I have a routine medical exam with Megan, my PCP. Tomorrow, please expect no more than a Personal Update with no links messages on Care2.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:48 (average 6:15). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Why Did So Many Donald Trump Associates Lie About Contact With Russians?

Why? They lied to coverup their conspiracy with the Russians. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Attorney General William Barr has just read the classic American novel “Moby-Dick,” by Herman Melville, and found that the book contains “no evidence whatsoever of whales,” Barr stated on Tuesday.

The Attorney General issued his statement on the absence of whales in the Melville classic in a two-paragraph book report released to the news media.

“Those who read ‘Moby-Dick’ looking for whales will be sorely disappointed,” Barr wrote. “There are no whales here.”

To illustrate his point, Barr quoted the book’s first sentence: “Call me Ishmael.”

“As you can clearly see, that sentence does not have a whale in it,” Barr wrote.

Dang, Andy! If Coverup-General Barr had been a literary critic, we’d have the blessing of never having heard of him! RESIST!!

From NY Times: After years of effort, scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service had a moment of celebration as they wrapped up a comprehensive analysis of the threat that three widely used pesticides present to hundreds of endangered species, like the kit fox and the seaside sparrow.

“Woohoo!” Patrice Ashfield, then a branch chief at Fish and Wildlife Service headquarters, wrote to her colleagues in August 2017.

Their analysis found that two of the pesticides, malathion and chlorpyrifos, were so toxic that they “jeopardize the continued existence” of more than 1,200 endangered birds, fish and other animals and plants, a conclusion that could lead to tighter restrictions on use of the chemicals.

But just before the team planned to make its findings public in November 2017, something unexpected happened: Top political appointees of the Interior Department, which oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service, blocked the release and set in motion a new process intended to apply a much narrower standard to determine the risks from the pesticides.

The Party of Death strikes again! RESIST!!

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The Barr Report

Posted by TomCat at 10:10 am Politics

Mar 262019

While Grand Jury testimony is secret, there is one exception to that rule. When the testimony relates to offenses of the US President (Resident, in this case) that testimony is released under seal to the House of Representatives, based on the theory that a sitting President (Resident) may not be ~~impeached~~ indicted. Enter AG William “Coverup-General” Barr, who got his job after writing his Fuhrer that the Resident inherently cannot obstruct justice. In addition to his bogus letter, Barr now says that he needs to remove all Grand Jury testimony from Mueller’s report, before releasing a sanitized version. As Rachel said, this is the Barr Report.

Back in 1992, the last time Bill Barr was U.S. attorney general, iconic New York Times writer William Safire referred to him as “Coverup-General Barr” because of his role in burying evidence of then-President George H.W. Bush’s involvement in “Iraqgate” and “Iron-Contra.”

General Barr has struck again — this time, in similar fashion, burying Mueller’s report and cherry-picking fragments of sentences from it to justify Trump’s behavior. In his letter, he notes that Robert Mueller “leaves it to the attorney general to decide whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime.”

As attorney general, Barr — without showing us even a single complete sentence from the Mueller report — decided there are no crimes here. Just keep moving along.

Barr’s history of doing just this sort of thing to help Republican presidents in legal crises explains why Trump brought him back in to head the Justice Department… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Salon.com>

Rachel Maddow spent almost 45 minutes in two clips covering this. In the first clip, she breaks down the history of Grand Jury testimony and introduces the list of questions that trouble her.

In the second clip, she finishes explaining her list of questions.

Her coverage certainly invalidates the integrity of the Barr Report. Congress must be given the full report, excluding only information about intelligence sources and methods, and ongoing criminal investigations into Trump and his Reich.

RESIST!!

Open Thread – 3/26/2019

Posted by TomCat at 10:08 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 262019

It’s a chilly day here in the CatBox. Yesterday’s meeting was very long and I’m very tired, but we accomplished everything we needed to get done. On 2/19, I blasted Jussie Smollett. Jussie Smollett has been cleared. When I’m wrong, I say I’m wrong. I apologize to Jussie and to you all.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:08 (average 4:17). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Trey Crowder Channel): Liberal Redneck – Mueller Report Schmueller Report

Dayyum! “2020 is the only play and it always has been!” Amen to that. However, we need to make the truth obvious. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): Robert Reich & W. Kamau Bell: A Tale of Two Tickets

The Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is half right. Bell is the other half right. RESIST!!

From Alternet: The Trump Administration told a federal court on Monday that it will be urging federal judges to strike down the Affordable Care Act of 2010, a.k.a. Obamacare. A lower court ruled in December that the law is unconstitutional, and Justice Department attorneys have asserted in a letter filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans that the December 2018 ruling “should be affirmed.”…

…Here are some of the most harmful results of the Trump Administration gutting and undermining the ACA.

1. Undermining the ACA is bad for Medicare

In 2016, Trump asserted that unlike other GOP presidential candidates, he had no interest in gutting Medicare. But when Republicans attack the ACA, they also attack Medicare. Obamacare didn’t hurt Medicare, contrary to what Trump claims; it strengthened it. But in 2017, it was estimated that the GOP’s anti-ACA efforts would cause Medicare’s revenue to drop by $346 billion.

2. Gutting Obamacare is terrible for Americans with preexisting conditions

Most Americans over 40, even if their health is generally good, have some type of malady that insurance companies call a “preexisting condition”—which could be anything from asthma to acid reflux. Pre-ACA, insurance companies could deny coverage to Americans because for a long list of reasons. But the ACA brought health insurance to millions of Americans who were uninsurable before, and everyone from diabetics to cancer survivors to asthmatics will be imperiled if Trump’s assault on health care reform progresses.

I shared the first two. Click through for the other three. RESIST!!

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Personal Update – 3/25/2019

Posted by TomCat at 8:26 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 252019

I’ll be leaving for my meeting in a while, and I won’t be back until late this afternoon. Oh God; it’s Monday!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:13 (average 5:02). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Take:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Melber: Mueller Busted Trump Crime Spree, No Chargeable Collusion

Reading behind the legalese, “criminally chargeable” means that the Trump Reich was successful enough at hiding the proof of their treason, that Mueller lacked sufficient evidence to charge with certainty of conviction. The Trump Reich were “cleared” of Obstruction of Justice by Barr, not Mueller. I trust this is Barr’s quid pro quo to Trump for the AG job. RESIST!!

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Sunday Smile: Kellyanne Violates 1st Rule of Holes

Posted by SoINeedAName at 1:18 pm Politics

Mar 242019

You would think that Kellyanne Conway has lost enough battles to have learned not to violate the “First Rule of Holes: If You’re In One, STOP DIGGING!”

But you would be wrong!

We’ve all recently learned how the children of at least 50 powerful people and celebrities, like Lori Laughlin and Felicity Huffman, participated in a fraud scandal by buying their kids’ way into elite colleges.

Well, Kellyanne unwisely decided to take a cheap shot at those liberal Hollywood celebrities.

.@LoriLoughlin & @FelicityHuffman indicted for lying and buying spots in college.

They worried their daughters are as stupid as their mothers. https://t.co/cSBugdydmo

— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) March 12, 2019

Well, the Twittersphere would have none of it, and immediately took her to task:

I’ll start with the wisest piece of advice I came across:

Between alternative facts, selling Ivanka’s shit, the Bowling Green massacre, and microwaves recording people…I would pump the brakes on insulting anyone’s intelligence.

— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) March 12, 2019

Kinda almost as bad as accepting help from a foreign adversary to install a puppet regime.

— Amy Siskind 🏳️‍🌈 (@Amy_Siskind) March 12, 2019

Yes, it’s terrible when kids of wealthy parents get things they don’t earn, like college placements and security clearances.

— Kristen Thornburg 🌪⛈ (@KrisThornburg) March 13, 2019

These two are despicable.

Meanwhile, your boss is selling access to the White House. Ran a fake university and neither he or his children earned their way through any institution, more importantly, life.

Hi.

— Danny Deraney (@DannyDeraney) March 12, 2019

Did you not get the memo that your boss literally used a fake university for the sole purpose of scamming the gullible.

25,000,000 settlement?

— 💙 Koko ✊✊🏽✊🏾💙 (@Kokomothegreat) March 12, 2019

What's next?? Rich kids getting out of military service due to "bone spurs"?!

— Kathy WD. (@beachkatw) March 13, 2019

But on the bright side:

Could be worse, they could have a job where they lie & twist “alternate facts” for a living.

— Mary Etta (@bhobunny) March 13, 2019

You think Kellyanne will have learned her lesson?

Nah … not a chance in hell!

Republicans on Parade – 3/24/2019

Posted by TomCat at 10:40 am Politics, Religion

Mar 242019

Here is the one hundred fifty-fourth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s winner is Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian, Secretary of Reich, Mike Pompeo. He is so honored for holding a press conference, in which he banned reporters from media he did not consider sufficiently “faith based”.

The State Department not only barred reporters from nonreligious outlets from covering a briefing call about international religious freedom with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday but also refused to release a list of people who participated in the event or even a transcript of what Pompeo said, according to CNN.

CNN reported that only “faith-based media” were allowed to take part in the event and that the State Department wouldn’t answer questions “about whether a range of faiths was included.” Pompeo adheres to a fervent brand of evangelical Christianity and once characterized politics as “a never-ending struggle … until the rapture.”…

…In a statement to CNN, a State Department spokesperson justified barring reporters from Monday’s event by characterizing it as “designed” for “audience-specific media,” as opposed to “[d]epartment press briefings, teleconferences on a myriad of policy issues, briefings and sprays by the Secretary of State and other officials” that are open to all media outlets…

Inserted from <Vox>

Because of Pompeo considers the world as a jihad between good (people who share hid pseudo-Christian heresy) and evil (everyone else), I doubt that anyone with other than pseudo-believers were invited.

Watch how he squirmed when Corey Booker grilled him during the confirmation process.

Any Republican that briefs select media only deserves a parade.

RESIST!!

Open Thread – 3/24/2019

Posted by TomCat at 10:39 am Open Thread, Personal, Plus, Politics

Mar 242019

It’s a chilly day here in the CatBox. Finding stories has been difficult because a single subject had dominated the news. I will be tied up much of the day tomorrow in a volunteer meeting. Therefore, I will only publish one article with no links messages on Care2.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:53 (average 5:15). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube: Enya – Only time

I hope you enjoyed something soothing as much as I. God knows we need it. RESIST!!

From Huffington Post: Democrats in Congress are gearing up for a fight to ensure that special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings are made public, calling for the release of the full report.

On Friday, Mueller submitted his report to Attorney General William Barr, who now has to determine what to do with the conclusions from the 22-month investigation that resulted in charges against 34 people. As a start, he is expected to send lawmakers a summary of the findings as early as Sunday.

Democrats are pushing for transparency on the report, pressuring Barr to release as much information as possible.

“Now that Special Counsel Mueller has submitted his report to the Attorney General, it is imperative for Mr. Barr to make the full report public and provide its underlying documentation and findings to Congress,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a joint statement.

We all deserve a chance to know all the details possible, without compromising either ongoing investigations or intelligence community sources and methods. I’m tired of watching “experts” analyze the contents of an unopened, unlabeled container. RESIST!!

From NY Times: More than 18,000 activists will converge in Washington on Sunday for the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, as Democrats wrestle with the left’s rising criticism of Israel and as President Trump seeks to divide his political rivals while bolstering Israel’s embattled leader.

In some respects, the three-day Aipac conference will look much as it has in years past. American and Israeli luminaries will speak, including Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Vice President Mike Pence, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Mr. Netanyahu’s main challenger in Israel’s election next month, Benny Gantz. It will wrap up on Tuesday with a “lobbying day,” when thousands of activists will flock to Capitol Hill to press Aipac’s legislative agenda.

I hope thousands of Authentic Jews, Authentic Christians, Authentic Muslims and Authentic others flock to Capitol Hill to oppose the legislative agenda of AIPUKE’s pseudo-Jews and pseudo-Christians. RESIST!!

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