Seth 1 – Fuhrer 0

 Posted by at 1:03 pm  Politics
Dec 042018
 

To end the day on a more relaxing note, here’s something light.

1204Trump-G20

Seth Meyers didn’t pull any punches against Trump on Monday’s Late Night.

Trump on the international stage always looks like “he just got kicked in the nuts. The way he stands looks like a freeze frame from America’s Funniest Home Videos. He looks like a dad who was standing on the wrong end of a seesaw.”

Meyers also noted that Trump pretended the feud he has with Justin Trudeau has led to a "great friendship." Trudeau’s body language told another tale: "Look at his face. Absolutely nothing. That face is the closest thing Canada has to a middle finger.”…

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

What a fool he is!

RESIST!!

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Open Thread – 12/4/2018

 Posted by at 1:03 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 042018
 

It’s another crazy day here in the CatBox.  I’m getting closer to getting my on demand O2 system.  There is no more news on a place to live.  So far today, I’ve had visits from a nurse and a physical therapist.  I’ve also replaced my bio recovery company.  Finally, I emailed my grocery order to Store to Door.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:47 (average 5:17).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the news from our own fantasy football league.

Scores:

13Scores

Congrats to Vivian, Pam and me for winning our games.

Standings:

13Standings

Kudos to Wendy for leading the league.

This coming weekend is the last in our regular season.  Our playoffs begin the following week.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): TALKING ABOUT RAKING IN FINLAND – Parody

 

Don, I hope you agree that saying he isn’t too bright defames millions of low yield minds by comparing them to Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten. 🙂 RESIST!!

From Axios: Democrats are moving women into leadership roles in key party organizations, including the campaign arms for national and state races — and even in the moderate Blue Dog coalition, which will be led by a woman of color for the first time in its 23-year history.

Why it matters: It’s a recognition of the importance of women in the Democratic coalition — especially the role women voters played in the House midterm election victory — and a nod to the growing diversity of the party’s elected officials. Republicans haven’t made similar moves in their leadership ranks.

These positions carry tremendous influence in candidate recruitment, messaging, and securing donations in future elections. Elevating more women addresses some of the concerns from the party’s base and more progressive members who want fresh faces to lead the caucus.

It’s about time. Click through for a half a dozen examples. RESIST!!

From Robert Reich: Donald Trump’s “America first” economic nationalism is finally crashing into the reality of America’s shareholder-first global capitalism.

Last week, General Motors announced it would cut about 14,000 jobs, most of them in the politically vital swing states of Michigan and Ohio.

This doesn’t quite square with the giant $1.5 trillion tax cut Trump and the Republicans in Congress enacted last December, whose official rationale was to help big corporations make more investments in America and thereby create more jobs. Trump told Ohio residents “don’t sell your homes,” because lost automaking jobs “are all coming back.”

GM got a nice windfall from the tax cut. The company has already saved more than $150 million this year. But some of those Ohio residents probably should have sold their homes.

The Reich on the Left, Robert Reich, is right. There is a word for the auto workers, who believed the Reich on the Right, the Republican Reich. That word is fools! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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Squatch’s Open Thread 03 December 2018

 Posted by at 3:22 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Dec 032018
 

Yesterday was a busy day and I did not get to doing research for a post as I had wanted to do.  Before I knew it, it was mid evening and I decided sleeping was more worthwhile.  What a great and long sleep I had.  I did not even feel my cat Primo crawl into bed with me, all 11.5 kilos (25 lbs) of him.  My Winnie has been lounging under my chair, purring away as I write, and little Annie is sitting on my feet keeping them warm.  Truth be known, she’s hoping I’ll drop a bite of ham for her but lunch is done.  Well as TC says “OGIM”!  Have a great week.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:51 (average 4:48).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

AlterNet — Buckle in, folks. This past week was an exciting one, as more evidence arose implicating Donald Trump in a conspiracy with Russian forces to steal the 2016 election. That doesn’t mean that this horrible chapter in American history is coming to an end any time soon. Things are almost certainly going to get more hairy, if that can be believed, but the grim truth of the matter is that it’s still likely that Trump’s time in office will only end if and when voters throw him out in 2020.

By the same token, however, it’s critical not to despair. We’re looking at another two years of prying Trump’s fingers off the Resolute Desk, but in that process, there’s now good reason to believe we’ll finally see some of his closely guarded secrets getting exposed. I dare any reader to deny that after watching Trump humiliate this country for two years, there won’t be at least a little bit of fun in watching him experience humiliation.  …

That brings us to the bad news: Despite all the stunning developments of the past week, there continues to be no path that gets Trump out of office before the voters have a chance to throw him out. The same distortions in our electoral system that allowed Trump to gain the White House while getting fewer votes than Hillary Clinton have allowed Republicans to control the Senate, even expanding their majority while Democrats snag millions more votes.

And Senate Republicans, under the leadership of Mitch McConnell, have no intention of acknowledging Trump’s corruption or obstruction of justice, much less actually voting to convict him if the House of Representatives passes articles of impeachment. McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, is Trump’s secretary of transportation, after all. More to the point, McConnell himself is interested in seeing exactly how much power Republicans can seize even after the voters rejected them, so he has every incentive to back Trump, no matter how much of the latter’s likely criminality is exposed.  …

Things will get very bad, perhaps even worse. But after this week, the endgame is looking a whole lot better.

Click through for the rest of this interesting opinion piece.  I agree with much of it.  But one concern I have is whether or not Trump will try to seize power like a fifth rate dictator if he is defeated in the 2020 election.  We already have his own suggestion from the 2016 election campaign when during the last debate against Hillary Clinton, answering the moderator’s question about accepting the results of the election, he said ““I will look at it at the time,” Mr. Trump said. “I will keep you in suspense.”  (NY Times)  He could not and would not come out and definitively say “Yes.”  And as we know, McConnell and the Republican dominated Senate will try every dirty trick in their playbook to hold onto power.

Daily Kos — As a federal judge in Maryland planned to the open discovery process in an emoluments case involving Donald Trump, the government sought to advance an “unusual” appeal to halt the case from moving forward, according to Politico.  …

On Monday, Trump’s lawyers appealed those rulings using “a rarely invoked process”  that is intended to stop rogue judges from pursuing a line of legal reasoning that is deemed improper. In their request for what’s known as a “status conference,” Trump’s lawyers argued that he is “entitled to absolute immunity” as pr*sident and allowing discovery to move forward would violate that immunity.

“In sum, the President will suffer the very burdens from which absolute immunity is supposed to shield him,” wrote Trump’s lawyers, in an appeal that was reportedly approved by the solicitor general of the United States. [currently Noel Francisco appointed March 2017 by Trump]

I think the title of this piece says a lot: Trump’s lawyers make desperate bid to halt emoluments lawsuit against Trump (emphasis mine).  A reminder to Trump: Nobody is above the law, even you!

Alternet — A confused President Donald Trump was caught by a hot mic saying, “Get me out of here” as he wandered off the stage at the G-20 on Saturday.

This CBS News video shows the American President leaving the President of Argentina unexpectedly alone.

John Gruber    ✔@gruber
TOᑭ ᖇOᑭE TᖇAViS@TopRopeTravis

Oh my lord.

Trump just wandered right off the stage, leaving the Argentinian president all by himself.

A staffer is then observed attempting to stop and retrieve Trump.

Ladies and gentlemen… Donald Trump.

OMG!  Trump’s elevator does not go all the way to the top!  Click through to the article and then click on the big red box from the Guardian.  It will take you to Twitter where you can see and hear Trump as people laugh.  Did you know that Fred Trump, the idiot’s father, had Alzheimer’s disease having been diagnosed at the age of 87.  Is it possible that Donald Trump is displaying early signs of the disease?  So this is the most powerful man in the world?
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YouTube — With all the negativity in the news courtesy of Trump, Republicans, and Trump supporters, I thought we could do with some humour and a dose of nostalgia.  I am sure that you have all seen this before but enjoy this refreshing look back.  BTW, it is 32 minutes in length.

My Universe

gif

 

 

Posted to Care2 HERE

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The Courage of Bernie

 Posted by at 12:11 pm  Politics
Dec 032018
 

Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign was exciting and dynamic, albeit that his staff committed many errors, due to their inexperience.  In his magnanimity, Bernie threw his support behind Hillary Clinton.  Then the disaster happened.  Millions who claimed to support Bernie didn’t.  If they had, they would have done what Bernie asked them to do.  Instead, they either stayed home, wrote in Bernie’s name, or supported Traitor Jill, Putin’s pet pseudo-Green.  Those three factors gave us Trump.  Therefore the news that Bernie may run in 2020 worries me.  It is important that we support the courage of Bernie.

An insurgent underdog no more, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is laying the groundwork to launch a bigger presidential campaign than his first, as advisers predict he would open the 2020 Democratic presidential primary season as a political powerhouse.

A final decision has not been made, but those closest to the 77-year-old self-described democratic socialist suggest that neither age nor interest from a glut of progressive presidential prospects would dissuade him from undertaking a second shot at the presidency. And as Sanders’ brain trust gathered for a retreat in Vermont over the weekend, some spoke openly about a 2020 White House bid as if it was almost a foregone conclusion.

“This time, he starts off as a front-runner, or one of the front-runners,” Sanders’ 2016 campaign manager John Weaver told The Associated Press, highlighting the senator’s proven ability to generate massive fundraising through small-dollar donations and his ready-made network of staff and volunteers.

Weaver added: “It’ll be a much bigger campaign if he runs again, in terms of the size of the operation.”…

…Weaver, like Sanders himself in a recent interview, suggested that the senator would step aside if he believes another candidate has a better shot at denying Trump a second term. [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Huffington Post>

Here’s how Bernie puts it.

To be truthful, Bernie is my second choice, behind Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but I would joyfully support either.

This is the courage of Bernie.  Bernie knows that denying Trump a second term is the be all and end all of the 2020 presidential campaign.  What happened in 2016 must NEVER happen again.

RESIST!!

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Open Thread – 12/3/2018

 Posted by at 12:10 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 032018
 

It’s another very busy day, here in the CatBox.  I expect to be in the saddle tomorrow with the caveat that my life is too hectic at present to be sure. Oh God It’s Monday!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:31 (average 6:02).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Ecstasy:

1202-Broncos24-Bengals10

Way to go Ellipsoid Orb!

Short Takes:

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Fraud allegations could cause new NC election

 

To win, Republicans need and love to cheat. That’s why when voter fraud rarely happens, they are the guilty ones. RESIST!!

From YouTube (BuzzFeedVideo Channel): Climate Change Explained In 5 Minutes Featuring Al Gore

 

This is a message we cannot repeat too often. RESIST!!

From CBS News: Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi vowed to pass legislation that would put so-called Dreamers — young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children — on a pathway to citizenship when her party retakes control of Congress’ lower chamber in January.

"America draws strength from our long, proud heritage as a nation of immigrants. In the Majority, Democrats will work to reverse the Republicans’ destructive anti-immigrant agenda," Pelosi said in a statement Saturday, responding to a letter sent Thursday by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. "Our House Democratic Majority will once again pass the Dream Act to end the uncertainty and fear inflicted on patriotic young men and women across the country."

Lawmakers in the Caucus urged Pelosi — who is vying to secure her second spell as speaker of the House during the upcoming congressional session — to schedule votes on legislation to codify protections for recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and for immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) within the first 100 days of the 116th Congress.

"We will protect TPS recipients and those fleeing unimaginable violence," Pelosi added in her statement.

This is a move I fully support. RESIST!!

Cartoons:

Hanukkah

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Open Thread – 12/2/2018

 Posted by at 1:25 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 022018
 

It’s a very busy day, here at the CatBox.  WWWendy de-packratted me.  She had to make four trips to her truck to haul out my donation to goodwill.  Tomorrow, I expect to be back in the saddle, with the caveat that the day may bring unexpected demands on my time.  This is my only article today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:00 (average 5:08).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: In an unusual display of unity by an often fractious organization, the leaders of the G-20 nations voted unanimously on Saturday to deny Donald J. Trump’s urgent request for asylum.

Prior to the vote, Trump had been heard asking colleagues ranging from Angela Merkel to Xi Jinping for safe harbor in their countries, sweetening his request with offers of free luxury penthouses in Trump buildings around the globe.

In the most stunning insult to Trump, his closest allies, Vladimir Putin and Mohammed bin Salman, responded to his asylum request by laughing uproariously in his face and high-fiving each other.

Dang, Andy! Is this wise? He should be granted asylum, complete with a straight jacket, padded walls, and strong meds! RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Revealed: House Democrats Plan To Take Trump To Court In 2019

 

Next year’s fireworks promise to be quite explosive. RESIST!!

From YouTube (SNL Channel): Trump Argentina Cold Open

 

They’re getting realistic, but still funny. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

We need to take it back.

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Squatch’s Open Thread 01 December 2018

 Posted by at 7:06 pm  Politics
Dec 012018
 

Well Puddy Tat is back to posting so I hope everyone is tuning in.  I said at the beginning of November that I hoped to post more often.  TC’s illness kick started that for me so I will continue.  I probably won’t post daily because it definitely takes a lot of time to research and write.  Is it any wonder that Puddy Tat gets tired and run down!  Welcome back Puddy Tat!!!  On another note, I received the blood test results from my Winnie’s vet and they were very good . . . so good that he no longer needs insulin.  In addition he has lost a total of 2.3 kg (5 lbs) over the past 8 weeks.  I wish it were that easy for humans.  Hope you are having a great weekend!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:55 (average 6:42).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?  This is not the same puzzle as on TC’s OT.

Short Takes:

Common Dreams — For ten years, Jim Hightower’s weekly column – Little Puffs of Populism – has been distributed week in and week out by Creators’ Syndicate to newspapers around the country.

Not one problem.

Until this week’s column titled Free The Free Press from Wall Street Plunderers.

Earlier this week, Creators’s Syndicate informed Hightower they were not going to distribute this one.

Why not?

“The big, hedge-fund owned newspaper chains that Hightower calls out in his column are big customers of theirs, and as such, they don’t want to risk offending them,” said Hightower assistant Melody Byrd.  “But while Creators’ reluctance to anger these powerful interests is somewhat understandable, the implications are frightening. It’s one more example of this dangerous time for America’s decreasingly-free press that, ironically, Jim lays out in this very column.”

In a note to newspapers urging them to run the column anyway, Byrd wrote – “the American people deserve to know more about the entities that are squeezing so many of our community newspapers for cash and, in the process, choking our democracy.”

Byrd said that Creators’ Syndicate told her that while the hedge funds that Hightower fingered in his column don’t own the syndicate, they do own many of the newspapers that the syndicate distributes to.

“The demise of the real news reporting by our city and regional papers is a product of their profiteering owners,” Hightower wrote in the column. “Not the families and companies that built and nurtured true journalism, but the new breed of fast-buck hucksters who’ve scooped up hundreds of America’s newspapers from the bargain bins of media sell-offs.”

There be “fake news” out there, but it be not the news that Trump calls out and condemns because he does not agree with him.  The real “fake news” are the ones like those that Jim Hightower mentions, the ones guilty of profiteering at the expense of democracy.

DC Report — Its [Wednesday’s New York Times article] sole named source is Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s television lawyer. Giuliani acknowledged that information gleaned from Manafort’s meetings with FBI agents and prosecutors as a cooperating witness was being passed to Team Trump by Manafort lawyer Kevin Downing.

That one fact could well doom Trump’s presidency and perhaps land Trump and others behind bars.  …

That Mueller’s team knew enough to say it can prove Manafort lied repeatedly and committed new crimes in doing so had to vex Trump.  …

Two days after the election, Trump told a Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, the New York Post, that he would not “rule out” a pardon for Manafort, a signal to the jailed felon that he was still in good stead with Trump. Today Trump reiterated that position, which could be seen as obstruction of justice by dangling a pardon to cover up Trumpian crimes.  …

If Trump and his lawyer relied on what Downing passed on from meetings with Team Mueller, using it to shape the written answers to Mueller’s questions, this double-agent legal game may blow up in Trump’s face.  …

If I’m right about this, it may become crucial for state-level prosecutors in New York, Virginia, and the District of Columbia to indict Manafort sooner rather than later for felonies that he admitted under oath in his now broken cooperation agreement with Mueller.

I hope you will click through for David Cay Johnston’s entire article and the NY Times article he highlights.  Rudy Giuliani?  Now in my mind, Giuliani is a joke and has zero credibility for the most part.  Does he really think he is helping Trump?  More like helping him break into prison!  You should also know that Trump can only pardon federal crimes, not state crimes.  So if Trump pardons Manafort, state prosecutors should be ready to jump in and charge Manafort, something that Trump cannot touch with his pardon promises.

Common Dreams — With the Dec. 10 deadline for the House of Representatives to reverse the FCC’s deeply unpopular repeal of net neutrality rapidly approaching, a coalition of websites, prominent celebrity activists, and advocacy groups representing millions of Americans are participating in an internet-wide day of action on Thursday to pressure members of Congress to back the legislative effort to restore net neutrality protections before it’s too late.

During the day of action and in the week leading up to the final deadline, advocacy groups are urging supporters of the free internet to flood the phone lines of their representatives and sign on to their open letter to Congress demanding that they act to save net neutrality.

Read the full open letter and sign on here.

Fight for the Future@fightfortheftr

Congress is running out of time to overturn Ajit Pai’s repeal. Join us for the last epic push at http://DeadlineForNetNeutrality.com: arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…

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Continue reading the article to see if your congress critter has signed on to “pass the CRA that would overturn FCC chair Ajit Pai’s net neutrality repeal.” 
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I signed the open letter.  How about you?
Democracy depends on the free flow of thoughts and ideas. One need only look at China and other nations as examples where the free flow of thoughts and ideas are not allowed by the state. What is to stop Trump with his dictatorial bent (or any other “leader” for that matter) from taking over the internet? The first amendment in the 21st century depends on it!  — Squatch
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AlterNet — With President Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen spilling the beans on Trump’s participation in his team’s illicit negotiations with the Russians in a plea agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller, the allegations of collusion are looking more serious by the day. And one person who does not come off looking good amid the whole affair is outgoing House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA), who will cease to lead the committee next year as Democrats assume the House majority.Nunes, a close ally of Trump, has gone to great lengths to twist his committee’s investigative power away from Trump’s ties to Russia and onto the supposed misconduct of federal investigators who were looking into Trump’s ties to Russia, from writing a shoddy, partisan memo that alleged the FBI improperly obtained FISA warrants against the Trump campaign, to traveling to London to try to get British intelligence officials to discredit ex-MI6 spy Christopher Steele’s dossier on Trump.

I predict that it won’t be chestnuts roasting on an open fire come January.  It will be Devin Nunes’ gonads roasting on a Democratic fire of justice.  Somebody put a guard on the House Intelligence Committee records buried in the basement of the Capitol before Devin Nunes gets in there and removes the records of concern.  I certainly would not put it past him.
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My Universe

. . . and I barely got my feet wet!!!

 

 

 

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Progressive Foreign Policy

 Posted by at 12:12 pm  Politics
Dec 012018
 

Rachel Maddow is my favorite journalist, because she weaves many distinct parts of a news story together in a way that they all make sense.  Fortunately we also have a politician who does the same thing with a policy plan that Rachel does with news.  Elizabeth Warren addressed students at American University on Thursday for 35 minutes.

1201WarrenAU

Americans who seek an enlightened alternative to the crudely nationalist and frequently antidemocratic ideology of Trumpism, and to a broader misdirection of US foreign policy that began long before the current president took office, got it this week from Elizabeth Warren.

She delivered a striking rebuke to the president and his policies in a speech that many saw as framing the outlines of a 2020 Democratic challenge to Trump. But the speech was about more than political positioning. What Warren said challenged not just the awful turn that Republicans have taken under Trump but the failures of her own Democratic Party.

“Our country is in a moment of crisis decades in the making, a moment in which America’s middle class has been hollowed out, working people have been betrayed, and democracy itself is under threat,” Warren told an audience at American University on Thursday. “While it is easy to blame President Trump for our problems, the truth is that our challenges began long before him. And without serious reforms, they are just as likely to outlast him.”

To counter the drift of the United States and its best ideals, Warren is proposing to break the grip of billionaire campaign donors and corporate interests on American policy-making. “We need to refocus our international economic policies so that they benefit all Americans, not just wealthy elites,” the senator argued. “At the same time, we must refocus our security policies by reining in unsustainable and ill-advised military commitments and adapt our strategies overseas for the new challenges we’ll face in this coming century. And we need to end the fiction that our domestic and foreign policies are somehow separate, and recognize that policies that undermine working families in this country, also erode America’s strength in the world.”

“In other words,” she concluded, “it’s time to create a foreign policy that works for all Americans, not just the rich and powerful. Authoritarianism is on the move around the world, there is no time to waste.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Nation>

Here is the speech in its entirety.

I still think we need this woman in the White House!

RESIST!!

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