Open Thread – 4/25/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:51 pm Open Thread, Politics

Apr 252018

It’s a heat have here in the CatBox. This morning I tried to keep the room cool with an Open Window, but the building had not bled off yesterday’s heat and, when the sun hit the brickwork, the inside temperature reached 80°, before the outside temperature reached 60°. Today’s high is forecast at 86°, as is tomorrow’s. My medical waste disposal company just left after swapping my full sharps container for an empty one. I’m waiting for Store to Door to arrive with my grocery order, and I need to unpack and stow it. Wendy comes this evening to destink the TomCat, who is VERY stinky, due to the heat.

Groceries are done.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:03 (average 4:04). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): This is MoveOn

Considering all the good MoveOn does, I’m most happy to share their plug for themselves. RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Firing Mueller Won’t End President Trump Investigation, Mueller Made Sure

That is excellent planning, but it needs one more step. Investigations need to proceed and indictments need to be issued on the State level also, so Trump or his successor cannot defeat them with federal pardons. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, announced on Tuesday that when the purported “pee tape” becomes available it will be offered free to all Amazon Prime members.

Speaking to reporters in Seattle, Bezos said that the pee-tape offer was “consistent with Amazon’s mandate to offer the highest-quality content to our customers.”

Bezos acknowledged that the tape had not surfaced yet, but said that Amazon was “working around the clock to make that happen.”

Woooo Hoooo Andy!! I’ll email Prime customer service and reserve my copy today!! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Poor Macron!

Posted by TomCat at 1:11 pm Politics

Apr 242018

French President Emmanuel Macron is here on an official state visit yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Unfortunately for him, he has to spend much of that time in close contact with the Fuhrer of the Republican Reich, Pipi Pervers, Donald Trump. And if that isn’t bad enough, he might even have to meet Trump’s National Security Adviser, Jon Bolton. Poor Macron!

John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser, chaired a nonprofit that has promoted misleading and false anti-Muslim news, some of which was amplified by a Russian troll factory, an NBC News review found.

The group’s authors also appeared on Russian media, including Sputnik and RT News, criticizing mainstream European leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron.

From 2013 until last month, Bolton was chairman of the Gatestone Institute, a New York-based advocacy group that warns of a looming “jihadist takeover” [hate speech delinked] of Europe leading to a “Great White Death. [hate speech delinked]”

The group has published numerous stories and headlines on its website with similar themes. “Germany Confiscating Homes to Use for Migrants, [hate speech delinked]” warned one from May 2017, about a single apartment rental property in Hamburg that had gone into temporary trusteeship. Another from February 2015 claimed the immigrants, for instance Somalis, in Sweden were turning that country into the “Rape Capital of the West. [hate speech delinked]”

Inserted from <NBC News>

This article is bad enough, but it does not cover what Bolton has to say about France and about Macron personally. Leave it to Rachel Maddow to fill in all the gaps.

Kudos to Emmanuel Macron for the courage to abide three days of Trump, let alone Nazis like Bolton.

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 4/24/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:10 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 242018

The heat have has begun. It’s only 71° outside right now, but the sun has been super-heating the brickwork of my wall all morning. When the inside temperature passed 80°, I buttoned up the room and turned on the A/C. It should reach the mid 80°s today. Tomorrow and Friday will be worse. April is too early for this. ARGH!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:08 (average 4:28). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (BuffFeed Channel): Weird Laws From All 50 US States

OOPS! Once I violated the Oregon law! RESIST!!

From NY Times: He was once reported to the police in Illinois for stashing an AR-15 in the trunk of his car and then diving into a public pool wearing a women’s pink housecoat. There was the time he complained to an officer that the singer Taylor Swift had demanded a rendezvous. And then last July he was grabbed by the Secret Service when he tried to force his way on to the White House grounds.

Travis Reinking, 29, was on the radar of law enforcement well before he was taken into custody on Monday and accused of barging into a Nashville Waffle House over the weekend and opening fire, killing four and injuring four more.

Yet even after the Illinois police revoked his firearms license and ordered that his guns be transferred to his father, Mr. Reinking got them back, including the AR-15 used in the Tennessee shooting, the police said. His case raises questions over how such a troubled individual could have legally carried weapons for so long and could have continued to carry them even after he was ordered to give them up.

“We have a man who has exhibited significant instability,” acknowledged Don Aaron, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

The police say that Mr. Reinking’s father, Jeffrey, the owner of a crane business near the town of Morton, Ill., returned the guns to his son, enabling Travis Reinking to carry out the killings over the weekend.

Jeffrey Reinking’s act of returning the guns to his son is “potentially a violation of federal law,” Marcus Watson, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said at a news conference.

I think Jeffrey belongs in a cell, but I’d also like to know what political organizations he supports, as I bet he’s the source of his son’s ideas. RESIST!!

From Alternet: Donald Trump is a white supremacist, which is why it’s no coincidence that that language he uses to demonize people of color—Mexican immigrants, in particular—is the same language of self-avowed white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Columnist Dana Milbank:

“There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept,” the president tweeted [Tweeting twit delinked] on Tuesday.

What could he mean? Immigrants are breeding thoroughbred horses? Prize-winning cattle?

Or perhaps Trump was using “breeding” in the sense now popular among white supremacists?

Is there any question about what the Fuhrer means? Of course it’s racist. He’s a Republican! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Republicans on Parade – 4/23/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:45 pm Politics

Apr 232018

Here is the one hundred thirteenth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is Republican Faux Noise host, Bullshitologist, Trump Sycophant, and Welfare Queen Sean Hannity. He is so honored for his Republican hypocrisy and greed.

Fox News Sean Hannity was outed Sunday for having vast real estate holdings, including properties that take government money for HUD approved housing. It was those $90 million in holdings that were outed by the investigation into Michael Cohen.

According to the report broken by The Guardian, Hannity has several shell companies set up to navigate 470 different homes in 7 states.

“First, I want to apologize to Sean,” New York Times op-ed columnist Bret Stephens began. “I once called him Fox News’s dumbest anchor. He’s clearly the shrewdest real estate developer. I think it’s funny Sean Hannity turns out to be a welfare queen for HUD, having taken advantage of guarantees that were put forward by none other than the [Barack] Obama administration.”

Stephens noted that Hannity has said over and over he isn’t a journalist, though his determination seems to shift back and forth depending on what is the most expedient at the time.

“He proves it every single day,” Stephens continued of Hannity’s lack of journalist chops. “The question for Fox News is whether they want to consider themselves a journalistic institution and continue to employ as an anchor a guy who clearly is better at real estate than he is, at reporting.”

After spending most of her career in banking, MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle noted that when bank employees have a conflict of interest, regulators and the FCC get involved… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Raw Story>

The following video is identical to the one in the article, but is from YouTube.

I’m amazed that I’ve never paraded Hannity before, even though I have covered him dozens of times, which I can document as far back as 2009.

On many occasions people with whom Hannity had business dealings appeared on his show, and Hannity never disclosed it. His hypocrisy is exceeded only by his greed.

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 4/23/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:44 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 232018

I must have been more tired than I realized, because I overslept big-time this morning. Instead of my normal 4:45 AM, my eyes opened at 6:30. I must have tired myself trying to boost green clouds on their way north. We’re about to enter a heat wave with 80° highs on Tuesday through Thursday, so I’ll be buttoning up and running the AC. Otherwise, I don’t have much on tap this week.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:44 (average 5:50). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Vox Channel): Why Atlantic fish are invading the Arctic

What the Republican Reich fails to see is that protecting the arctic is necessary to protect us. RESIST!!

From Washington Post: Senior White House officials on Monday urged Democrats and a key Republican to reconsider their positions on Mike Pompeo’s nomination as secretary of state ahead of what could be an unfavorable committee vote later in the day.

“We certainly hope that some members will change their minds,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a morning interview on Fox News, in which she accused Democrats of playing “political games” with Trump’s nomination of Pompeo, the current CIA director.

The more Democrats reconsider him, the more opposed they become. State is a soft-spoken diplomatic post. Pompeo is a blithering absolutist hatemonger. That is NOT a match! RESIST!!

From TPM: The man who allegedly shot and killed four young people of color in a Nashville Waffle House early Sunday identified himself as a “sovereign citizen” last year, multiple outlets reported Monday.

The outlets cited an arrest report covering the alleged gunman’s confrontation with Secret Service officers outside the White House in July of last year.

CNN and USA Today reported that the alleged gunman, Travis Reinking, told Secret Service officers that he had to get onto White House grounds to speak to President Donald Trump. The reports also said he identified himself to Secret Service as a “sovereign citizen” and that he therefore had a right to access the White House grounds.

What we have here is another Republican Ammosexual terrorist. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Earth Day Tears

Posted by TomCat at 1:01 pm Holiday, Politics

Apr 222018

EarthDay1 EarthDay2

This is almost a complete republish of last years article. In recent years, I’ve greeted friends with Happy Earth Day. We were beginning to recognize the importance of climate change and take steps to minimize the damage. But that was before less than 1/4 of American eligible voters got away with installing Donald Trump in the White House and giving the Republican Reich control of both branches of Congress. God help us!

[3/31/2017] In the past few weeks, the Trump administration has ramped up its efforts to make good on campaign promises to dismantle President Obama’s environmental legacy. Congressional Republicans have enthusiastically hopped on board, seizing the opportunity to repeal any environmental rules vulnerable under the Congressional Review Act and gunning to slash funding for critical environmental and scientific agencies and programs. The Trump Administration appointed Scott Pruitt, a man with well-established ties to the fossil fuel industry and a history of suing the Environmental Protection Agency, to chair the Environmental Protection Agency. On Wednesday morning, the Republican leadership of the House Science Committee convened a hearing for the sole purpose of challenging widely accepted climate science. And this past Tuesday, surrounded by coal miners and bosses, Trump issued an executive order on “energy independence” which, among other things, places President Obama’s landmark Clean Power Plan directly in the line of fire and temporarily lifts the moratorium on new coal leasing on federal public lands. Most of these developments have been months in the making. Trump and Congressional Republicans have never been quiet about their environmental agenda — namely, doing the bidding of the fossil fuel industry and making grandiose but ultimately empty gestures to prop up coal. Bottom line: it’s been a discouraging few months. This week alone has been bruising, and we’re in for a tough fight going forward. But the persistently negative headlines, emphasizing only the administration’s determination to wreak havoc on our environment, are misleading and can be counterproductive. Not because they misstate the priorities of Trump’s White House and Congressional Republicans; those are well established. But we can’t lose sight of D.C.’s real influence, or lack thereof, over energy markets and international environmental commitments — or of the power our towns, cities, and states can wield in this fight…

EPA Fuhrer, Scott Pruitt, may well be the most corrupt department head in US History.

I looked for a protest video more appropriate to 2018 and could not find one.

From <ExtraNewsFeed> We must all do every thing we can do at every level, because Trump and his Reich won’t quit. Donald Trump Is F***ing Our Planet, Happy Earth Day!

The time is now!

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 4/22/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:00 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 222018

I’m still quite tired. Wendy is on her way to destink the foul TomCat and help with chores, including the dreaded task.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:43 (average 4:58). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (CNN Channel): New forecast predicts trillion-dollar deficits

The first step to economic health has to be removing every Republican from office from Dawg Catcher to White House Resident. RESIST!!

From Huffington Post: A heavily militarized police force of some 400 officers aggressively patrolled a small neo-Nazi rally in this city 40 miles southwest of Atlanta on Saturday and arrested about 10 counterprotesters, many for the crime of wearing a mask.

Police officers arrived before the rally began and approached a group of about 50 anti-fascist protesters. They demanded the protesters remove their masks or face arrest. The officers — who wore bulletproof vests and helmets, and carried semi-automatic rifles — cornered the anti-fascist protesters, then grabbed those who were still masked, tossing them to the ground and handcuffing them.

At one point, an officer pointed what seemed to be a modified AR-15 at the faces of counterprotesters, none of whom appeared to be armed.

This was all the Republicans demonstrating,…

0422nazis1

…expect for the police that sided with them against the people demonstrating for freedom. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: The independent counsel, Robert Mueller, told reporters that, prior to news reports on Thursday, he had “almost forgotten” to investigate the former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

“Like most Americans, I had totally forgotten about Rudy Giuliani’s existence,” he said. “But then when he popped up on the news I was, like, ‘Hold on—shouldn’t we be investigating him?’ ”

Mueller was at a loss to explain why he had failed to investigate Giuliani earlier. “I have no idea how it could have slipped my mind,” he said. “His role in Trump’s campaign was as fishy as all get-out.”

Andy, I suppose we can forgive Mueller’s oversight, considering how much more important the other Republican criminals are than Rudy 911. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Bill Maher from 4/20

Posted by TomCat at 12:52 pm Politics

Apr 212018

It’s that time of week again, so here are four fine video clips from Bill’s show last night. Enjoy!

Monologue: Apprentice: White House Edition

Who is the biggest criminal, Cohen or Giuliani? Neither.

Jordan B. Peterson

He does have a point. A lot of my writing is intentionally offensive, because that’s often the only way to get folks to pay attention, but I have no hatred of people. I hate some of the things people do.

Michael Avenatti

Oh Stormy! Oh Stormy! Bring back that Stormy day! I look forward to the lawsuit’s discovery process.

New Rule: Grass Warfare

Stoners did a dumb thing by picking 4/20 as a day to celebrate weed. It’s the day Republicans celebrate Hitler’s birthday. I like supporting legalization. However, if it is the core issue, I’m concerned the election might go up in smoke.

Good one, Bill!

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

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