Cohen Creamed

Posted by TomCat at 1:02 pm Politics

Apr 102018

I was overjoyed to learn late yesterday that the FBI raided Trump’s fixer and strong arm man, Michael D. Cohen, and took everything. They were so thorough that, if Cohen farts in the next two weeks, you’ll have to go to the FBI, if you want to smell it. The Fuhrer is so furious that he called it an attack on our country. Not that’s absurd!

The F.B.I. raided the Rockefeller Center office and Park Avenue hotel room of President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, on Monday morning, seizing business records, emails and documents related to several topics, including a payment to a pornographic film actress. Mr. Trump, in an extraordinarily angry response, lashed out hours later at what a person briefed on the matter said was an investigation into possible bank fraud by Mr. Cohen. Mr. Trump accused his own Justice Department of perpetrating a “witch hunt” and asserted that the F.B.I. “broke in to” Mr. Cohen’s office. The president, who spoke at the White House before meeting with senior military commanders about a potential missile strike on Syria, called the F.B.I. raid a “disgraceful situation” and an “attack on our country in a true sense.” It is not clear how the F.B.I. entered Mr. Cohen’s office, but agents had a search warrant and typically would have presented it to office personnel to be let in. The documents identified in the warrant date back years, according to a person briefed on the search…

Inserted from <NY Times>

Here’s more coverage from MSNBC.

Note that criminality supersedes attorney-client privileges. Since it is abundantly clear that virtually all non-social interaction between Cohen and Trump are criminal, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York has hit the mother lode.

I’m sure that a lot of the information will find its way into Mueller’s hands, but no matter what happens to Mueller, there’s everything here needed to put Trump away for years. But will it be used?

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 4/10/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:01 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 102018

It’s another day, here at the CatBox and my kitty but is trying to recover from Infernal Revenue Day. The weather was so warm last night that the natives were restless and made lots of noise. I slept poorly.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:25 (average 5:30). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Vox Channel): Why you keep using Facebook, even if you hate it

With Facebook, the only way to win is not to play! Unplug! RESIST!!

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): People on Fox News are directly advising Trump through the TV

Trump is a propagandist, who has come to believe the propaganda himself. ARGH!! RESIST!!

From MSNBC: Senator Merkley responds to Trump tirade

Senator Jeff Merkley responds to President Trump’s diatribe about the FBI raid of his personal attorney as well as Trump’s vow to use forceful action against Syria.

Jeff’s views are astute, and I’m proud to say that they mirror my own. Oregon leads the way. RESIST!!

From Snopes: In the aftermath of a deadly high school school [sic] mass shooting in Parkland, Florida in February 2018, some commentators verbally attacked a group of students who survived the mass shooting and became leaders in the anti-gun violence #NeverAgain movement.

Ted Nugent, the pro-gun rights, right-wing rock musician, denounced the teen activists, including Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg, saying they have “no soul” and calling them “mushy-brained children.” Fox News host Laura Ingraham apologized to Hogg after mocking him for “whining” about not get into several colleges — a tweet that prompted several advertisers to withdraw their support from Ingraham’s show.

And in March 2018, conservative radio and television personality Jamie Allman mused on Twitter about sodomizing Hogg with a “hot poker”

Nugent is an NRA Board Member. Behold the love of Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, the polar opposite of authentic Christians. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

As Seen From Afar 04/10/2018

Posted by Lona Goudswaard at 10:35 am Plus, Politics

Apr 102018

DUTCH COMEDIAN ARJEN LUBACH URGES US TO FOLLOW HIM IN SAYING ‘BYE BYE FACEBOOK’

Perhaps you remember Arjen Lubach from an an earlier As Seen From Afar 2/4/2017, in which I described how his parody skit on President Donald Trump’s “America First” slogan, called “The Netherlands Second,” went viral, ending up with more than 26 million views on YouTube, and triggered dozens of copycat videos in other countries.

This time Lubach is going international again with this season’s last episode of his satirical television show “Sunday with Lubach,” which has more than 400,000 followers on Facebook. Lubach announced his program would delete its account on the popular social media site coming Wednesday, 04/11/2018, at 20:00 hours local time, joining a string of high-profile entertainers and tech executives who have urged users to do the same.

Although it’s impossible to know how many will follow through, 14,000 of Lubach’s Facebook followers said on the Facebook-event which Lubach has created for it that they would join him by deleting their accounts.

Watch the video of Lubach’s call below:

Facebook is under fire because of a privacy scandal. Recently, the company announced that the private data of possibly 87 million people (90,000 in the Netherlands) have been harvested by Cambridge Analytica – a political consultancy that worked on U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign. With this data profiles were created to send targeted information.

The #deletefacebook hashtag that resulted from this disclosure has gained prominence, and many celebrities have shut their Facebook pages, but the company itself maintains #deletefacebook has not had any meaningful impact on users to date and financial analysts say the controversy has had little impact on advertising or user engagement on the Facebook platform so far.

Lubach’s call may not have a massive impact either, but his skit explains rather well and in detail how Facebook, and others, works by gathering personal information to allow their advertising customers to send targeted ads and this and the event seem to have scared Facebook a little. Lubach has written on Twitter that the Bye-Bye-Facebook event is hard to find using Facebook’s search engines. Facebook has declined to comment on either the event or on the search engine problems.

Trolling Trump!

Posted by TomCat at 1:07 pm Politics

Apr 092018

Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten has a real problem. His best friend’s ally, Bashar Hafez al-Assad, Fuhrer of Syria, is gassing his own people with chemical weapons again. It is unlikely that he would do so without tacit approval from Vladimir Putin (R-RU), since he depends on Putin to keep him in power. Trump’s problem is that America understands this and is furious.

During his relatively brief time in politics, Donald Trump has viciously attacked respected politicians on both sides of the aisle, beloved public figures, many key U.S. allies, and most of the institutions of our democracy. In that time, Trump has been consistently afraid to say anything even remotely negative about Russian President Vladimir Putin – until now. So why is Trump suddenly ranting on Twitter about Putin right now? There explanation is probably pretty straightforward.

Trump tweeted this about Putin on Saturday: “Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!” It’s a very tame attack on Putin when compared to his usual attacks on other public figures. But he didn’t have much of a choice here, and he knows it.

The last time Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on his own people, the resulting horrific images prompted a public demand for action across the U.S. political spectrum. Even though Bashar is being propped up by Putin, Trump had to attack Bashar – or at least create the appearance of it. So Trump lobbed a few missiles at the outer edges of a Syrian air base that had conveniently already been evacuated, doing minimal damage, and the air base was back up and running just days later. It was Trump’s way of giving in to the American public’s demand for action, without doing any actual damage to Putin’s Syrian puppet…

Inserted from <Palmer Report>
Photo credit: Live Tech Info

Palmer suggests that Putin might have suggested that Trump attack him in a tweet. I think he’s right, but I don’t think America will consider the twit’s tweet as a sufficient response. I think it’s more likely that we will launce another airstrike, of which Putin is warned in advance, so Assad can get his assets clear again.

I do, however, worry that Trump will take some action against Iran, who had nothing to do with it.

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 4/9/2018

Posted by TomCat at 1:06 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 092018

Yesterday was Infernal Revenue Day, which was a horrible pain in the ass, but at least I didn’t owe any money. I fed WWWendy ribs, and I bet Oh and Shit (what I call her shih Tzu dawgs) loved the bones. Today is the hottest day of the year to date. The Sun just hit the wall, so I know I’ll have to button up and turn on the A/C soon. On a scale of one to ten, I’m pooped.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:30 (average 4:56). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Vox Channel): What melting sea ice means for life in the Arctic

Wouldn’t it be better to leave it the Arctic as it is? RESIST!!

From Politico: Florida Gov. Rick Scott makes his long-awaited Senate candidacy official Monday, setting up an epic battle against incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson and testing the limits of whether a close alliance with President Donald Trump is political poison or a pathway to success in the nation’s biggest swing state.

Scott has never shied away from his friendship with Trump — who has repeatedly urged him to run against Nelson, Florida’s only statewide elected Democrat. And regardless of the constant string of White House controversies, Scott has only distanced himself from the president to the mildest of degrees.

It there was ever a classic example of needing to support a DINO, this is it! RESIST!!

From Metro: Fox News have accidentally broadcast a graphic showing that they are the least trusted major news network. The broadcaster displayed the Monmouth University poll results during its Tight Shot show Sunday, with less than a third of Americans trusting it more than President Trump.

0409fox

Hahahahahahahaha!! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Republicans call this fake news.

Open Thread – 4/8/2018

Posted by TomCat at 8:10 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 082018

This is both WWWendy day and Infernal Revenue Day. Please pass the Vaseline. Therefore, this is today’s only article.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:13 (average 4:45). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (SNL Channel): Donald Trump Baltic States Cold Open

I still think Baldwin does Trump better than Trump. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): 5 Points to Counter the NRA

Republican Ammosexuals won’t listen to the Reich on the left, but we care what everybody else thinks. RESIST!!

From NY Times: As ethical questions threaten the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Scott Pruitt, President Trump has defended him with a persuasive conservative argument: Mr. Pruitt is doing a great job at what he was hired to do, roll back regulations.

But legal experts and White House officials say that in Mr. Pruitt’s haste to undo government rules and in his eagerness to hold high-profile political events promoting his agenda, he has often been less than rigorous in following important procedures, leading to poorly crafted legal efforts that risk being struck down in court.

The result, they say, is that the rollbacks, intended to fulfill one of the president’s central campaign pledges, may ultimately be undercut or reversed.

“In their rush to get things done, they’re failing to dot their i’s and cross their t’s. And they’re starting to stumble over a lot of trip wires,” said Richard Lazarus, a professor of environmental law at Harvard. “They’re producing a lot of short, poorly crafted rulemakings that are not likely to hold up in court.”

Good! We need all the help we can get! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Bill Maher from 4/6

Posted by TomCat at 12:30 pm Plus, Politics

Apr 072018

It’s that time of week again, and I’m happy to share five fine video clips from Bill’s show last night. Enjoy!

Monologue: Trump the Riffer

“No one knows what is happening anymore.” He sure got that right. Melania won’t speak. She’s too busy spending Trump’s money.

Geraldo Rivera

I’ll bet a buck that Geraldo will not pay when he loses. It’s unfair that Trump has the worst press since Andrew Johnson. Trump is FAR worse than Johnson.

Louie Anderson

Playing a woman must be incredibly hard.

I Don’t Know It For a Fact

I think that poor bunny has sore sphincter.

New Rule: Pencils Down

I could not agree more about his policies for teachers.

Good show!

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 4/7/2018

Posted by TomCat at 12:29 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 072018

I’m still very tired. I woke up this morning and the temperature in my room was 85°. It was that way throughout the floor. It has cooled off, but I was miserable. I guess I still haven’t recovered from my trip out on Thursday. Tomorrow, I may have no more than a Personal Update of an Open Thread. It’s WWWendy Day and Uncle Revenue Torture Day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:54 (average 4:40). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Politico: Rep. Ralph Norman pulled out a loaded pistol while discussing gun-violence prevention during a meeting with constituents in South Carolina on Friday, according to several advocacy group members in attendance.

The episode was brought to light by volunteers for the South Carolina chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, who said in a news release that the lawmaker laid out a loaded firearm while discussing gun safety at an event in Rock Hill.

According to the group, the pistol was left out for “several minutes” while Norman “kept telling his constituents that the presence of the gun made them safer.”

To make constituents safer, we need to keep guns away from Republican Ammosexual idiots like Norman! RESIST!!

From Bloomberg Law: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to monitor hundreds of thousands of news sources around the world and compile a database of journalists, editors, foreign correspondents, and bloggers to identify top “media influencers.”

It’s seeking a contractor that can help it monitor traditional news sources as well as social media and identify “any and all” coverage related to the agency or a particular event, according to a request for information released April 3.

The data to be collected includes a publication’s “sentiment” as well as geographical spread, top posters, languages, momentum, and circulation. No value for the contract was disclosed.

“Services shall provide media comparison tools, design and rebranding tools, communication tools, and the ability to identify top media influencers,” according to the statement. DHS agencies have “a critical need to incorporate these functions into their programs in order to better reach federal, state, local, tribal, and private partners,” it said.

The DHS wants to track more than 290,000 global news sources, including online, print, broadcast, cable, and radio, as well as trade and industry publications, local, national and international outlets, and social media, according to the documents. It also wants the ability to track media coverage in more than 100 languages including Arabic, Chinese, and Russian, with instant translation of articles into English.

I doubt that PP is large enough to be considered for inclusion, but Care2 is. This reminds me of 1984. Big Brother is Watching! RESIST!!

From NY Times: President Trump’s national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, handed off his duties to John R. Bolton on Friday, a bittersweet departure from the White House in which he played down personal animosities with Mr. Trump but left little doubt that he and the president had differences on issues like Syria and Russia.

General McMaster met with Mr. Bolton, who then walked the halls of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, introducing himself to staff members still reeling from Mr. Trump’s second major shake-up of the National Security Council in 13 months. Mr. Bolton, a hawkish former envoy to the United Nations, takes up the job on Monday.

God help the world! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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