Open Thread – 8/31/2020

Posted by TomCat at 11:30 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 312020

It’s a busy day here in the CatBox. Diana should be here in a few minutes for her routine visit, and WWWendy will be here late this afternoon. The score is now WWWendy 1 to TC 1. I plugged the toilet this morning! ARGH! Oh God, it’s Monday!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:06 (average 4:55). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0831TrumpVirusMap

Click for interactive map

US Cases: 6,177,092
US Deaths: 187,248
Plus the thousands of GOP plague murder victims Republicans are hiding from us

Short Takes:

From Alternet: One of the many oddities of the now-terminated Robert Mueller probe into Russian election interference and its links to various members of the Trump campaign and family, and in fact of all known federal probes into Russia’s Trump-related actions, has been the seeming lack of any counterintelligence probe on Donald Trump’s myriad, longstanding financial connections to Russia—and what role those financial ties have played both in the Russian government’s actions on behalf of Trump and their possible leverage over the now-president.

A new story from The New York Times‘ Michael Schmidt reports that that’s because in the first months of the new Trump administration, former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein shuttered that investigation—then ordered special counsel Robert Mueller to steer clear of it himself. It’s not that the counterintelligence investigation into Trump’s known ties to Russian crime figures, to money laundering, and his family’s stated reliance on Russian cash has been kept closely-held: It never existed. And it still doesn’t.

Assuming that we win in November, the investigation blocked by Rosy Rectum Rosenstein needs to be done, and Trump* needs to be prosecuted, convicted, and incarcerated for the crimes Republicans are hiding. RESIST!!

From Crooks and Liars: Hopped up on Trump rage and Village People music, this white man feels emboldened to walk up to a journalist and verbally abuse and threaten media in New Hampshire.

That is so Republican! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast of protest): Imagine – John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band (w the Flux Fiddlers) (official music video HD long v)

Kudos to left wing protestors! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread – 8/28/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:35 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 282020

It’s a very tired day, here in the CatBox. When I order groceries from Store to Door, the Fred Meyer store has usually been out of half the frozen entrees I order to goop. So I order more selections than I need, so I’ll have enough. Yesterday, they not only delivered everything, but two items were on a two for one sale. I had to unload and repack my freezer to get everything to fit. WWWendy had to work late and arrived late, and we had more work to do than usual, so I ate supper late and got to bed late. I overslept this morning and got started late. I’m pooped! TGIF!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:54 (average 4:31). To do it, click here. Hoe did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0828TrumpVirusMap

It it any wonder Canada had closed its border to US residents?

US Cases: 6,055,672
US Deaths: 185,051
Plus the thousands of GOP plague murder victims Republicans are hiding from us

RNC Deplorables Take:

Yesterday was so different in spirit than the first three days. The super-spreader event was dominated by Trump* himself, so the lies were more numerous and the hatred more intense than before.

Wendy mentioned how surprised she was that she had seen so many Black speakers during the convention. She didn’t see how Black people could be that stupid. So I told her a story, which I shall also share with you. When I was doing prison volunteer work several years ago, I was the Treasurer of our volunteer organization and a former lead parole officer for this county was the President. We spent so many hours together that we became good friends. Our political views were very similar, so I was shocked when he mentioned he was a Republican. I asked how that could be. He explained that the reason was that he is Black. I asked why being Black attracted him to a racist party that opposed everything we were for. He explained that as a Democrat, he was one among millions of Black Democrats, but as a Republican, he was something special. He received awards and honors. They paid him to be the token Black at events they could use to prove they weren’t racist. They promised him future job opportunities and financial security. I asked him if he felt like a hypocrite. He said he tried not to think about it, because he deserved a piece of the pie. I lost a lot of respect for him that day. Nevertheless, we continued to work together for another couple of years. Then he proved that he really is a Republican. He misappropriated money from our organization to pay himself a salary. When the money was gone, he left the organization in ruin. Those of us who remain reincorporated, reorganized rebuilt it from scratch at the prisoners’ request.

The Republicans promised to follow Trump’s* agenda for America. The following is a complete description of that agenda:

Finally, thank God it’s over!

Short Takes:

From Willamette Week: President Trump Warns of Dystopian Future Under Democrats: “They Will Make Every City Look Like Portland, Oregon”

In his acceptance of the Republican nomination, Trump uses Portland as a shorthand for lawlessness.

America would be better off, if every city looked like Portland! Oregon leads the way! RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Fact checker on Trump’s RNC speech: He is a serial liar

If criminal Fuhrer Trump* were any more full 0f shit, his foul orange hair would turn brown. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast of protest): “The Shady Bunch” a Roy Zimmerman song parody

Could it be more true? Hell no! Kudos to left-wing protesters! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread – 8/27/2020

Posted by TomCat at 11:48 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 272020

It’s a busy day here in the CatBox. Store to Door will be delivering groceries in the next three hours, and I have to unpack and put them away. WWWendy is coming late this evening to destink the stinky TomCat, goop, and help with chores. Tomorrow is her regular day, but tomorrow she has to go straight from school to her night job bartending at the Elks Lodge. Then tomorrow she’ll come by in a lunch-hour pit stop to change my pain patch. The down side is that I’ll be extra stinky when she returns Monday. If you’re anywhere near Republicane Laura, please take care.

Jog Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:57 (average 4:53). To do it, click here. How did you do>

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0827TrumpVirusMap

Click for several other maps

US Cases: 6,002,176
US Deaths: 183,687
Plus all the many GOP plague murder victims Republicans are hiding from us.

RNC Deplorables Take:

Day three was more of the same show featuring the worship of criminal Fuhrer Trump*. They created a complete alternate reality, based on 100% lies.

It was a super-spreader event with virtually no masks and no social distancing.

I happened to notice an old Parade recipient, Joni Pig Nuts [R-IA]. She said that Biden would ban fossil fuels and ban farm animals. Both statements and all her other statements were lies.

The following is a complete analysis of the effect Trump* and the Republican Reich have had on America:

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: An outbreak hit the 2020 Republican National Convention this week as hundreds of attendees tested positive for delusion.

While public-health experts have yet to determine the extent of the outbreak, the episodes of attendees exhibiting magical thinking bordering on the hallucinatory appear to be widespread.

Davis Logsdon, who studies delusional epidemics at the University of Minnesota’s School of Medicine, said that multiple R.N.C. participants professed to see things “that are not actually there,” such as a strong economy, a successful coronavirus response, and an immigration policy brimming with kindness.

In another worrying symptom, Logsdon said that attendees who tested positive were unable to see things that were clearly in their line of vision. “One participant on Monday was shouting for more than six minutes despite the presence of a microphone inches away from her,” he said.

Dang, Andy! There’s no satire here. All the stupid, rabid GOP Sheeple who attended the Nazi Republican super-spreader event are deluded by definition! RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Kenosha Protest Shooting Suspect Attended A Trump Rally In January

Should we be surprised? Trump rallies and other Republican events are the easiest places for Ammosexual Republican terrorists to learn hate, racism and violence! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast of protest): A SPOONFUL OF CLOROX – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Hilarious! I think JD has shared this one before, but it’s worth another go. Randy really nailed the sponsor of the RNC. Support left wing protesters! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread – 8/26/2020

Posted by TomCat at 12:03 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 262020

It’s another tired day, here in the CatBox. I overslept again this morning, but I still took a morning nap. Then I overslept from that too, so I’m running somewhat behind schedule. Last night I got to tell WWWendy she’s full of shit. She used my toilet and plugged it. That’s what happens when you get too many Republicans in one place. Fortunately she unplugged it too. Happy Hump Day!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:16 (average 4:19). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

US Cases: 5,957,522
US Deaths: 182,471
Plus the many GOP plague murder victims Republicans are hiding from us.

RNC Deplorables Take:

Night two of the RNC was more of the same.

I was particularly taken with the abject hypocrisy of der Reichsminister der Staat, Mike Pompeo. Do you remember how Republicans screamed when the Chicks (then Dixie Chicks) criticized GW ChickenHawk, Fuhrer of the failed Fourth Reich, for lying about his failed attempt to conquer Iraq for oil and profit? Then Republicans claimed that all politics stops at the water’s edge. But last night, Pompeo delivered his totally political message, praising Trump’s* failed foreign policy, from Jerusalem. Republican pseudo-Christians (the opposite of real authentic Christians) loved it, but it was unethical at best, if not criminal.

The following is a summary of everything that occurred:

Short Takes:

From USA Today: Hurricane Laura, which grew to a Category 3 storm early Wednesday, is forecast to bring “potentially catastrophic” storm surge, fierce winds and flash flooding to eastern Texas and Louisiana on Wednesday night and early Thursday, the National Hurricane Center says.

More than half a million people were ordered to evacuate as the storm approached, including the Texas cities of Beaumont, Galveston and Port Arthur.

Even if Laura reaches Category 4 strength during the day on Wednesday, forecasters still expect the storm to hit near the Texas-Louisiana border as a Category 3 hurricane, as it’s predicted to weaken slightly before landfall. The storm has already intensified a “remarkable” amount in the past 24 hours, the storm center says.

Laura is growing in size, too. “Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 70 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 175 miles,” forecasters said.

0826Laura

Aren’t we lucky that criminal Fuhrer Trump and the Republican Reich stole FEMA’s operating funds? The poor that are devastated by this Republicane are SOL. But what will Republicans raid to pay for slightest storm damage to the property of billionaires: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, aid to starving children? If you’re in Laura’s path, please tale care. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): Trump’s 40 Biggest Broken Promises Revealed

Of course the Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right, while the Reich on the right, the Republican Reich, don’t care how wrong they are. They’re too busy having wet dreams over criminal Fuhrer Trump*. They chose him to be their beloved Fifth Reich Fuhrer, because he reflects the ideas, values and policies of the Republican Reich better than anyone since the original Fuhrer, who lead the Third Reich! But how did Robert limit it to just 40? RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast of protest): Trump Song Parody Blasts the President’s Many Misdeeds

Amen! Kudos to left-wing protesters! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread – 8/23/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:42 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 232020

It’s a crazy Sunday, here in the CatBox. I overslept by over 90 minutes, so that was my AM nap. Have a fine Sunday!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:19 (average 4:37). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

Click for Interactive Map

US Cases: 5,844,432
US Deaths: 180,228
Plus all the GOP plague murder victims Republicans are hiding from us.

The Showdown at Chicken Liver Gulch:

Yesterday, there was some hilarity here. At my request WWWendy sautéed and gooped some chicken livers. Now Wendy’s opinion of liver is considerably worse than my opinion of Trump*. It was delicious, and I had some for lunch with guacamole, aka goopamole. I often feed her bites of goopamole, when I eat it, so I did so yesterday. I had teasingly asked her if she’d like a bite of liver to see the strength of her NO! So when I offered her the goopamole, she decided that I was using goopamole to hide the liver underneath. Although I have never done anything mean to her, it took me several minutes to convince her that I would not do such a thing, and she enjoyed the goopamole. In fact, I was so considerate that I gargled with Listerine, so I could hug her goodbye without liver on my breath. It was so good, I had more for breakfast.

Short Takes:

From CNN: Maryanne Trump Barry bitterly criticized her brother, President Donald Trump, saying, “Donald’s out for Donald,” and appeared to confirm her niece Mary Trump’s previous allegations that he had a friend take his SATs to get into college, according to audio excerpts obtained by CNN.

The Washington Post first obtained the previously unreleased transcripts and audio from Mary Trump, author of a recent bombshell book about the President and one of his most outspoken critics. Mary Trump, who has said that Donald Trump is unfit to be president and has voiced support for his rival Joe Biden, revealed to the Post that she had secretly taped 15 hours of face-to-face conversations with Barry in 2018 and 2019.

In one of the conversations revealed by the Post, Trump’s sister called him “cruel.”

Among the some of the more critical comments made by Barry was commenting on how her younger 74-year-old brother operated as president. “His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God,” she said, according to the recording. “I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy shit.”

This is nothing new to us, but it might influence those few, who are still on the fence. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Tropical Storms Marco and Laura continued to churn in the Caribbean on Saturday, prompting a wave of warnings and watches for several countries, and leading the governor of Louisiana to declare a state of emergency.

Marco on Saturday was about 110 miles northwest of the western tip of Cuba, with maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said on Saturday night.

Mr. Cline said it was possible that both storms would become hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico as early as Monday. He added that it would be “pretty unusual” and that the last time it happened was in 1933. The last time a hurricane and a tropical storm were both in the Gulf of Mexico was in 1959, he said…[emphasis added]

Note that for the second time, criminal Fuhrer Trump* has stolen FEMA funds to pay for his scams. First, he did so in 2019 to pay for the wall that never happened. Second, he did so to pay for the Unemployment relief that nobody received. I doubt that he will put the money back, even though hurricanes are on the way. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast of protest): “He’s Got Bone Spurs” a Roy Zimmerman song parody

So true! Kudos to left wing protestors. RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

So Much for "No Collusion"

Posted by TomCat at 12:17 pm Politics

Aug 202020

The Senate Intelligence Committee released a report on Russian interference in the stolen 2016 Residential election, and the cooperation of criminal Fuhrer Trump* and members of his campaign staff with that interference. So much for “No Collusion”!

IT’S WORTH wondering what the impact might have been had the Senate Intelligence Committee’s final report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election appeared six months ago, before the report of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and the twisted account of it provided by Attorney General William P. Barr. On their own terms, the Senate’s findings, released Tuesday after a bipartisan investigation, are explosive: that then-candidate Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort “formed a close and lasting relationship” with “a Russian intelligence officer,” with whom he shared inside information from the president’s campaign and collaborated to concoct a false narrative that Ukraine, and not Russia, was behind the election interference.

Further, the Senate report states that the Trump campaign “sought to maximize” the impact of leaks of Democratic documents by WikiLeaks, knowing the original source was the Russian military intelligence agency, GRU. The campaign’s intermediary was Roger Stone, whose prison sentence for lying about his involvement and tampering with witnesses was commuted last month by Mr. Trump; the president, the committee “assesses,” lied when he said he never talked to Mr. Stone about WikiLeaks.

Then there is what the Senate investigators glimpsed but could not nail down. The report cites “fragmentary” evidence that Mr. Manafort’s Russian associate Konstantin Kilimnik “may have been connected to the GRU’s hack and leak operation,” and two pieces of information linking the campaign chairman himself. The full truth is unknown in part because Mr. Manafort chose to incur an extended prison sentence rather than tell prosecutors the truth about his relationship with the Russian spy.

It is a sad tribute to Mr. Trump’s skill at obfuscation and disinformation that these revelations will likely be ignored by many voters already sated by conflicting accounts of what the president calls the “Russian hoax.” He did it again Tuesday, and on cue, his Senate sycophants — including, contemptibly, the acting Intelligence Committee chairman, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — rushed to assert that the report shows “no collusion” between Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign and the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

That may be true, in the narrow sense of a criminal conspiracy. Yet the report leaves no doubt that, on instructions of Mr. Putin, Russian intelligence sought to aid Mr. Trump’s election; that Mr. Trump and his campaign welcomed and sought to exploit that aid; and that the president, Mr. Manafort, Mr. Stone and several other key campaign officials then lied about the affair… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Click through for more. This is certainly worth reading!

‘Devastating’: Revelations From Senate Intel Report

If that isn’t bad enough, criminal Fuhrer Trump’s* response to the report is to seek advise from his boss, the holder of the tapes, Vladimir Putin [R-RU].

Defiant Trump Seeks Putin Meeting After Report Finds He Lied To Mueller About Russia

The bottom line is this. Trump* and Putin are still colluding to steal YOUR White House from YOU again. What are YOU going to do about it?

RESIST!!

Open Thread – 8/17/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:47 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 172020

It’s a busy day here in the CatBox. Diana, my palliative care nurse will be here shortly for my routine weekly visit. The same stories still dominate the news, so my research took an extra long time. It’s a relatively cool day: only 95° Angry smile . Oh God, it’s Monday!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:48 (average 4:24). To do it, click here. Hoe did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0817TrumpVirusMap

Click here for interactive map.

US Cases: 5,569,520
US Deaths: 173,143
Plus all the many GOP plague murder victims Republicans are hiding from us.

Short Takes:

From Euro-News (Hat-Tip Lona): CLIMATE JUSTICE

This is where Kamala Harris comes into her own. While she was district attorney of San Francisco, 15 years ago, Harris created an environmental justice unit, which specifically existed to deal with cases of environmental crime.

Harris identified that “crimes against the environment are crimes against communities, people who are often poor and disenfranchised,” as she said to the San Francisco Chronicle in 2005.

The nexus between socio-economic disadvantage and environmental damage is something Harris has sought to address consistently – long before terms like ‘intersectional environmentalism’ even existed.

More recently, Harris has sued major oil companies after they violated environmental legislation, and after the devastating Refugio oil spill in 2015, the company responsible (Plains All American Pipeline) were indicted on 46 criminal charges.

The following year, after Volkswagen was found to have cheated on its diesel emissions, Harris secured a €73m settlement from the car manufacturer for the state of California.

Although many so called progressives, aka regressives, have whined incessantly that Harris is a “corporate Democrat”, her track record on the environment is quite good. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Raw Story Channel): Trump claims ‘dogs’ are getting mail-in ballots

Barf Bag Alert!!

If criminal Fuhrer Trump gets any more full of shit, we’ll have to paint a crescent moon on his forehead. Obviously it is my feline proclivity to be biased against dawgs, but if they could vote, they would be far more responsible than Republican Sheeple. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast of protest): ANTI-REPUBLICAN FUNNY SONG

This song is ten years old. It was spot-on then, and the Republican Reich is so much worse now! Kudos to left-wing protestors! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

If Trump* Gets His Way, He Might Kill Me

Posted by TomCat at 11:37 am Politics

Aug 142020

I am an amputee in a wheel chair. I have stage four metastatic esophageal cancer, spinal cancer, lung cancer and liver cancer. Virtually everything I need to survive, except my chemotherapy treatments at the hospital, I have to buy online. Most of those things, including several of my meds, come by mail. I need USPS to survive, but criminal Fuhrer Trump and the Republican Reich are sabotaging USPS to interfere with the voting rights if people who need to and have the right to vote by mail.

If Americans think that “rigged elections” are something that only happens in far-off countries like Belarus, Trevor Noah had a rude awakening for them. “It already, it’s already starting to rear its ugly head right here,” he said.

The Daily Show host was of course talking about President Donald Trump’s stunning admission in a Fox News interview on Thursday morning that he is actively blocking funding for the U.S. Postal Service to prevent them from being able to accommodate universal mail-in voting.

“They need that money in order to have the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo of two provisions he opposes in the Democrat’s coronavirus relief bill. “But if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting, because they’re not equipped to have it.”

“Goddamn,” Noah replied after playing the clip. “I’ve never seen a villain give away a plan like that without seeing James Bond tied to a chair in front of him.”…

Inserted From <The Daily Beast>

Here’s the included video.

Trump Plainly Admits Plan to Limit Mail-In Voting

Barf Bag Alert!!

In short, Trump* and the Republican Reich are trying to steal the votes of millions of Americans. That’s bad enough. Republicans don’t care that they are sabotaging a Constitutionally guaranteed service that millions need to survive. I’m one of them. If Trump* gets his way, he might kill me.

RESIST!!

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