Get Out a Black Armband

Posted by TomCat at 8:46 am Politics

Jan 312020

I hate to say it, but it’s time to get out a black armband, because a national day of shame is upon us. Since Senator Lamar Alexander [R-TN] decided to goose-step with his criminal Fuhrer, Donald Trump*, instead of representing his constituents, it appears that Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch is about to successfully hide his Fuhrer’s crimes by blocking documents and witnesses by blocking documents and witnesses at the impeachment trial.

0131AlexanderBitch

The questioning phase is over. On Friday, the trial will resume at 1 p.m. Eastern, when senators will begin a debate over including additional witnesses and documents in the trial.
Republicans have felt increasingly confident that they will have the support to block a vote to subpoena new witnesses, like the former national security adviser John R. Bolton, who Democrats argue could provide crucial new information. This was made more likely Thursday night when Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, who was seen as a swing vote, announced that he would not support calling additional witnesses…

Inserted from <NY Times>

Sen. Lamar Alexander Makes ‘Preposterous’ Statement About Impeachment

If that isn’t impeachable conduct, then what the hell is?

Sen. Jeff Merkley: This is a tragedy in every possible way

Jeff is my Senator. I worked on his campaign to help him oust Gordon “Goosestep” Smith [R-OR]. I could not agree with him more than this!

Finally, this is what Republicans are doing!

RESIST!!

Open Thread–1/30/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:38 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 302020

It’s a busy day here in the CatBox. First, I awakened just after midnight, itchy and sticky. I finally fell asleep again after 3:30 AM and overslept by a full two hours. Then, I overloaded my computer doing research this morning, crashed it. I had several web pages and several applications open at once, and had not rebooted in a couple days. I lost forty five minutes work. Finally, it’s a grocery delivery day, and I do not know when Store to Door is coming. Some days… You have a good one!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:32 (average 8:18). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoons:

Short Takes:

From Willamette Week: Portland-area voters could open their ballots in three months to find a surprise: a request for $250 million to $300 million a year in taxpayer funding for services to get homeless people off the streets.

WW reported Jan. 27 that the regional government Metro may place such a measure on the May 19 ballot. That marks a stark change since last month, when the Metro Council insisted to advocates it would take as long as two years to grind a measure through the bureaucracy.

Instead, local officials now want to construct a measure and present it to voters in 13 weeks.

This is still overdue, even though Oregon leads the way! RESIST!!

From USA Today: Attorney Alan Dershowitz, a member of President Donald Trump’s defense team, alarmed Democrats and many legal scholars with his argument in the first day of questions and answers in the Senate impeachment trial that presidents cannot be removed from office for an action they believe could help get them re-elected.

In response to a question from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, about whether it mattered if Trump engaged in a “quid pro quo,” Dershowitz said that motive was what mattered and that if an act was in the public interest it was not impeachable. And he said it was reasonable for a public official to equate what is in their own political interest with the public good.

“Every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest,” he said. “And if a president does something, which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”

Dershowitz said a quid pro quo that involved an illegal act, or was done for personal financial gain, would be impeachable, however. [emphasis added]

Dershowitz is so full of shit his eyes are brown. Hitler honestly believed that murdering six million Jews was in the national interest. According to the Republican Reich, that’s fine. Who would Fuhrer Trump want to murder…Jews? …Blacks? …Latinos? …Muslims? …Gays? …Seniors? …Poor People? …Libruls? In any case, Dershowitz missed a key point. Since the re-theft (Trump* was NEVER elected) of the White House would result in more personal profit for Trump* from having his entourage stay at Trump* resorts at considerable taxpayer expense, his campaign is for personal gain, so his campaign related acts are impeachable, even by the twisted, devious standards of the Republican Reich! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from Lona’s past): Shocking Blue – Venus

Ah… Lona’s memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Don’t Get Your Hopes Too High

Posted by TomCat at 9:45 am Politics

Jan 292020

I remember that Democrats were about to add a public option to the ACA, commonly known as ObamaCare. Sen. Chuck “Snake in the” Grassley [R-IA], told Majority Leader Harry Reid [D-NV] that Republicans needed just a little more time to agree on their ideas to make the ACA a truly bipartisan bill. Reid agreed to hold up until after spring break. During spring break Republicans used Koch Brothers’ money to specially train, pay and send busloads od Tea Party extremists from community to community to attend Democratic town halls nationwide. These Tea Baggers, aka Koch Suckers, lectured on non-existent Democratic death panels, disrupted meetings with threats of violence and blindsided the Democratic attempt to educate the public about the ACA. They combined this with a national saturation ad campaign to spread lies about the ACA. In the end, we got the ACA, but just barely. And we did not get the public option, because we responded kindly to Republican calls for bipartisanship. Now Republicans want to talk about a “bipartisan” deal on witnesses, because Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch says he doesn’t have the votes to stop witnesses. Instead of “Snake in the” Grassley, Leningrad Lindsey Poo is his new side-kick.

President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is shifting to questions from senators, a pivotal juncture as Republicans lack the votes to block witnesses and face a potential setback in their hope of ending the trial with a quick acquittal.

After Trump’s defense team rested Tuesday with a plea to “end now,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell privately told senators he doesn’t yet have the votes to brush back Democratic demands for witnesses now that revelations from John Bolton, the former national security adviser, have roiled the trial.

Bolton writes in a forthcoming book that Trump told him he wanted to withhold military aid from Ukraine until it helped with investigations into Democratic rival Joe Biden. That assertion, if true, would undercut a key defense argument and go to the heart of one of the two articles of impeachment against the president.

“I think Bolton probably has something to offer us,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska…

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Here are a pair of video clips for you.

McConnell says votes to block witnesses aren’t there

Has there ever been a time that Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch could not rule his caucus with an iron jack boot? I can’t remember one. This smells like a lie.

Lawrence: Why Mitch McConnell Revealed He Doesn’t Have The Votes

I’m sure Lawrence is right about the motives of Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch. I also think Republicans are playing possum and planning a sneak-attack.

Republicans see that 75% of Americans and even half of Republicans want witnesses and documents. So they’re pretending to be ‘oh so very fair’ in considering that question. But they also know that virtually all their rabid base, the ones that vote in primaries, oppose witnesses and documents. So, when the time to vote on witnesses and documents comes, they will vote against and move quickly to acquit, before we realize what happened.

Remember, when Republicans say bipartisan, they mean this:

RESIST!!

Open Thread–1/29/2020

Posted by TomCat at 9:44 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 292020

If not one more drop of rain falls for the rest of the month, it will still be the wettest January in Oregon history. So it’s no surprise that the CatBox has been muggy as hell. I’m feeling so moist and sticky that my wheelchair sores are back. Fortunately, it’s a WWWendy night, as I’m a VERY stinky TomCat. I’m still keeping my food down, and my Republicosis seems to be at bay. Happy Hump Day!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:12 (average 4:41). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

And Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch is up to much more than that!

Short Takes:

From Politico: …one leading Democratic presidential candidate, Elizabeth Warren, just days ago unveiled a plan that, among other things, describes how she would move quickly to staff the government if she wins the White House.

In the plan, Warren voices the fears of many Democrats. “This will be no ordinary transition between administrations,” she states. “Unlike previous transitions, we will not be able to assume good faith cooperation on the part of the outgoing administration.”

That Democrats are making transition-related moves more than nine months before Election Day underscores not only their distrust of Trump but also the reality that taking over the U.S. government is a mammoth task with high stakes.

Any government is especially vulnerable during a transition of power, and Democrats who deal with national security are among those most concerned about a Trump-to-Democrat handover.

Crawford Caligula tried to sabotage Obama’s transition, but Trump* will be far worse! As I have said before, we’re going to have to drag him from the White House amid the temper tantrum to end all temper tantrums, with a strong possibility of gunfire from Ammosexual, Fascist Republican militias. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): Impeachment Trial: The Big Picture

Of course the Reich on the Left, Robert Reich, is right. The Reich on the Right, the Republican Reich, is wrong. They want only to goose-step with their criminal Fuhrer, Trump*. RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Trump unveils Middle East plan that was swiftly rejected by Palestinians

Orange Asshole speak with forked tongue. It’s so one sided that that even Haaretz called it an invitation for permanent war. In 18th century Africa, slavers used to say it was good for their victims. This is good for Palestinians in the same way… That’s the Republican way! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Don McLean – American Pie (Good quality)

Ah… Lona’s memories! Thanks Lona!! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Bolton Busts His Fuhrer

Posted by TomCat at 8:55 am Politics

Jan 272020

Today we proceed into the second day of Republican Fuhrer Trump’s* defense team attempts to cobble together enough lies to give Republican Senators an excuse to acquit their Fuhrer. It is not going well for them, because every time they stake out a position, more information comes out that blows their case out of the water. In response to the revelations about John Bolton’s book, I predict they will just lie and say the evidence does not exist.

We finally got a taste Sunday night of what former national security adviser John
Bolton might tell President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial — if he’s called to
testify, that is.

What we learned reinforced the potential peril for Republicans if they refuse to lethim do so.

The New York Times reported Sunday that Bolton makes a series of very big
Ukraine-related claims in an unpublished manuscript of his upcoming book, which is now slated to be released in March.

Chief among them:

Bolton writes that he heard Trump say explicitly
that the withholding of military aid would continue until Ukraine announced
an investigation involving the Bidens — implicating Trump directly in a
quid pro quo for the first time and contradicting the Trump team’s
defense.

He writes that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said
privately that there was nothing to the Trump team’s claims that
then-ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was corrupt — suggesting this
was indeed a smear campaign and that Pompeo recognized it as such, even as
he didn’t defend Yovanovitch publicly.

He writes that he raised concerns about Rudolph W.
Giuliani’s efforts in Ukraine with Attorney General William P. Barr after
Trump’s July call with Ukraine’s president — despite the Justice Department
saying Barr learned about the call in mid-August.

He writes that acting White House chief of staff
Mick Mulvaney was present for one of Trump’s calls with Giuliani about
Yovanovtich, even though Mulvaney has told associates that he stayed out of
those conversations to protect Trump’s and Giuliani’s attorney-client
privilege.

In other words: Bolton is naming names — lots of names — and directly contradicting what top administration officials are saying.

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Adam Schiff had more to day about this.

Adam Schiff: John Bolton’s book blasts a hole in Trump defense

Sadly I fear this will do us no good. I ‘d be willing to bet that Republican Senators are far too vile and craven to allow American voters to see this testimony.

RESIST!!

Open Thread–1/26/2020

Posted by TomCat at 8:17 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 262020

It’s a busy day here in the CatBox, as WWWendy will be here in about an hour. I’m feeling a bit better as, after throwing up most of the day yesterday, I kept supper down. Then I kept breakfast down this morning. Have a great Sunday!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:07 (average 5:28). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From NY Times and YouTube: Even before the gas chambers were destroyed and the savage toll of years of industrialized mass murder revealed to the world, prisoners at the largest Nazi concentration camp were already repeating two words: Never again.

But as the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz approaches, an occasion being marked by events around the world and culminating in a solemn ceremony at the former death camp on Monday that will include dozens of aging Holocaust survivors, Piotr Cywinski, the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, is worried…

…Across Europe and in the United States, there is concern about a resurgence of anti-Semitism. Toxic political rhetoric and attacks directed at groups of peoples — using language to dehumanize them — that were once considered taboo have become common across the world’s democracies.

To find examples of the rabid antisemitism that led to Auschwitz, one need look no further than the US Republican Reich. Impeached Fuhrer Trump called the Republicans in this video “fine people”. RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): New audio and video undermine President Trump’s claim about Lev Parnas

So the liar who had “never met Parnas” and didn’t even “know who Parnas is” knew him well enough to discuss the strategy of firing a US Ambassador and blackmailing Ukraine in the face of military aggression from Trump* buddy Putin [R-RU]. The Republican lackeys in the Senate wouldn’t mind hearing witnesses themselves. They already know how guilty Trump* is and don’t care. Those Republican cowards are afraid to have American voters hear the witnesses. RESIST!!

From YouTube (SNL Channel): Alan Dershowitz Argues for Trump Cold Open

The faces are slightly different, but the satirical reality they display is spot-on! However, Dershowitz should have taken his client downstairs and left him with his perv buddy Jeff! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Buffalo Springfield – For What It’s Worth 1967

I’ll never tire of this one. Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Open Thread–1/25/2020

Posted by TomCat at 8:32 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 252020

I’ve been throwing up most of the morning, but am pushing through, because I don’t want to get behind. Tomorrow is a WWWendy day, so please expect no more than a Personal Update or an Open Thread. Have a great weekend.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:24 (average 5:34). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Desperately trying to change the narrative after a week of damaging presentations, Donald J. Trump’s defense team is scrambling to find an example of one law that Trump did not break, sources confirmed on Friday.

In concert with two of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent defenders, Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr, Trump’s personal attorney Jay Sekulow has been scouring federal, state, and municipal law books in the hopes of finding one statute that Trump, for whatever reason, did not violate.

“So far, no luck,” a source close to the defense team said.

Dang, Andy! They’re going to be searching forever! RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Attorney: Trump caught on tape demanding ambassador’s firing

I’d recognize that pig squeal anywhere! Is there anything that the criminal Trump* has not lied about? RESIST!!

From YouTube (Adam Schiff Channel): Rep. Schiff Concludes Senate Trial Argument: Give America a Fair Trial. She’s Worth It.

Schiff was masterful. Now get ready for wall to wall lies and obfuscation from the Republican Reich! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Simon & Garfunkel – Mrs. Robinson (Audio)

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Seniors, Disabled and Poor: Beware!

Posted by TomCat at 8:48 am Politics

Jan 242020

Since Vladimir Putin [R-RU] and the Republican Reich helped Donald Trump* steal the White House, he hasn’t changed much. He has a penchant for saying whatever he thinks his audience want to here. On the campaign trail in 2016, his handlers knew that he could not endorse Paul Lyin’ Ryan’s standard Republican plan to gut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. If he had, he could never have gotten close enough to steal the election. However, at Davos, talking to fat cats, he forgot that he’s campaigning again, and said what he really thinks.

When President Trump suggested to an interviewer at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland that he would, “at some point,” look at cutting entitlement programs, his Democratic critics seized on the comments as evidence that Mr. Trump would gut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in a second term.

“Even as the impeachment trial is underway, Trump is still talking about cutting your Social Security,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said at the beginning of a news conference that was ostensibly about the Senate impeachment trial.

The Democratic super PAC Priorities USA posted on Twitter about Mr. Trump’s remarks, and others contrasted his statement with his 2016 campaign pledge not to touch entitlement programs… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

Is President Donald Trump Open To Making Medicare Cuts?

This was an obvious gaffe. While running off at the mouth, Fuhrer Trump* confirmed his support for Republican dogma. He and the rest of the Republican Reich want to give seniors the RepubliCare Death Benefit. If seniors can’t pay for care, or for rent or for food, Republicans will allow to die for free! However, they will charge for corpse disposal.

RESIST!!

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