Open Thread – 12/4/2019

Posted by TomCat at 9:07 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 042019

It’s a tired day here in the CatBox. Yesterday was so hectic and frustrating, that it just tired me out. I finally got my biopsy reset for Tuesday the 17th. I’m listening to the Judiciary Committee. The Republican Reich is fighting like hell to obstruct the hearing. WWWendy is coming tonight, and I’m most ready to be de-stunk. Happy Hump Day!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:45 (average 5:17). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: This year’s summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization began on a discordant note, on Tuesday, after the other twenty-eight nato leaders challenged Donald Trump to spell nato.

At a preliminary gathering of the leaders, Trump demanded that the other member nations increase their cash contributions to the alliance, prompting Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, to issue the unexpected and unwelcome spelling challenge.

“We’ll be happy to give more to nato, Mr. President, if you can spell nato,” she said, drawing raucous applause from the other leaders.

Handing Trump a pencil and a yellow legal pad, Merkel watched as he struggled to spell the word correctly, crumpling page after page in the effort.

After several failed attempts, Trump finally offered up a drawing of several stick figures standing in a row and asked for “partial credit.”

When the other nato leaders rejected his request by a 28–0 voice vote, Trump stormed out of the room, vowing never to return.

Dang Andy! That wasn’t fair! He never had a chance! RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Video appears to show world leaders gossiping about Trump

How do Republicans stand it? I feel embarrassed as hell to see the head of this nation, albeit unelected, ridiculed in a forum of world leaders. Of course he deserves it. They have no shame! RESIST!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): How America Created Its Shameful Wealth Gap with Robert Reich

Solana Rice is right. The Republican Reich mandates poverty for minority Americans. It’s one more way the Republican Reich institutionalizes racism. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Free Bird Lynyrd Skynyrd: Lyrics

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

The Founders and the Demagogue

Posted by TomCat at 8:51 am Politics

Dec 032019

Bob Bauer, a trusted Obama advisor, has written a fascinating editorial on how the founding fathers predicted Donald Trump, Fuhrer of the Republican Reich, but failed to provide the necessary tools to get rid of him. Here is enough of that editorial for you to get the gist of it.

Donald Trump’s Republican congressional allies are throwing up different defenses against impeachment and hoping that something may sell. They say that he didn’t seek a corrupt political bargain with Ukraine, but that if he did, he failed, and the mere attempt is not impeachable. Or that it is not clear that he did it, because the evidence against him is unreliable “hearsay.”

It’s all been very confusing. But the larger story — the crucial constitutional story — is not the incoherence of the president’s defense. It is more that he and his party are exposing limits of impeachment as a response to the presidency of a demagogue.

The founders feared the demagogue, who figures prominently in the Federalist Papers as the politician who, possessing “perverted ambition,” pursues relentless self-aggrandizement “by the confusions of their country.” The last of the papers, Federalist No. 85, linked demagogy to its threat to the constitutional order — to the “despotism” that may be expected from the “victorious demagogue.” This “despotism” is achieved through systematic lying to the public, vilification of the opposition and, as James Fenimore Cooper wrote in an essay on demagogues, a claimed right to disregard “the Constitution and the laws” in pursuing what the demagogue judges to be the “interests of the people.”

Should the demagogue succeed in winning the presidency, impeachment in theory provides the fail-safe protection. And yet the demagogue’s political tool kit, it turns out, may be his most effective defense. It is a constitutional paradox: The very behaviors that necessitate impeachment supply the means for the demagogue to escape it.

As the self-proclaimed embodiment of the American popular will, the demagogue portrays impeachment deliberations as necessarily a threat to democracy, a facade for powerful interests arrayed against the people that only he represents. Critics and congressional opponents are traitors. Norms and standing institutional interests are fraudulent… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

I strongly urge you to click through and read this editorial in it’s entirety. It is too valuable to miss.

If the Trump Residency survives the 2020 election, I strongly question the survival of freedom in the US.

RESIST!!

Open Thread – 12/3/2019

Posted by TomCat at 8:51 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 032019

In case you’re wondering why I’m not out getting skewered, you won’t believe this story. Last Friday I went to the Providence website to confirm my biopsy. While I was there I noticed an unknown surgery at the hospital scheduled for Wednesday. So I called the hospital. The scheduler figured out that my anesthesiologist was scheduled for Wednesday. I suggested scheduling the anesthesiologist on Tuesday with the biopsy, since I wouldn’t be there Wednesday. She told me that she has corrected the schedule, and that they would see me Tuesday. However, she had moved the biopsy to Wednesday by mistake. On Monday the hospital called for some last minute clarification for my Wednesday biopsy. I told them it was Tuesday. They realized the scheduler’s mistake, but could not change it back. I told them I have no ride home Wednesday, so I have to reschedule the whole thing. I called to cancel my TriMet Lift bus and learned that they had scheduled me to go to the wrong place. Is Republican Incompetence spreading or what?!!? ARGH! hugs to all.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:40 (6:02 average). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Fantasy Football Report:

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

Scores:

13Scores

Congrats to WWWendy, Patty Monster, and Squatch for winning their games. Had I only started Jackson and benched Mahomas, I would have won. Kudos to WWWendy for the week’s high score.

Standings:

13Standings

Kudos to WWWendy for leading the league.

This coming weekend is the last in our regular season. After that, we have three weeks of playoffs. Stay tuned. I’ll post the brackets with next week’s report.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Schiff: Intel Cmte. To Release Impeachment Report To Public

The reason the Fuhrer’s lawyers have no defense is simple. They have no defense. The miserable thing, however, is that with Bought Bitch Moscow Mitch and the Republican Reich controlling the Senate, the Fuhrer needs no defense. RESIST!!

From Washington Post: Attorney General William P. Barr has told associates he disagrees with the Justice Department’s inspector general on one of the key findings in an upcoming report — that the FBI had enough information in July 2016 to justify launching an investigation into members of the Trump campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, is due to release his long-awaited findings in a week, but behind the scenes at the Justice Department, disagreement has surfaced about one of Horowitz’s central conclusions on the origins of the Russia investigation. The discord could be the prelude to a major fissure within federal law enforcement on the controversial question of investigating a presidential campaign.

Barr has not been swayed by Horowitz’s rationale for concluding that the FBI had sufficient basis to open an investigation on July 31, 2016, these people said.

This is exactly what we expect from Barrf! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): somebody to love-jefferson airplane

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Open Thread – 11/27/2019

Posted by TomCat at 9:47 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 272019

I’m very tired here in the CatBox. I woke up shortly after midnight, and I tossed an turned the rest of the night. I think I’m going to have to use some tunes again, while thinking of new ones. The good thing about good music is listening to it more than once. It’s a WWWendy night. Pardon my brevity hugs!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:38 (average 4:52). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Full Frontal Channel): After #MeToo Pt 1: Sam Bee and Tarana Burke Talk Past, Present, & Future of #MeToo

While in exceptionally rare cases, people in the #MeToo movement go too far, I fully agree with and support the organization. RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Why It Matters Trump Knew About Whistleblower Before Releasing Ukraine Aid

What we have here is a bank robber, who kills a guard, blows up the vault, and removes money. Then, he sees the police at the door, so he shoves the money back in the vault and says he committed no offense. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past rerun):

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Open Thread – 11/26/2019

Posted by TomCat at 10:23 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 262019

It’s a very busy day here in the CatBox. Safeway.com should be here with my groceries within 90 minutes. Speaking of the devil, they came a half hour ago,and I just got everything stowed. That’s the first time in five years they weren’t late. On the down side, they were out of lamb, WWWendy is coming to the rescue, so we have a main course for Thanksgiving dinner. My HTML editor stores the blog format and tags, but the tags had become unmanageable. There were over 2,000 tags, and every time I try to clean them up, I make less progress than the time before. Therefor, I decided it was time to start over, so I deleted them all in a bulk operation. Editors and Managers, please only add new tags that we are likely to use frequently. I’m running way late, so I’m in a rush. This is my only article today. Hectic Hugs to all.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:10 (average 5:30). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Fantasy Football Report:

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

Scores:

12Scores

Congrats to Vivian, Patty Monster and me for winning our games. Kudos to Vivian for the high score for the week.

Standings:

12Standings

Congrats to Vivian for leading the league.

Players be sure to get your lineup set. There are three games on Thursday.

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: In a startling break with Thanksgiving tradition, Donald J. Trump refused to pardon the White House turkey after claiming that it was working as a secret operative of the billionaire George Soros.

A group of fourth graders from Bethesda, Maryland, who had gathered on the White House lawn for the annual turkey-pardoning ceremony appeared unprepared for the anti-Soros outburst that Trump unleashed on the Thanksgiving bird.

“That turkey was sent by Soros to spy on me,” Trump said, angrily turning on the fowl. “A lot of people are saying this.”

While the oblivious turkey pecked desultorily at the ground, an increasingly enraged Trump spewed a stream of conspiracy theories linking the feathered animal to global élites, election fraud in Florida, and Jim Acosta.

Andy, couldn’t Bought Bitch Moscow Mitch be the turkey? Then we could all refuse to pardon him! RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Ousted Navy Secretary Sounds Off After Trump Jumps Into SEAL Controversy

Good order and discipline is the last thing Trump and the Republican Reich want. They want blind murderous hatred that they can order used against political rivals. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Who – I Can See For Miles

I first heard this in Tompkins Square Park with cactus. I could see that far. Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

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