Open Thread–2/4/2019

 Posted by at 10:20 am  Open Thread, Plus, Politics
Feb 042020
 

Yesterday’s trip to the hospital was gruesome.  TriMet Lift got me there an hour early, so I had to wait there for an hour.  The tests, as I had told the doctors all along, was fine.  Unlike my fart, my heart is completely healthy.  They got done with me two hours early, so I called TriMet to see if I could get an earlier ride.  No.  In fact, they screwed up and did not pick me up for my 3:34 – 4:04 PM window until 6:10.  That Lift Bus was crowded, so I did not get home until 7:25 PM, 25 minutes after my winter bedtime.  Needless to say, I’m so pooped, I’m bleary eyed.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:49 (average 5:54).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

I’m on O2 too.  I’m not a Republican, so I’m not a moron.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): In What Amounts To GOP ‘Bluff-Calling,’ Joe Manchin Proposes Senate Censure Trump

I must be hallucinating from being over tired. I actually agree with DINO Joe! After the conviction vote fails, a foregone conclusion, I would support a censure vote, as a way to further embarrass Republicans, most of whom would goose-step with criminal Fuhrer Trump*.  RESIST!!

From YouTube (Late Show Channel): GOP Senators Give Lame Excuses For Voting Against Witnesses In Trump Impeachment Trial

Lame excuses? Since when has the Fascist Republican Reich given any other kind?  RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Mamas & The Papas – Monday Monday

Ah… the memories!  RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Share

Slinging it for the Criminal

 Posted by at 9:10 am  Politics
Jan 282020
 

We’re now in the third and last day of stupidity, as displayed by the clown car of hypocrites representing impeached criminal, Donald “quid pro quo” Trump*.  Apparently the release of information from John Bolton’s Book caught them off guard.  Except for a weak attempt to deflect it near the end of their presentation, they ignored it.  In the process, they made fools of themselves.

0128Bondi

I am glad I am leaving this place on Tuesday and heading to Iowa, where some decent people are contending to head a government and a political system so corrupted and debased at this point that the ship of state most closely resembles that homeless wandering garbage barge from 1987. The last thing I saw was Republican Senators John Barrasso and Mike Braun, red-faced and hollering, because some reporters wanted to know precisely how much of the bullshit slung by the White House lawyers on Monday afternoon anyone should believe.

Make no mistake about it. From about 4 o’clock, the time former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi rose to speak, until about 6, when a longtime lawyer for El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago named Eric Herschmann wrapped up what amounted to some MAGA rally cosplay, a monstrously obvious fraud was perpetrated on the Senate, sitting as a court of impeachment. If any lawyer in any municipal court in the country had lied and misrepresented the facts of a case involving a speeding ticket as thoroughly as Bondi and Herschmann did here, that lawyer’s license would have been pulled by lunchtime. However, Chief Justice John Roberts, perhaps exhausted by the effort it took to extend the work of Breckinridge Long into the 21st century on Monday morning, sat there like one of the marble vice presidents in the niches of the visitor’s galleries above. A fraud was perpetrated on the court over which Roberts was presiding, and he had to know it.

I thought the defense case had scraped bottom when Ken Starr was brought out of cold storage to lecture the Senate on the dangers of a runaway impeachment process. But that turned out to be merely particularly odious concern-trolling. Irony died a long time ago and all Starr was doing was digging up the casket and setting it ablaze. However, it was the Bondi-Herschmann pas de deux ended up shredding the last possible rags of dignity that still clung to the truth in this farce. Bondi began by explaining how it was the House managers that forced her to get up and talk about the Bidens and Burisma. Of course, Bondi was the Florida attorney general who, in 2013, buried that state’s investigation into the fraudulent Trump University after a $25,000 check from the Trump Foundation landed in her campaign account. At the moment, she’s making $115-large as a lobbyist for the government of Qatar. So, naturally, she was the lawyer chosen to crank up the innuendo machine regarding the Bidens and Burisma, especially since the Republicans Have The Votes, so nothing else matters.

Reading her prepared argument like a seventh-grader delivering a history report, Bondi found herself inevitably stanning for the deeply corrupt former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin. In reality, Shokin was removed because the government of the United States, the World Bank, and virtually every official in the western world except Sir Paul McCartney knew he was for sale and wanted him gone. Biden, then vice president, had been tasked with delivering the warning from the United States to Ukraine. Shokin had opened an investigation into Burisma but he had then stuffed it. That was part of why everybody thought he was a crook. Bondi, however, asked us to sympathize with Viktor Shokin, the victim of Biden shenanigans, a theory that has been debunked from here to glory. I swear to god, if they’d put a menu from Denny’s in Bondi’s folder, she’d have blamed Hunter Biden for the Grand Slam breakfast.  [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Esquire>

Here are three video clops that shed more light of this absurd defense.

Jake Tapper fact-checks President Trump’s defense team during Senate impeachment trial

Of course the Trump* defense team lied. If they weren’t lying, displaying hate and racism, or acting out predatory greed, we could not tell they’re Republicans.

What Trump’s defense team left out of their impeachment defense

The Republican Reich is desperate to keep the truth away from American Voters.

Joe: A Confederacy Of Dunces Defends President Donald Trump

Joe Scarborough was hilarious, but I think these folks were stating the obvious. If these lawyers were anything but a Confederation of Dunces, they would not be defending the criminal Fuhrer Trump*!

RESIST!!

Share
Jan 242020
 

It’s a tired day here in the CatBox.  I didn’t sleep well last night, but I kept my food down all day yesterday and this morning.  I’m going to do my best to force a week free of Medical Mayhem, before I let them perform more in their endless barrage of tests.  Pardon my frustration, please.  I’m just sick of sick.  TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:52 (average 5:09).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From Crooks and Liars: George Conway and his new group called The Lincoln Project created a second negative political ad targeting the vulnerable Senator from Maine, Susan Collins.

In the ad, they highlight the supposed “independent” credentials negated by her actions. They demand that Collins do her job during the Senate impeachment trial.

Amen!  RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Adam Schiff Ends Day With Powerful Argument For Trump’s Removal 


I think Schiff was speaking more to the American people more than to the Senators, whose ears and minds are closed. The real trial is the one in November. The onus falls on voters to send criminal Resident Trump* and the entire Republican Reich the way of the Whig Party!  RESIST!!

From YouTube (a change of pace): Patsy Cline – Sweet Dreams

I’m so old that even this brings memories!  RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Share
Jan 192020
 

I’m hurrying to finish as much work as I can, before WWWendy arrives.  This afternoon, I’ll meditate on the Holy Ellipsoid Orb.  I’ll be rooting for the Chiefs in deference to one, who shall remain Nameless.  I’ll also prepare tomorrow’s articles in advance, except for the puzzle.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:55 (average 4:12).  To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

In case you forgot, RepubliCare is the Republican Reich plan to replace ObamaCare.

Short Takes:

From Alternet: …Trump’s cold sweats are significant, because everyone who has been following this case knows that the Senate will acquit him. Not because he’s innocent — no one who has actually consulted the evidence is foolish enough to believe that — but because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republicans who control the Senate decided long ago that they would cover up for their shamelessly corrupt president no matter what he does. With such an assured outcome, Trump’s fears seem overblown and silly, even for someone crippled by sociopathic narcissism and its accompanying paranoia.

But it’s also true that high-profile travesties of justice, such as the one Senate Republicans are currently preparing to commit, can often provoke major political backlash. Getting a jury to acquit the obviously guilty can, as history shows, cause a public that’s already outraged about the crime to get even more furious. That, I suspect, is what Trump is sweating.

What the Senate is about to do is akin to the practice of jury nullification. That’s where a jury decides that either they don’t think the crime should be a crime at all, or that they believe people like the defendant should above the law, and so refuse to convict no matter how guilty the defendant is. This something that in theory, and sometimes in practice, can be used for good as when a jury refuses to throw someone in prison for a low-level drug offense, or refuses to enforce a law restricting free speech. But historically in the U.S., jury nullification has tended to be used to uphold injustice and reinforce racist or sexist systems of power….

As I so strongly implied yesterday, the Republican Reich is prepared to goose-step behind criminal Fuhrer Trump* into political extinction.  RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Senator makes prediction ahead of impeachment trial

 

Coons is spot on that testimony from Jon Bolton and Lev Parnas is both relevant and probative, while testimony from Joe and Hunter Biden is neither. Coons’ argument would be valid, if this were a legal trial. It is not. Bought Bitch Moscow Mitch and the Republican Reich set the rules.  They can would our objections to Joe and Hunter as an excuse to disallow all witnesses. So if Joe and Hunter appearing is what it takes to get us the real witnesses, bring them on!  RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)

 

Ah… the memories!  RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Share
Jan 182020
 

It’s another crappy day, here in the CatBox, and I ALMOST went back to bed.  Oh well, I get the camera in my gut in less than a month now.  Tomorrow is a High Holy Day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, the Festival of Conference Finality.  May the Orb shine it’s blessed light on your team, if it has survived.  I’ll be out of the saddle on Sunday and Monday.  Sunday is a WWWendy Day and we have a very stinky TomCat and lots of chores to manage.  Please expect no more than a Personal Update or Open Thread.  On Monday I have an appt. with my cardiologist.  If you remember, a few weeks back, I was telling my PCP about my heartburn, when an acid bubble came up my esophagus.  I put up my hand to my chest, winced, and lowered my head in pain.  Megan freaked out.  She slapped on the EKG stickers, and once she realized I wasn’t having a heart attack, she insisted I make an appointment with Lisa.  That was set back a few weeks ago, because TriMet Lift was two hours plus late and could not pick me up until well after my appointment time.  So Monday I hope to publish a Personal Update, and an MLK Day article, prepared a day in advance.  I hope to be back in the saddle Tuesday.  Have a great weekend.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:24 (average 4:27).  I’m amazed I beat the average.  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From Alternet: In the past, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was among the most popular Republicans in New England — a region of the United States that has become increasingly Democratic in recent years. Collins, first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996, was reelected by 17% in 2002, 23% in 2008 and 38% in 2014. But that was before Donald Trump became president, and according to polling by Morning Consult, Collins now enjoys 42% approval and 52% disapproval — making her the most unpopular politician in the U.S. Senate.

During the first quarter of 2017, according to Morning Consult, Collins enjoyed 67% approval in Maine. But the last quarter of 2019 found her overtaking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in terms of unpopularity.

It could not have happened to a more deserving bitch (apologies to female dawgs)!  Maine… Vote Blue!!  RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): President Donald Trump Picks Jeffrey Epstein Lawyers For Impeachment

 

How much do you want to bet that Barrf and the Republican Reich had Epstein killed to cover up their own crimes? Of course Fuhrer Trump* would pick pervert-friendly lawyers. Birds of a feather…  RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past):

 

Ah… the memories!  RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Share