Open Thread–4/24/2020

 Posted by at 10:19 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 242020
 

It’s a crappy day, here in the CatBox… literally.  I woke up at 1:00 AM with severe Republicosis and almost didn’t make it.  I did nor get back to bed until 2:45.  I was back on the throne at 5:45.  I suspect the next trip will be soon.  Wish me luck, or better yet, does anyone have a spare cork?  TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:38 (average 4:04).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

0424Cartoon

Trump* Virus Update:

0424TrumpVirusMap

Short Takes:

From Willamette Week: Forty-two percent of Oregon’s small business payrolls were covered by the federal Paycheck Protection Program last week.

The $350 billion program was designed by Congress to give companies with up to 500 employees the equivalent of two-and-half months of payroll in forgivable loans.

Oregon’s yield from the program—42 percent of eligible payrolls covered—was the third-lowest figure in the country, according to calculations by Ernie Tedeschi, an analyst at the New York investment banking firm Evercore ISI. Those findings were first published by Bloomberg News.

Tedeschi’s numbers show an imbalance: The top three states—Nebraska, North Dakota and Kansas—got an average of 79.4 percent of their small business payrolls covered. All are red states. The bottom three, Oregon, New York and California, which got an average of 40 percent, vote blue.

The picture in the article of a Portland business says it best.

0424WW

RESIST!!

From YouTube (Late Show Channel): Meet The Former Dog Breeder In Charge Of Coronavirus Response At HHS

Wouldn’t we all be better off, if criminal Fuhrer Trump* had appointed the dawg instead of the Republican asshole?  RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): George Harrison-My Sweet Lord (Studio Version) Original


Ah… the memories!  RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

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Samantha Bee from 4/22

 Posted by at 10:52 am  Politics
Apr 232020
 

It’s that time of week again, and here are three excellent video clips from Sam’s show last night.  Enjoy!!

Why We Need To Shut Down The Idea Of Reopening America

Amen Sam! On Hannity’s show, a Faux Noise medical “expert” suggested reopening schools first, because kids have a lower death rate from Trump* virus. They consider killing 2 – 3% of America’s children is a reasonable trade-off for starting the reopening process.

Our Hospital Workers Need PPE…STAT!

Criminal Fuhrer Trump* stole 3,000 masks and gowns from our health care workers for himself and his White House staff. He should wear a maxi-pad mask… right behind his epiglottis!

Live From Sam’s Shed… It’s Mt. Joy!

Way cool!

I hope our administrators keep bringing Sam to you, after I’m gone.

RESIST!!

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Open Thread–4/23/2020

 Posted by at 10:51 am  Blog News, Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 232020
 

It’s a pleasure to be back in the CatBox, after an absence of over two weeks.  Our HSP shut us down for a TOS compliance violation for using a © image several years ago.  One of our Administrators had purchased a membership from a photo sharing site that misrepresented that its members could use the images there for all noncommercial purposes.  They did not tell members that the original photographers retained ownership of the images.  This particular photographer has a long history of scamming site owners with bogus lawsuits.  For our protection from such scams, I keep our domain anonymously held.  He couldn’t find out who we are to sue us.  All he could do is complain to our HSP, Bluehost.  They apparently emailed me in late March, warning me to correct the problem by removing the image.  I never noticed it.  They send me SPAM every day, trying to sell me business services that we will never want or need.  I suspect I trashed the warning with those.  They shut us down on 4/6, when I did not comply with their warning.  Normally, their CS is excellent, but an inadequate response to Trump* Virus has put their CS in the toilet.  I deleted the image from the Bluehost site.  Then, over the next two weeks, I spent over 48 hours in chat and wrote a dozen emails, while fighting with incompetent underlings.  Finally one got the info to a competent tech.  He reviewed it yesterday and restored our access to the site.  It has been a Republican cluster f*ck!  I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you.  Catching up will take a few days!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:25 (average 4:28).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0423TrumpVirusMap

Damn!  Talk about sticker shock!  The last time I did a TVU Trump’s* Republican murder total was only 8,454 dead.

My New Sweater:

0423JD1

JD made me this beautiful sweater!  Thank, you, JD!  This may also be my last pic with hair, as I have chemo again Monday.

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Well we knew it was just a matter of time, per The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Officials have identified seven people who appear to have contracted COVID-19 through activities related to the April 7 election, Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik said Monday.

Six of the cases are in voters and one is a poll worker, Kowalik said.

By the end of this week, officials hope to have additional information on the cases that were reported between April 7 and Monday, she said.

The Wisconsin GOP, the five SCOTUS Conservatives, Trump and all his enablers are responsible for this…

And all those Republican murderers, who voted, voted by mail.  RESIST!!

From Salon.com: A Yale psychiatrist has warned that pro-Trump lockdown protesters, who exhibit similar psychology as “child soldiers,” could quickly turn into “armed troops in the streets” if the president loses his re-election bid.

Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist at the Yale School of Medicine who has mostly taught at Yale Law School, said the armed protests were a natural evolution of the loyalty President Trump demands from his supporters. Many of these protests have evidently been organized by deep-pocketed groups allied with the president.Lee, the author of the textbook “Violence,” has been sounding the alarm about the danger posed by the president for years. She edited “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” after his election, with a group of fellow mental health professionals. The book’s authors recently started a chat series entitled “Is America in an Abusive Relationship With Its President?”

Lee has also served as a project group leader for the World Health Organization Violence Prevention Alliance. She told Salon that Trump’s recent call to “liberate” Democratic-led states was a dog whistle to his core supporters.

I fully agree. Bill Maher and I have both suggested that criminal Fuhrer Trump* and the Republican Reich will resort to violence to stay in power after they lose the election, unless they are able to steal it again!  RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Bob Dylan – Lay, Lady, Lay (Audio)

Ah… the memories!  RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

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Open Thread–4/5/2020

 Posted by at 9:55 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 052020
 

It’s a busy day, here in the CatBox.  WWWendy is here and gooping, while I finish.  This is my only article today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:41 (average 4:54).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0405TrumpVirusMap

Cases: 311,656
Deaths: 8,454
Recovered: 14,828

0405TrumpVirusData

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: The National Incompetence Stockpiles, the federal reserves of inanity and ineptitude to be drawn upon in times of crisis, are at “full capacity,” the Government Accountability Office announced on Saturday.

According to the G.A.O., the Incompetence Stockpiles are so well stocked at the moment that they are in danger of overflowing.

“The sheer tonnage of failure and impotence that is being dumped into the stockpiles on a daily basis is straining their ability to contain it,” the G.A.O. statement read.

Davis Logsdon, a professor at the University of Minnesota who has written the definitive book about the National Incompetence Stockpiles, said that the nation’s futility reserves stand at their highest levels ever, eclipsing the record stockpiles established during the tenure of President George W. Bush.

“The Bush Administration tapped the National Incompetence Stockpiles when it invaded Iraq and responded to Hurricane Katrina,” Logsdon said. “At the time, it seemed as though the stockpiles would never be fully replenished, and that makes the Trump Administration’s achievement all the more striking.”

What can I say, Andy? You could not have nailed this better!  RESIST!!

From YouTube (Raw Story Channel): Devin Nunes: Homeless people are the ‘zombie apocalypse’

Barf Bag Alert!!

Nincompoop Nunes had it bass-ackwards. If America has a zombie apocalypse, it’s the Republican Reich. This is the garbage that the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, feeds their deplorable sheeple.  RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Rolling Stones – Angie (HQ)


Ah… the memories!  RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

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52 Years Ago

 Posted by at 11:13 am  Editorial, Politics
Apr 042020
 

Fifty two years ago today I had “cleaned up for Gene”, sort of, and was working on his campaign, while fighting to keep SDS nonviolent.  Back then, the world was not connected the way it it now.  I did not watch TV every day, so I did not learn until sometime the next day that my hero and friend had been murdered.  Barack Obama joined John Lewis in a tribute to his legacy.

0404KingAs

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, and Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of his death. In order to commemorate the occasion, Barack Obama discussed MLK’s legacy with John Lewis and a group of high school students in a new video released by the Obama Foundation.

At the beginning of the video, Lewis recalls where he was when he got the news that King had been shot — in Indianapolis, organizing a rally. Obama tells students from Washington, D.C.’s Ron Brown College Preparatory High School that Lewis was one of the people who made him want to become involved in public life.

“I thought that this would be a good opportunity to connect the people who inspired me with the next generation of young leaders who are going to be doing outstanding things themselves,” Obama tells the students, whose all-male high school grew out of the Obama administration‘s My Brother’s Keeper initiative…

Inserted from <Bustle>

Here’s that video.

Civil Rights leaders remembered him in a CNN interview.

The previous summer I was walking down the hallway after a planning session for one of Dr. King’s Vietnam Summer demonstrations.  Dr. King appeared between two of us and told us how glad he was that young people were dedicated to continue the work after he was gone.  I felt surprised and asked, “Gone?”  He said that he was stirring-up a hornets nest didn’t know how long he would be allowed to live.  In the naivety of youth, I assumed he was kidding.

He was right, of course.  If he had stuck with civil rights, he might have died of old age.  But when he also organized so effectively against the war, and for the poor, he was threatening billionaires’ profit.

It boggles my mind that this was over fifty years ago.  That confronts me with my own mortality.

I’ll hope you’ll invest 43 minute to listen to his last speech, in which he predicted his own death.


RESIST!!

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The Fuhrer’s Vengeance

 Posted by at 11:11 am  Politics
Apr 042020
 

Government employees need to beware, and the more they care about doing their jobs, the more they need to watch out.  That’s because anyone that says or does anything that criminal Fuhrer Trump* doesn’t like is a sure target for the Fuhrer’s vengeance.  Here are two examples.

0404TR

Sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier cheered for Capt. Brett Crozier as he disembarked the ship for the last time, an overwhelming show of support for their leader who was relieved of his command after issuing a stark warning about a coronavirus outbreak onboard.

New video obtained by CNN shows a large crowd gathered to give Crozier a warm and loud send off, clapping and chanting his name as he left the ship. It was a clear expression of appreciation for their former commander who was removed for what the acting Navy Secretary called “poor judgment.”

“Today at my direction the commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Captain Brett Crozier, was relieved of command by carrier strike group commander Rear Admiral Stewart Baker,” acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly announced on Thursday.

The decision came days after Crozier wrote a memo warning Navy leadership that decisive action was needed to save the lives of the ship’s crew. “We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our Sailors,” it read, three US defense officials confirmed to CNN…

Inserted from <CNN>

Sailors cheer Navy captain relieved of duty over coronavirus warning

Kudos to Brett Crozier for his extraordinary good judgement in saving his crew. He embarrassed criminal Fuhrer Trump*. Vengeances is Republican SOP.

0404trump-atkinson-fired

Donald Trump has fired the inspector general for the intelligence community who handled the whistleblower complaint that led to his impeachment, prompting fierce criticism from Democrats.

The US president chose a Friday night, with America consumed by the coronavirus pandemic, to tell the House of Representatives and Senate intelligence committees of his decision to dismiss Michael Atkinson.

In a letter, Trump claimed it was “vital” that he had confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general, and “that is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general”.

The president would nominate an individual who has his full confidence at a later date, he added.

There was swift condemnation from Democrats. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, said: “President Trump fires people for telling the truth…  [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Guardian>

Trump Fires IG Who Flagged Ukraine Whistleblower Complaint

Kudos to Michael Atkinson for doing his job. Vengeance is mine, sayeth criminal Fuhrer Trump*.

RESIST!!

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Open Thread–4/4/2020

 Posted by at 11:11 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Apr 042020
 

It’s very busy day here at the CatBox, but I am feeling better than yesterday.  Tomorrow and Monday please expect no more than Personal Updates or Open Threads.  Tomorrow is a WWWendy day, with all the normal chores plus it’s Infernal Revenue Day.  Monday, I go to the hospital to have an infusion port surgically installed in my chest.  WWWendy will bring me home.  Tuesday will depend on how I feel after that surgery.  Love to you all!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:34 (average 6:40).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0404TrumpVirusMap

Cases: 277,613
Deaths: 7,406
Recovered: 12,294

0404TrumpVirusData

Short Takes:

From Twitter:

Does that say it all, or what?  RESIST!!

From YouTube (Real Time Channel): Sen. Bernie Sanders

Click through using the channel link for the rest of Bill’s show. I don’t have time to submit an article on it this week, but it’s there for you. As for Bernie, he could not be more spot on in his outlook for dealing with the effects of Trump* virus. Looking to the future, Trump and the Republican Reich have trashed the economy so completely that tying health care to employment is no longer feasible.  On Bill’s ‘Manhattan Project’, we need health care that bases profit on wellness. We have healthcare that bases profit on sickness.  That’s bass-ackward!  RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Maddow to Trump: You Had One Job. Virus Response Needs Competent Leadership

This is one of Rachel’s best ever!  Kate Brown, Governor of Oregon, just lent respirators to New York. Oregon leads the way! Kate is as competent and caring as criminal Fuhrer Trump* and all his Republican lackeys are incompetent and uncaring. Incompetence is a hallmark of the Republican Reich, such as Katrina and the Republican Recession of 2008. What do we say of the Trump* virus pandemic and the Republican Depression of 2020? It’s Trump’s* job, so we say “Heck of a job, Donnie*!”  RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Nancy Sinatra – Friday’s Child


Ah… the memories!  RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

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Even some Republicans are Trashing their Fuhrer!

 Posted by at 11:30 am  Politics
Apr 032020
 

Democrats and Independents trash criminal Fuhrer Trump* on a regular basis.  It’s a completely natural thing to do.  Trashing Trump is as obvious as peeing in a toilet.  Republicans, on the other hand tend to fall between brainwashed and braindead, so they tend to love their criminal Fuhrer Trump* to the point of their own destruction.  So I was very surprised to discover that even some Republicans are trashing their Fuhrer.

0403TrumpTrash

Republicans for the Rule of Law, a group of anti-Trump conservatives who backed the president’s impeachment, has released a brutal new ad that features longtime Republican voters hammering Trump’s leadership on the coronavirus pandemic.

The ad features Republican voters from all across the United States taking turns reading from a script describing their disillusionment with the president’s actions during the pandemic…  [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Raw Story>

Graphic credit: Decaffeinated Politics

Crisis of Leadership: Republican Voters Denounce Trump’s Coronavirus Failure

To be sure, since these folks are conservative Republicans I will agree with them on very little indeed, but I can agree with them on impeachment and on his lethal Trump* virus response.  I can also respect them for having more integrity than over 99.44% of their fellow Republicans.  Finally, I can thank them for their courage.

RESIST!!

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