Happy St Paddy's Day
Well tomorrow is St Paddy's Day and the green beer and blarney will be overflowing. You certainly should be familiar with blarney after listening to Drumpfenfarten and his minions. So dust off your dancing shoes because tomorrow it is time for an Irish jig!
Jig Zone Puzzle — It took me 4:43 (average 7:27). To do it, click here. How did you do?
I enjoy doing these puzzles so much that I thought I'd throw one in from time to time. I will be choosing a puzzle that we haven't, to the best of my memory, had before.
Short Takes
The New Yorker — Notching the first major achievement of his Presidency, Donald Trump has broken the world record for unconstitutional travel bans, the White House confirmed on Wednesday.
In an official statement announcing the new world record, the White House called Trump’s second unconstitutional ban “especially impressive” because it came only thirty-eight days after his first.
PHOTOGRAPH BY OLIVIER DOULIERY / BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY
“In addition to the world record for unconstitutional travel bans, President Trump has also smashed the speed record for signing them,” the statement read.
Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, touted the new world record in a press briefing that sometimes resembled a victory lap.
“After the first unconstitutional travel ban, a lot of people questioned whether the President could follow it up with another unconstitutional one so quickly,” a gloating Spicer said. “I think he silenced a lot of doubters today.”
Does Drumpf do anything that is not unconstitutional! This smells a lot like straight reporting Andy!
Cartoon removed pending clarification.
Khalil Bendib/ OtherWords.org
Having only recently discovered Khalil Bendib's work, I find it quite good and as JD remarked on the last one, worth more than a thousand words.
Common Dreams — Just as his unverified wiretapping claims were seemingly dispelled, President Donald Trump stuck his foot further in the mire and is now facing accusations he may have let slip highly classified information during a televised interview Wednesday evening.
When asked by Fox News host Tucker Carlson why he hasn't gone to the agencies he is "in charge of," to "gather evidence" to support his claim that President Barack Obama tapped Trump Tower, Trump said: "Because I don't want to do anything that's going to violate any strength of an agency. You know we have enough problems. And, by the way, the CIA—I just want people to know—the CIA was hacked and a lot of things taken. That was during the Obama years. That was not during us."
That information, it appears, was not for the public.
On Thursday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, which has asked the administration to provide evidence of the alleged tap, accused Trump of "leaking" classified information.
Click through for the rest of the read. Drumpfenfarten would argue red is green, and green is red. He hasn't a clue what he is talking about. Evidence? I doubt there is any that is credible, and the ravings of a twitterhead should not be considered credible. Even members of his own party are calling him out.
Huffington Post — A presidential budget isn’t so much a policy proposal as a statement of an administration’s moral vision for the country. The budget presented by President Donald Trump on Thursday is a document fundamentally unconcerned with the government’s role in improving the plight of its most vulnerable citizens.
That message is clear in the budget’s topline proposals and its deeper details. Trump calls for a $54 billion boost in defense spending and immigration enforcement. More border patrol agents, more Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, more fighter jets that don’t work, and a border wall with Mexico. To offset those fresh expenses, he wants to take an ax to a host of anti-poverty programs ― everything from public housing to food programs helping elderly people with disabilities.
This was an ideological choice. When explaining why it would eliminate a $35 million affordable housing program, the administration declared the endeavor simply wasn’t the government’s business: “This program is duplicative of efforts funded by philanthropy and other more flexible private sector investments.” …
That Trump’s budget is devoid of even modest nods to social welfare is not something that the administration is trying to hide. Instead, they’ve turned the argument on its head. At a press briefing Thursday afternoon, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney was asked how he could justify cutting programs for the elderly and the poor while ramping up spending in other areas. In response, he insisted that, on the contrary, taking food from the mouths of hungry children should be seen as an act of “compassion."
“I think it’s one of the most compassionate things we can do,” Mulvaney said, referring to reducing anti-poverty spending. The government, he declared, has an urgent moral priority to ensure that “the single mom of two in Detroit” doesn’t pay for programs that don’t serve “a proper function.”
For a so called moral document, this budget is very immoral! Since when does taking food from hungry children constitute compassion? And Meals on Wheels benefits the elderly and those with disabilities who cannot get out. It is also a social lifeline and contributes to better health outcomes. This administration is morally bankrupt and the budget proposal proves it. I wonder if the Republican Congress will rubber stampthe proposal. There are indications that not all are onboard the Drumpfenfarten train.
My Universe —
8 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 16 March 2017”
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Erin Go Bragh!
How about a nice green libation to help you enjoy the day? And if green is not your favorite color – well, we have others …
Thanks Squatch!! Great job. Did you contact Bendib to ask permission to republish his cartoon, asa he requires? If not, please delete it.
"OtherWords offers our content free-of-charge under a "Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives Work" license" from the site. I would think whe's OK.
When I first saw the Russian Dolls cartoon that I used a few days ago, I actually went to the original site and as JD has said, the content was free to use under Creative Commons. One other thing it asked for was credit which I provided. I was a good girl and checked it out before I used it.
I just found it. It's strange that I found the opposite at Bendib's site.
Green beer?! Yuck. But have a great Saint Patrick's Day yourself, Lynn. Or if you prefer the alternative – World Sleep Day – have a nice long lay in with your fur babies. You've certainly earned a rest.
TNY: Not all that funny, Andy, because if this one doesn't pass, Drumpf and his hoodlums either will just the next one out of Bannon's drawer and have Drumpf sign it until everyone is too tired to fighting it any longer or until Goresuch is sworn in with SCOTUS and they think they get a favorable verdict from the 5 GOP members.
OtherWords: Khalil Bendib is an excellent cartoonist. Every picture tells a story… 😉
CD: Oh yes, these leaks are really getting out of control; and the garbage leaking out of Drumpf's mouth is about the worst of them. And he's so stupid: "saying "the CIA was hacked and a lot of things taken. That was during the Obama years. That was not during us" could also mean that the Russians have hacked into their systems too. In fact that is the only way that should be taken. And for his promise to deliver "evidence" of being tapped in his home? Is there anyone out there who hasn't lost count of the times he promised something similar and … never mind.
HP: The morals of this administration, and the majority of the GOP for that matter, have sunk so low that we can officially declare them missing. I won't even try to express my loathing for these people and their "moral vision" for fear of being banned from PP and Care2. All I want now is a barf emoticon.
My Universe: Thank goodness for funny cats. But I felt terribly sorry for the one with an ice cream headache.
WRT the Cartoon: I can think of another liquid that Twitler would have preferred to be doused with. (But maybe that's only when he's in Russia … in bed … with rubber sheets … by prostitutes.)
5:04 (7:37) Well, that was a challenge, wasn't it?
TNY – It probably won't be long before the Saffrn Stalin's regime IS touting his actions as unconstitutional – in order to push the idea that in order to "Make America Great Again" a new Constitution is needed. And they are currently only one Sgtate House away from being able to do so. So if your state House has a Republican majority, do everything you can to change that, and, if not, do everything you can to keep it!
OW –
CD – It's not his current accusation that is the point, it's his statement that the CIA was hacked during the Obama administration that is the issue, because, if true, the information is classified, and he leaked it. I realize "IF TRUE" is a YOOOGE "if" from him, and I turned in my security clearance when I left the military so I may not want to know – but Congress does know, and, if he leaked, and if all those damn Republicans weren't in the way …
HuffPo – Republican compassion is "Let's put them out of their misery" by ensuring they die. At least faith groups are appalled and strongly resisting. Just one example of resistance: https://millennialjournal.com/2017/03/17/how-trumps-america-first-budget-violates-5-key-justice-principles-of-catholic-social-teaching/
Universe – I dreamed about a couple of mine last night. Sigh. I still miss them.