Thank goodness it’s a Wendy day. Until she gets here, my mama had a word for anyone who gets downwind of this TomCat: nauseous! I’m sure I will not have time to finish today’s articles, before she arrives to de-stink me, and help with several chores, including the dreaded task. I have a busy week ahead. Later: Wendy just left. We did all the chores. I smell much better now.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:38 (average 4:22). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Washington Post: A Ku Klux Klan chapter holding a rally in downtown Charlottesville on Saturday afternoon says it expects 80 to 100 members and supporters to take part in the protest and that most will have guns with them.
“It’s an open-carry state, so our members will be armed,” said James Moore, a member of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which is headquartered in Pelham, N.C., near the Virginia border. Moore said that if members are attacked, they will defend themselves.
The KKK is protesting the Charlottesville City Council’s decision this year to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a public park and rename that park. Once called Lee Park, it is now Emancipation Park. A court injunction has halted the statue’s removal until a November hearing.
Pray that they kill nobody. Immediately after the rally, the Ammosexual racists could reconvene as a meeting of the North Carolina RNC. RESIST!!
From DC Report: What’s missing this morning from the front pages of four of America’s Big Five newspapers—The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today—exposes some of the reasons we felt the need after the November election to create DCReport.
Not one of America’s four most influential newspapers quoted the most crucial words spoken by Rex Tillerson, our country’s Secretary of State, about the private meeting Friday in Hamburg between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The Los Angeles Times gave the keywords only passing mention.
Tillerson said Trump began the meeting with Putin “by raising the concerns of the American people regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election.”
Notice that Trump didn’t say he was concerned. Trump didn’t say that the administration was concerned. He didn’t even say that the United States of America was concerned.
Trump expressed no official concern, based on what Tillerson said. None.
I agree with David Cay Johnston. To The best of my knowledge, only one other major news organization did make that distinction, MSNBC in the clip I shared yesterday. That’s too much media bias. RESIST!!
From Alternet: The world was aghast as a first daughter sat in for her father at the Group of 20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany. Ivanka Trump took her father’s seat among world leaders, sitting directly between Chinese President Xi Jinping and British Prime Minister Theresa May.
Republican nepotism has now reached the penultimate extreme. Will he let her try the nuclear football next? RESIST!!
Cartoon:
16 Responses to “Open Thread – 7/9/2017”
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4:28 Maybe Squatch can save him.
WaPo – DKos had a report after the fact. There were about 50 KKK and “a large crowd” of anti-KKK peaceful protestors. At the end, some tempers appears to have flared, but apparently no injuries 23 people were arrested, not known from which camp or possibly both.
DC Report – Yeah, OK, media bias, but also media failure to grasp the distinction and similar distinctions. And also media fear, to some extent justified, that anything they say can be used against them. I’s judt not a good situation all around.
AlterNet – I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or be grateful that someone who doesn’t have dementia was there in lieu of someone who does.
Cartoon – “It’s not collusion. But, if it were, it isn’t against the law.”
Boy, did Twitler get played like a fiddle by Vladdy or what?
But I’m pretty sure Twitler was hoping there was a quid pro quo for folding like a cheap suit. So I made a cartoon of what I think it most likely was:
Excellent! Well done Nameless!
Fantastic cartoon, Nameless!
LMAO!!
I don’t ever remember seeing Ivanka’s name on any ballot.
I don’t ever remember Ivanka ever being confirmed to an official post.
I don’t ever remember Ivanka ever even being vetted.
Her only qualification was her last name.
This is NOT how representative democracies function.
My comment yesterday precisely. She has no business in that meeting. It is one thing for Tillerson or another Drumpf lowlife, but not Ivanka.
Drumpf is a “nespot” (I invented that word as far as I know and it is a combination of despot and nepotist, or whatever) which does not bode well for the US.
So the US is a democracy, you say?
Excellent, Lynn.
I’d like to nominate “nespot” and “nespotism” to be added to the Politics Plus dictionary for official future use.
WaPo: What Joanne said. (I read/saw the same links.)
DCR: What a crying shame!
AN: What?? Daddy had to go take a nap? wth?? Guess we’re on our own now, and the meeting will be known now as G19? Good God.
Cartoon: Word (and he liked it!)
Glad you got all your chores completed. Enjoy your evening, and relax! Take care, and Thanks, Tom.
WP: How sad that these assholes are still doing their thing! “Stupid is as stupid does!”
DC Report: I’m thinking that the distinction jut went over their heads. My comment, from yesterday, still stands: “Why would I believe Tillerson, in the first place?”
Alternet: So, is the Orange Putz grooming her to run for president in 2020? He put out a good showing, for a rank amateur! This is beyond odious. Do you think he knows that Pence would be so awful that he won’t be impeached for nonfeasance? Or, is it simply that he does not give a damn?
My laptop is draining right now in hopes that will solve its problem, so I am on my desk top which feels very bizarre. And jigzone was having problems before I unplugged the laptop. When I did the puzzle here, it did not retain my time so I did it a second time and looked at the timer as I put the last piece in place. I now have done the puzzle 5 times to check to see if the timer is retaining, but no. I don’t know if it was the website or my desktop which is operating Windows 7 (laptop is Windows 10).
Glad Wendy was there to destink the TomCat. The wind is coming from the south and I was afraid I might need a fresh air device. Wendy is, as you say, the BOMB and I am so glad you have her as a friend and a personal assistant.
Puzzle — 2:31 (Maybe 2:32 or 2:33 allowing for that placement — this is technically the 2nd time.) Beautiful green bird that will not be fricassée tomorrow night.
WaPo — Spanish philosopher George Santayana is credited with the following: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”. Removing the statue of Lee is a mistake perhaps because it makes a martyr or a focal point of him. But there should be no plaques etc. History should be remembered and learned from but not glorified. As to the KKK, I suppose they have the constitutional right to freely assemble and the freedom to bear arms. Protesters against these vile white nationalists also have the freedom of assembly, and far out number the KKK’s thankfully.Perhaps it is time to officially list the KKK as a terrorist organisation in the US, although with the current Congress, that will never happen. But there is absolutely no place for white nationalism in the US, or anywhere else for that matter. I pray there is no violence nor killings.
DC Report — And Drumpf is saying the press is bias and hates him? Certainly their bias seems to be for Drumpf, not against him, or they are afraid of him and his past suing issues. The mainstream media needs to find their cojones, and fast or be irrelevant. From what I have been reading today, the Russians had no mention of the topic of interference coming up. Who does one believe — Drumpf or Putin? Drumpf is not high on my list.
Alternet — In response to Nameless above, I said: My comment yesterday precisely. She has no business in that meeting. It is one thing for Tillerson or another Drumpf lowlife, but not Ivanka.Drumpf is a “nespot” (I invented that word as far as I know and it is a combination of despot and nepotist, or whatever) which does not bode well for the US.So the US is a democracy, you say?
Cartoon — Donald Drumpf Jr rather admitted to collusion. From ABC News:
I can hear the sizzle now of Drumpf fat on the fire!
Resist and Persist!!!
Sorry about your troubles but only the first time counts. My Bird!
BURP!!
WP: In Europe an armed KKK chapter would be considered a terrorist group and would never have been allowed to demonstrate in the first place. Come to think of it, they would be considered as such even without being armed, given their violent history of killing, arson and such. Glad nobody (in the peaceful anti-KKK demonstration) was hurt, though I’d expected a repeat from the Gettysburg demonstration you reported on on the 5th, where a Drumpfian shot himself in the leg.
DCR: There is sooo much to report on, and each media tries to prioritize things in a way that give them a scoop one way or another. And sometimes it is a question of how something is interpreted, or reported to the press by an inexperienced diplomat like Tillerson. Personally, I doubt if the subject came up at all between Putin and Drumpf, and if it did, it probably was a discussion entirely different from what was reported.
Alternet: The Drumpfs behave abroad as the do at home, they wipe their … with protocol and rules, and diplomats in the rest of the world are too polite to draw the line at who’s sitting at those tables. Not only did Ivanka had no more business sitting there than any other never-elected or vetted-for-the-job American, it also raises the question WHY she had to sit in for daddy. Did he have one of his off days, had his medication not kicked in yet and was he too confused to appear in public, didn’t his stamina last that long, didn’t “his advisors” trust him on the subjects at hand. The schedule that morning was among others on partnership with Africa and empowerment of women. Let me guess, he just couldn’t be bothered?
Ivanka also attended a session later on Saturday, where she was joined by First Lady Melania Trump to discuss the launching of the G20 Women Entrepreneurship Fund. They would attend that, wouldn’t they; they’d love to “manage” that fund. “Trump and some other leaders thank Ivanka Trump for advocating for #G20 Women Entrepreneurship Fund and its funding.” No wonder there were so many people (>70,000) demonstrating peacefully in Hamburg against the G20 that day.
Cartoon: Love it.
You must be exhausted after such thorough de-fumigation and getting all your chores done. I hope you’ve managed a good nap afterwards, TomCat.
LMAO!
Thanks all. Pooped Hugs!