Republicans on Parade – 12/23/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:06 pm Politics

Dec 232017

Here is the one hundred fifth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is Republican CFPB appointee Mick Mulvaney. He is so honored for gutting the CFPB for Banksters.

Muting the core of the agency’s mission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the controversial direction of Trump-appointed Mick Mulvaney has sidelined consumer protection and indicated "deregulation" is the forefront of its purpose.

The difference is displayed at the bottom of the most recent press releases from the agency.

The first image below shows the mission statement as it appears at the bottom of two press releases dated Dec. 21:

The second image is from the previous press release dated Nov. 24:

The new version puts "by regularly identifying and addressing outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome regulations" first and also leaves out the word "fairly."…

Inserted from <Common Dreams>

The worst I can do is give this greedy Republican a parade, but I’m looking forward to following up when Elizabeth Warren responds to how he has turned her signature achievement into a device to make Banksters richer by screwing consumers.

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 12/23/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:05 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 232017

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. WWW and I will be celebrating the day with roast ham, cheese baked potatoes, Brussels sprouts hollandaise, and a surprise dessert from Wendy. If news is as scarce as I anticipate, I may publish only an Open Thread tomorrow, and send no links on Care2. I wish Happy Holidays to all Republicans, and Merry Christmas to everyone else, even if you don’t celebrate it.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:02 (average 5:09). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): Senator Gillibrand Will Not Be Silenced

I fully agree. Hold those who devalue women, especially Putin’s Pussy Grabber, accountable! RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: [O]n Tuesday, in a convention center in West Palm Beach, Florida, amid chants of “USA!” and “The wall is going to be built!,” Donald Trump, Jr., kicked off a three-day annual summit for Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit. Based outside of Chicago, Turning Point’s aim is to foment a political revolution on America’s college campuses, in part by funnelling [sic] money into student government elections across the country to elect right-leaning candidates. But it is secretive about its funding and its donors, raising the prospect that “dark money” may now be shaping not just state and federal races but ones on campus.

Turning Point touts its close relationship with the President’s family. The group’s Web site promoted Don, Jr.,’s appearance for weeks, featuring a photo of him raising a clenched fist. Its promotional materials include a quote from the younger Trump praising Turning Point: “What you guys have done” is “just amazing.” Lara Trump, the wife of Don, Jr.,’s brother Eric, is also involved with the group. In West Palm Beach on Wednesday, she hosted a luncheon promoting Turning Point’s coming Young Women’s Leadership Summit. The group’s twenty-four-year-old executive director and founder, Charlie Kirk, told me that he counts Don, Jr., as “a personal friend.”

Turning Point casts itself as a grassroots response to what it perceives as liberal intolerance on college campuses. Kirk has called college campuses “islands of totalitarianism”; he and his supporters contend that conservatives are the true victims of discrimination in America, and he has vowed to fight back on behalf of what he has called his “Team Right.” Kirk is a frequent guest on Fox News, and last summer he was invited to give a speech at the Republican National Convention. That was where he met Donald Trump, Jr., and “hit it off” with him, Kirk said. After the convention, Kirk divided his time between Turning Point activities and working for the Trump campaign as a specialist in youth outreach. “I helped coördinate some rather successful events with him,” Kirk told me, referring to Don, Jr., “and I also carried his bags.” When friends threw Kirk a surprise birthday party earlier this year, Don, Jr., attended, as did Sebastian Gorka, the former Trump White House adviser.

As Turning Point’s profile has risen, so has scrutiny of its funding and tactics. Internal documents that I obtained, as well as interviews with former employees, suggest that the group may have skirted campaign-finance laws that bar charitable organizations from participating in political activity. Former employees say that they were directed to work with prominent conservatives, including the wife of the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in aid of Republican Presidential candidates in 2016. Perhaps most troubling for an organization that holds up conservatives as the real victims of discrimination in America, Turning Point USA is also alleged to have fostered an atmosphere that is hostile to minorities. Screenshots provided to me by a source show that Crystal Clanton, who served until last summer as the group’s national field director, sent a text message to another Turning Point employee saying, “i hate black people. Like fuck them all . . . I hate blacks. End of story.”

Click through for the rest of this fine article about the Republican War on Student government. It’s an eye-opener! RESIST!!

From NY Times: More than 700 people have left the Environmental Protection Agency since President Trump took office, a wave of departures that puts the administration nearly a quarter of the way toward its goal of shrinking the agency to levels last seen during the Reagan administration.

Of the employees who have quit, retired or taken a buyout package since the beginning of the year, more than 200 are scientists. An additional 96 are environmental protection specialists, a broad category that includes scientists as well as others experienced in investigating and analyzing pollution levels. Nine department directors have departed the agency as well as dozens of attorneys and program managers. Most of the employees who have left are not being replaced.

The departures reflect poor morale and a sense of grievance at the agency, which has been criticized by President Trump and top Republicans in Congress as bloated and guilty of regulatory overreach. That unease is likely to deepen following revelations that Republican campaign operatives were using the Freedom of Information Act to request copies of emails from E.P.A. officials suspected of opposing Mr. Trump and his agenda.

Who can blame them? It’s like chickens resigning over the way foxes run the Henhouse Protection Agency! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

1223Cartoon

Friday Fun: Blaming CME for BRIEF & LATE Friday Fun: Christmas Redux

Posted by SoINeedAName at 6:24 pm Politics

Dec 222017

I can FINALLY see the light at the end of the tunnel! I only have 0.75 more hours to earn that will allow me to renew my medical license, so I should be able to get that done tomorrow. I usually like to earn an extra hour as a safety cushion in case I got the Certificate Expiration Date wrong. (But this year, maybe just a half-hour … or none at all!)

I told Mom when I left on Wednesday I would come back on Christmas day, and I’m anxious to see her! This Rehab unit doesn’t provide phones, so I got her another, newer (but el cheapo – kind of like a burner phone) cell phone. But after working with her for over an hour, she just can’t see the buttons to use it because of her macular degeneration. So I haven’t talked to her for a couple of days – although I call the nurse’s station daily to check-in on how she’s doing: thankfully, very well! (I’m trying to look at it as practice for the inevitable permanent disconnect…. Lord, I’m going to miss those phone calls!)

At any rate, my brother is flying in from Tampa on Wednesday for a few days, so I’m hoping to get all those year-end chores (CME, license renewal, bills paid, personal property tax paid, real property tax paid [OUCH!], year-end donations made, etc.) done by tomorrow so I can head up Sunday – a day early. Unfortunately, they’ve now moved SNOW into our forecast for early (2 AM) Sunday morning north from KCMO along I-35 to at least the Iowa border, so I’ll have to wait and see.

YIKES! You’re three paragraphs into reading this maudlin screed, and it’s all about me whining. ENOUGH! Well, almost … just a note that this will be just a snippet from a previous year’s Xmas offering. So you can re-visit the full thing here:

https://www.7thstep.org/blog/2015/12/23/christmas-fun-in-song-with-the-penguins/

WTH … since I’m dogging it, let’s throw in a link to another one about Christmas Cats:

https://www.7thstep.org/blog/2015/12/18/friday-fun-celebrating-christmas-with-the-cats/

Having gotten away with recycling old work, I’ll leave you with this song that I really get a big kick out of this time of year! You’ll recognize the tune right off the bat:

“Hark!” the Herald Penguins sing:

“Please don’t eat our little wings!

“Eat a goose down to the bone,

“But leave Penguins all alone.

“Baby ducks are very sweet;

“Tastier than Penguin meat

“If we’re packaged in your store,

“Find us in your grocery store?!?

“Please don’t shop there anymore!”

And so I wish all of you – no matter how (or even if) you celebrate this time of year – a most relaxing, blessed and joyous Holiday with family and friends … whether they join you on 1, 2 or even 4 legs. (Any more than four legs, and you probably should call an exterminator.)

(You just gotta wonder HOW they got that cat to do it. But I don’t think s/he is a very happy feline, do you?)

More Proof of Obstruction

Posted by TomCat at 12:58 pm Politics

Dec 222017

I apologize in advance if this bores you, but it’s hard to keep track of the the criminal activities of Donald "Putin’s Piddle Pervert" Trump without frequent updates on new evidence of those crimes. The Trump Reich has claimed that they did not know Flynn had negotiated with Russia, before they fired him. This evidence exposes that lie.

[T]he White House turned over records this fall to special counsel Robert Mueller revealing that in the very first days of the Trump presidency, Don McGahn researched federal law dealing both with lying to federal investigators and with violations of the Logan Act, a centuries-old federal law that prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments, according to three people with direct knowledge of the confidential government documents.

The records reflected concerns that McGahn, the White House counsel, had that Michael Flynn, then the president’s national security advisor, had possibly violated either one or both laws at the time, according to two of the sources. The disclosure that these records exist and that they are in the possession of the special counsel could bolster any potential obstruction of justice case against President Donald Trump.

The records that McGahn turned over to the special counsel, portions of which were read to this reporter, indicate he researched both statutes and warned Trump about Flynn’s possible violations.

McGahn conducted the analysis shortly after learning that Flynn, on Dec. 29, 2016 — while Barack Obama was still president — had counseled the Russian ambassador to the United States at the time, Sergey Kislyak, not to retaliate against U.S. economic sanctions imposed against Russia by the outgoing administration.

McGahn believed that Flynn, and possibly anyone who authorized or approved of such contacts, would be in potential violation of the Logan Act, according to two of the sources, both of whom work in the administration… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Foreign Policy>

Russia would not have agreed not to retaliate against Obama’s sanctions, had they not been assured that quid pro quo for Russia’s election help were not coming.

Rachel Maddow covered this with her normal thoroughness (25 min).

That should make this crystal clear. Desperation time for the Fuhrer is on the way.

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 12/22/2017

Posted by TomCat at 12:57 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 222017

As we wind down toward Christmas, the site and Care2 are both getting very slow. I plan to keep going, so there is something for those that remain. Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten signed the Republican Tax Scam this morning. See the Cartoon. TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:23 (average 5:25). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): The Big Picture: How We Got Into This Mess, And How Get Out of It

The Reich on the left drew it right. Spread it around! RESIST!!

From Huffington Post: More than 100 countries defied President Donald Trump on Thursday and voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to drop its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Trump had threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that voted in favor. A total of 128 countries backed the resolution, nine voted against and 35 abstained.

Trump’s threat appeared to have some impact, with more countries abstaining and rejecting the resolution than usually associated with Palestinian-related resolutions.

Nevertheless, Washington found itself isolated on the world stage as many of its Western and Arab allies voted for the measure.

Kudos to all nations that voted against Fuhrer Nincompoop Nazi and for peace. RESIST!!

From Think Progress: During his time in the U.S. House of Representatives, Michigan Republican Pete Hoekstra earned a reputation for xenophobia and racism, for attempting to capitalize on terrorist attacks to advance his political career, and for spreading false information. [sic]

Nearly seven years since he vacated his House seat, little has changed. A month ago, Hoekstra was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, on a voice vote, to be Donald Trump’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, his birthplace. Already, he has been caught in multiple lies by a Dutch journalist.

At a 2015 conference hosted by the pro-Islamaphobia David Horowitz Freedom Center, Hoekstra made false claims that some parts of the Netherlands were so dominated by Muslim extremists that non-Muslims could not even safely enter those communities — “no-go zones” — and that these extremists were actually setting fire to politicians. Many Dutch citizens have expressed concern about having a U.S. Ambassador who spread such completely false Islamaphobic conspiracy theories.

Dang! I didn’t know the Republican Reich sent Hoekstra to the Netherlands. Now I understand why Lona is leaving!! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

1222TrumpTurd

Samantha Bee from 12/20

Posted by TomCat at 1:32 pm Politics

Dec 212017

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

Fox & Friend

On a scale of one to ten, Faux Noise, the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, is bullshit!

Apocalypse Soon

Hagee pretends to be pro Jewish, but his goal is for all but 144,000 of them to become Crispy Critters, when Republican Supply-side Jesus, the opposite of the real Jesus, fries them. We need a progressive "rapture" called The Great Flush!

Take Sam to Church

Very few evangelicals are authentic Christians. Most are Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, the exact opposite of authentic Christians. Fortunately we have the religious left, most of whom are authentic.

Sam had a good one this week.

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

Open Thread – 12/21/2017

Posted by TomCat at 1:32 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Dec 212017

The lox and bagels supper was to die for. I ate one and a half and was completely stuffed. It was so good that WWW, who normally eats about half what I do, also packed in one and a half. I bought a big ham for our Christmas eve dinner. WWW took it home and will cook it there. It will be a fine feast. We have a cold week coming up.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:08 (average 5:11). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Late Show Channel): The Dossier’s Rebuttal To Donald Trump

Dang! Colbert’s AI dossier is smarter than Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten. RESIST!!

From YouTube: Solstice: The Earth is reaching the turning point

However you celebrate the solstice, if at all, enjoy it. Lona, are you getting a bikini tan with your upside-down solstice? RESIST!!

From NY Times: An end-of-the-year showdown that was once promised over delicate issues like immigration, health care and surveillance appeared to fizzle on Wednesday as key Republicans dropped their demands to shore up shaky health insurance markets and Democrats appeared to abandon their goal to force adoption of a measure protecting young undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Instead, Congress moved toward a one-month punt that would keep the government funded into January and once again put off policy confrontations.

Democrats haven’t given up on DACA, but in January, they won’t be competing for time with the Republican Tax Scam. On the other hand Bought Bitch Mitch (R-KY) bought Susan Collins (R-ME) with a promise that shoring up health care markets would be done before the end of this year. She is as big a liar as he is. When called on it, she accused the media of being sexist. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Squatch’s Open Thread 21 December 2017

Posted by Lynn Squance at 10:07 am Open Thread, Politics

Dec 212017

It rained a few nights ago but stopped early the following morning. By noon, it was -1 C (30F) and snowing. It snowed for the rest of the afternoon and early evening. Looking at the parking lot outside, there is plenty of ice under the snow. Yesterday was clear and cold, and definitely very icy. I made it to physio but my student cancelled our session. The rest of the week is busy too, including Sunday evening when I will have Christmas dinner with friends. I am responsible for multigrain dinner rolls and fresh pomegranates.

Short Takes

The Nation — As 2017 winds down, signature gatherers across Florida are on a last push to qualify the Voting Rights Restoration Initiative for the 2018 ballot, an initiative that, if it passes, would restore voting rights to well over a million Floridians.

The campaign needs just over 766,000 certified signatures to qualify the initiative for the ballot. Since many signatures in any such drive are ultimately disqualified, campaigners are aiming for 1.1 million signatures statewide that they can take to the division of elections in Tallahassee, the state capital, for review and certification by the February 1 deadline. To do this, they have to submit all of their signatures to the counties by the end of this year, so that the counties can in turn forward them to Tallahassee.

So far, organizers believe they have close to 1 million signatures. In the next 10 days, they will be making their final push.

A few days ago, I published a piece, Voting Rights for Felons — A Contrast Between Two Countries, about restoring the voting rights of felons and ex-felons. In Florida, felons’ voting rights were restored in 2007 provided they had served their time. But then, in 2011, Republican Governor Rick Scott reversed those reforms and felons were permanently stripped of their voting rights. Let us hope that this ballot initiative does not meet with foul play from Republican Governor Rick Scott or others. This is democracy in action.

TPM — Republican Roy Moore and hasn’t conceded his 20,000-vote loss to Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama’s Senate race, and provisional ballots and military votes totals announced Wednesday aren’t enough for Moore to close the deficit.

Jones beat Moore on Dec. 12 to become the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Alabama in a quarter-century. Moore was beset by allegations of sexual misconduct involving teenage girls decades ago.

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill announced Wednesday that a total of 366 military ballots were returned from overseas and 4,967 provisional ballots were cast. Even if all of those votes went to Moore, that is well short of the 20,000-vote deficit that Moore would need to close the gap. It also would not be enough to trigger an automatic recount.

It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person. To my knowledge, Moore still hasn’t conceded defeat and is now on a tear, according to Raw Story, blaming Muslims and Marxists. In a FB post, Moore “… attacks Democrats for registering minorities to vote and warns Republicans that these minorities could end up toppling their rule.” I wonder how long it will be before Moore concedes.

Roy, go home and don’t bug us again.

The Hill — A group of House Republicans has been quietly investigating the Justice Department and the FBI for weeks over concerns the agencies improperly handled the unverified contents of a dossier alleging ties between President Trump and Russia.

Politico reported Wednesday that the group, led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), has been quietly working without the knowledge of the committee’s Democrats alongside the House investigation to examine what they see as corruption in the nation’s highest law enforcement body.

In a related Hill story, “Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Oh.) said late Saturday that he received an assurance from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) that subpoenas would be issued for various senior FBI and Justice Department officials amid increased GOP allegations of anti-Trump bias in the bureau.” These Republicans should make better use of their time and do the People’s business, not Trump’s. Devin Nunes is the last person who should be doing this investigation. Plus, not including Democrats on the investigation is unconscionable, yet so Republican. Further proof that Republicans need to go the way of the Whigs . . . or the dodo bird!

My Universe

A beautiful and determined Bengal cat decided that she wanted to get away from all the noise downstairs and skillfully carried her matching bed up the stairs and around the curve despite the fact it was at least twice her size.

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