WWWendy is due in an hour to destink the rancid TomCat and help with chores, including the dreaded task. I’m treating her to Ribs. Her shiatsus, Oh and Shit, get the bones. I hope to finish writing by the time she arrives. She may be a bit late, because Portland Pride is today. It’s a few blocks away, not under my window, but it does suck up (no pun intended) all the downtown street parking.
WWWendy and I worked all morning. I’m pretty pooped!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:09 (average 5:11). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NY Magazine: President Trump is still trying to avoid responsibility for his administration’s brutal policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the border, but a new report confirms that Trump and his advisors had been considering the extreme measures for as long as they’ve been in power. According to the New York Times, White House senior policy advisor Stephen Miller was “instrumental” in convincing the president to enact the policy, which applies a zero tolerance approach to prosecuting undocumented immigrants caught entering the U.S. — even if that means taking children away from their parents in the process.
I don’t have to tell you that the Republican claim that this is a Democratic policy is a lie. In fact the Republican Reich is setting up a Joe Arpaio style tent city to house kids ripped from their parents at the border. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!
From Daily Kos: On one of the early afternoon shows yesterday on MSNBC, the host had two lawyers on, discussing the Trump Foundation civil charges. One of them was a long time New York attorney, and in just eight words, he described the Trump Presidency absolutely perfectly. He said, "The Trump Presidency is a bust out joint."
Being born in, and living most of my life in Chicago, I understood him perfectly. For those of you unfamiliar with mob terminology, I’ll briefly explain, and you’ll see what I mean.
A bust out joint is a legitimate business. One way or another, usually through either extortion, or unpaid loan shark money, the mob moves in and takes over operation of the business. Let’s just say it’s a bar. They go on a spending spree, using the bar’s lines of credit. The buy as much booze as the liquor distributor will give them on credit. They buy glasses, new cash registers, bar stools, anything they can buy on credit, until the place is maxed out. And when the bills come due, they empty the register, back up a truck, load everything into it and disappear. They sell everything as pure profit, and the bar goes belly up.
The Trump Presidency truly is a classic bust out operation.
In a word, Amen! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!
From Nation of Change: A group of top Democrats are demanding the Trump administration present a plan to Congress to address growing poverty in the United States, following an excoriating report by the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston. Alston slammed the Trump administration’s policies for worsening the state of poverty in the United States. The report details how 40 million Americans live in poverty, and 18.5 million Americans live in extreme poverty. It also details how the United States has the highest rate of income inequality among Western countries and one of the lowest rates of intergenerational social mobility. We speak with Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty. He will be presenting his report next week in Geneva.
Here’s the video:
Make no mistake. Poverty is getting worse because that is what Trump and the Republican Party want and are intentionally causing. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!
Cartoon:
Republicans are still screwing our vets.
11 Responses to “Open Thread – 6/17/2018”
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6:16 Allergic.
NYMag – Stephen Miller has been quoted as saying it was an “easy decision.” Going to a tent city, in the summer, at the southern border, will be literally sending children to ovens. Literally.
Daily Kos – Yes. Well said. Not unlike Bain Capital in its way.
NoC – Like Democrats demanding will accomplish anything when even Orang Judas’s base don’t care. Still, it’s good that the UN is bringing this to the attention of the world.
Cartoon – Republicans have – At least in the last hundred years – ALWAYS been anti-veteran. Or maybe I should just say anti-keeping-promises.
RESIST AND PERSIST !!!
NYT: Good gawd..!! These are helpless children and parents, for god’s sake!! I’ve been in & out with the news about Tornillo (TX), and the cars/crowds are swelling. This is about 8 hours away from me, Beto is there. I find this very depressing, and quite frightening, what with the hot sunny conditions with summer around the corner.. Stephen Miller is a festering piece of uselessness, (are his parents/father proud of what he does/says??) and throw the lyin’ every day ‘poutus’ in the mix too. This has GOT to STOP, like a year ago!! imho.
DK: Yea, ain’t this the truth!!!
NoC: This is so very sad……glad the UN is getting involved with this.
Cartoon: Of course they did. (how a protest led to the GI Bill).
You’ve got a busy day scheduled, hope you get some kinda rest with the parade too. Enjoy your evening, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
First lady Melania Trump makes statement on family separations as protests grow
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/first-lady-melania-trump-makes-statement-family-separations-protests-grow-n884081?cid=eml_nbn_20180617
Beto is doing amazing things at Tornillo, and wow, is there ever a bunch of other heroes there too. So tragic that heroism should be necessary to get anything done. I’m not physically fit to go, and if I were, I couldn’t afford to financially. But my heart is there.
I am there too, Joanne, as I don’t drive much anymore..(hell, I don’t even drive to Austin anymore). And if I could go, I have no money either. I watched Beto O, and Joe K speak yesterday, and all I can insist for…is that we need more of them in office.
Quote from Joe yesterday that burned my heart…”“Humanity doesn’t require citizenship.” – Joe
btw…Kathy Griffin lambasted Melania’s comment about the children at the border…
http://www.newsweek.com/kathy-griffin-melania-trump-immigration-children-separation-melanie-twitter-980454
Don’t feel like the lone stranger.
The UN report on poverty in the USA is definitely scathing. We have a chance to change this – but ONLY if we all do the Right Thing. We need to support genuinely progressive candidates, not just any ol’ Democrat. We need to volunteer for these candidates, and we need to get progressive people registered to vote. We need to get our behinds to the polls, because reich-wingers vote, and they vote in blocks, brainlessly punching any button for a name that has (R) after it. We need to do our homework and pick the best candidates, ones who will listen to Hoi Polloi instead of the 1% and their well-paid stooges.
So, children don’t have rights in this country? Talk about hypocrisy. Right-wingers fight like tigers to protect embryos and fetuses, but don’t give a rat’s arse about those already born.
Thanx TC ?
NYM: Drumpf keeps repeating his lie that his administration is only following a law that Democrats have forged, so they’re to blame. The New York time carried a very comprehensive article about this lie yesterday: Trump Again Falsely Blames Democrats for His Separation Tactic which clearly shows that Drumpf and the other monsters in his administration are using innocent children as hostages to force Democrats to agree to new Republican Immigration bills. I really hope some group is able to drag this administration in front of the United Nations Human Rights Council very soon!
DK: How apt! I think I’ll refer to The Bust Out Joint from now when talking about The White House.
NoC: “The US is the ONLY country in the world not to have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child???”, Amy Goodman asked incredulously, then…Puerto Rico is the worst off on poverty of all states because it has no legal representation in Congress, which was followed with the tax cuts for the rich being paid for by cuts on the little support the poor still have…and yet the US, well this administration to be precise, does nothing but criticize the rest of the world, point the finger at others and complain they’re treated unfairly.
How about your own 40+ million poor, your Dreamers, your ACA insured, your vets, your elderly, your led-poisoned water-drinking, your… (fill in the blanks), you disgusting hypocrites in The Republican Bust Out Joints in DC and all over the US?
Hope you’re getting through your heatwave all right, TomCat, with nothing worse to show/smell for it than rancidness which can be washed away with help of WWWendy.
Puzzle — 4:20 Very pretty looking but around my house it would be salad for my Winnie who has also destroyed my only other plant, my bamboo.
NY Magazine — “I don’t have to tell you that the Republican claim that this is a Democratic policy is a lie.” — No you don’t, but even if it were not a lie, Drumpf has a Republican majority in Congress and could change the law. But he and Republicans are morally bankrupt and unwilling to change.
Daily Kos — Just like many of his business ventures, raped, pillaged and left belly up in the mud. But the US is not just another Drumpf business . . . it is a country with over 300 million people. He is not the owner, not the absolute monarch! He is a childish fascist dictator who is, dare I say it again, morally bankrupt.
Nation of Change — Drumpf wants to “MAGA” but really he wants to MMGA (Make Millionaires Great Again). He is willing to throw 40 million Americans under the bus just to see MMGA come to fruition. He proclaims the US the greatest and has his sheeple mesmerised into believing that his way is the only way. Well the UN rapporteur has information that all should hear and see. Drumpf will probably come out with something along the lines of what the father of one of my Sunday School kids told me — I don’t have to pay attention to you (SS teacher) because you are not paid. Of course he will try to lambaste the rapporteur, and the UN. And the US is the only country that has not ratified the Rights of the Child. There is talk of the US leaving the UNHRC. The 40 million Americans living in poverty should be asking why that is. Drumpf is always asking why the rest of the world is so unfair to the US. Well Donnie, look in the mirror. It is not an image to impress the world. Drumpf, you are a world class dolt!
Oh, and those 40 million Americans living in poverty, they will just have to wait longer for their government to do what governments should be doing . . . help. Drumpf announced
Cartoon — Perhaps his “space force” should be one that analyses and fixes the space between Drumpf’s ears instead of finding more ways to kill young soldiers and screw those still alive.
Great articles today! Your heat is rising and so is ours. Yesterday was 30C (86F) out by me and today should be hotter. The rest of the week is going to be like this. There were heat warnings yesterday as it was about 10C above seasonal norms. Climate change??? Yup! Last night only went down to 17C (63F) and it was muggy. Stay buttoned up with the AC blasting. I wish I had AC!
90° here yesterday.