Friday Fun: Holiday Edition 2018

 Posted by at 8:03 am  Politics
Dec 212018
 

Since we’re now in “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” I decided I would try to keep it seasonal and lighthearted.

So, to start us off, a little boy unwraps the best Christmas gift he could hope for:

This year the Secret Santa enlisted a homeless man, Moses Elder, in Phoenix to help him distribute his signature $100 bills to total strangers.  All they had to do was show some kindness to the homeless Elf and then be rewarded with their $100.

I should note that I saw this on CBS News, so it had closed caption.  I could only find it as a YouTube video that does not have CC – so CLICK ME to read the story:

Some Secret Santa Trivia Tidbits: The original Secret Santa tradition actually started in Kansas City decades ago.  I’m not sure if the one in this story is the same guy, since it’s filmed in Phoenix, or if others have adopted it in other cities.  Either way, it’s a nice tradition.

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article223203095.html

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/12/20/us/ap-us-secret-santa-missouri.html

UncleBee at Daily Kos wrote a fantastic parody of that traditional Christmas poem we all enjoy – but in an updated, political version.  Paying heed to the Fair Use Doctrine, I’ll just quote a few stanzas – but the entire version is a very enjoyable read!

‘Twas the Night Before Drumpf’s Mess

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/16/1819509/–Twas-the-Night-Before-Drumpf-s-Mess

 ‘Twas the night before Christmas when through the White House,

The occupants panicked, wond’ring which fire to douse.

The smocking guns hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes maybe no one would think to look there. 

 

The Traitor Tots trembled with fear in their beds,

While visions of jail time danced in their heads. 

And Twitler rage-tweeted his usual crap

While Melania eyed him like he had the clap.

 

When in the Rose Garden there arose such a clatter,

Dumpster spilled all the cheeseburgers off of his platter.

He waddled to the window and opened the sash,

Hoping maybe it was Russians delivering cash.

Staying in a Christmas motif but also adding a political overtone, former mayoral candidate in Minneapolis, Tom Hoch, elected to put up a sign recognizing Twitler’s accomplishment of racking up 89 criminal indictments from his administration … in less than two years – which surpasses Nixon’s count.  (The “Trump Is A Traitor” letters are 4-feet tall and in Christmas colors of red and green – so not a bit subtle!)

But ending on more positive notes, if you’re still in a quandary on what decoration to use to top your Christmas tree, someone has come up with the perfect ecumenical option: Notorious RBG!

And I can’t think of a better Santa Claus than a surprise visit by Pres. Obama handing out gifts to kids at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC:

So Happy Holidays to All – And Safe Travels

 

Share

Personal Update 12/20/2018

 Posted by at 12:31 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 202018
 

I passed my post-hospital medical exam with flying colors.  It’s been a long day.  I’m very tired, aqnd this is my only article.  I expect to be back in the saddle tomorrow.  Hugs and RESIST!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:22 (average 5:12).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

Share

Republicans on Parade – 12/19/2018

 Posted by at 12:53 pm  Politics, Religion
Dec 192018
 

Here is the one hundred forty-fourth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is Republican DOJ Public Affairs Director appointee Kerri Kupec. She is so honored for substituting Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian hatred against LGBT Americans for fair equal treatment.

1219KupecA top job in the Department of Justice may seem out of reach for a graduate of a bottom-tier law school, but if that bottom-tier law school is Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, Donald Trump is president, and said graduate embraces a future of hatemongering, the sky is the limit. Just ask Kerri Kupec, the recently appointed director of the Office of Public Affairs at the Justice Department.

Kupec, a 2011 Liberty Law grad [pseudo-Christians delinked], is perfect for her new position, which opened up after the ouster of Attorney General Jeff Sessions just after the midterm elections. Kupec replaces Sarah Isgur Flores, a longtime Sessions ally, according to the Daily Beast; Flores now works for Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein….

…So how does a fairly recent graduate of a subpar law school find herself in such a crucial PR position? For Kupec, it took years of hard work spreading homophobia and the right-wing agenda through the Alliance Defending Freedom [GOP hate group delinked], a nonprofit that describes itself as “an alliance for victory,” founded because “Christian leaders … recognized that Christians … needed to unite in order to defend religious freedom before it was too late.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, on the other hand, has identified the ADF as an anti-LGBTQ hate group. 

(T)he Alliance Defending Freedom is a legal advocacy and training group that has supported the recriminalization of homosexuality in the U.S. and criminalization abroad; has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad; has linked homosexuality to pedophilia and claims that a “homosexual agenda” will destroy Christianity and society. ADF also works to develop “religious liberty” legislation and case law that will allow the denial of goods and services to LGBT people on the basis of religion.

Since the election of President Donald Trump, the ADF has become one of the most influential groups informing the administration’s attack on LGBT rights working with an ally in Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The SPLC also notes that the ADF is essentially a farm system for the conservative machine in D.C.

Kupec has spent the last four years as a mouthpiece [GOP hate group delinked] for the powerful organization, typically ranting about supposed attacks on religious freedom on such respected networks as the Christian Broadcasting Network and Fox News. The new DOJ OPA director also made the rounds on the Christian college keynote circuit…

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

She is now responsible with how DOJ interacts with the media.

The article included a video of her defending unequal treatment of a gay couple.  Watch her talk of love, while spewing hateful lies.

For the record, Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, like Kupec, are the exact opposite of real authentic Christians.  She and her ilk are like the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes that Jesus rebuked regularly.  America needs better!

RESIST!!

Share

Open Thread – 12/19/2018

 Posted by at 12:52 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 192018
 

It’s another busy day here at the CatBox.  An occupational therapist visited this morning.  She agreed that the shower in my room is too small to use.  Store to Door is delivering groceries soon.  It’s a big order, as they will be closed for two weeks.  I’ll have to put them away.  WWWendy comes this evening to de-stink the rancid TomCat and help with chores.  Please expect no more than a Personal Update tomorrow, and there will be no links messages on Care2.  I have a routine follow up visit with Ellie in my PCP’s office.

Groceries done!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:09 (average 5:00).  To do it, click here.  How did you do.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Judge Shocks Court With Harsh Rebuke Of Michael Flynn; Sentencing Delayed (19 min.)

 

For the judge to go off on Flynn the way he did, the information that he has, but that is redacted to us, must be extreme. He even inferred treason, a statement that must have been accurate, albeit improper. I bet Flynn’s Fuhrer is wringing his tiny hands. RESIST!!

From The Hill: It seems the country is headed for a government shutdown, but it’s not due to any kind of real national or international crisis.

Rather, it’s over a Trump temper tantrum as he is hell bent on getting funding for his ill-advised, waste-of-taxpayer-money, unwanted border wall. After all, it helped get him elected with his far-right, anti-immigrant base of voters.

While there are many reasons Democrats should stand strong and not acquiesce to Trump on this, they need to espouse the truth about how they have better handled immigration and border security and have made the country safer in comparison to Republicans.

While the president lies regularly, facts and truth still matter to the American people. The rule of law, sensible governance and keeping the country secure are also of utmost importance.

The flow of undocumented immigrants to the U.S. peaked in 2007, under President George W. Bush, when the number living in the U.S. was 12.2 million. It has been in decline ever since.

There is a short term bill likely to pass in the Senate that would temporarily fund the government until February, but if it doesn’t pass in the House, or if the Hatemonger in Chief does not sign it, we must be sure that voters know that the Republican Reich is fully to blame. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Call it the deep-state defense.

After the Pentagon stripped an official’s security clearance for reading a top-secret paper in public, his allies said he was “caught in the web of the deep state.”

When federal agents raided the home of a government contractor suspected of taking classified documents, his supporters denounced the “deep state F.B.I.”

And when a conservative conspiracy theorist rejected a plea deal with the special counsel, he claimed he was targeted because he dared “to oppose the deep state.”

President Trump has long tried to explain away his legal troubles as the work of a “deep state” of Obama supporters entrenched in the law-enforcement and national-security bureaucracies who are just out to get him. Now junior officials and others accused of wrongdoing are making the case that the same purported forces are illegitimately targeting them, too.

There is no propaganda too insane for Republicans to employ, attempting to evade responsibility for their own crimes. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Share

Republicans on Parade – 12/18/2018

 Posted by at 1:15 pm  Politics
Dec 182018
 

Here is the one hundred forty-third article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is Republican Senator [R-AZ] Martha McSally. She is so honored for sleazing her way into a Senate seat, even though the people of Arizona just rejected her for that office.

1218McSally

Arizona’s governor has named Rep. Martha McSally to replace U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl in the U.S. Senate seat that belonged to Sen. John McCain.

Republican Gov. Doug Ducey announced Tuesday that McSally will take over after Kyl’s resignation becomes effective Dec. 31. McSally lost the Senate race to Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.

McSally will serve until the 2020 election, when voters will elect someone to serve the final two years of McCain’s term.

Inserted from <Huffington Post>

Here are three videos about McSally.

Twist

 

Rep. Martha McSally Afraid to Stand Up to Scott Pruitt

 

Stop McSally

 

Is it any wonder that voters didn’t want her?  Does this demonstrate how little the Republican Reich cares about what voters want?

RESIST!!

Share

Open Thread – 12/18/2018

 Posted by at 1:14 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion
Dec 182018
 

I had a dozen chores this morning, so I’m way late and very tired.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:20 (average 5:48).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the news from our own fantasy football league.

Playoffs:

P1

Congrats to Pam and Vivian for winning their first round games.  WWWendy and I had first round byes.  Patty Monster and Squatch do not have second round games, but they will the following week.

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: In a tense meeting on Monday, leading Cabinet members warned Donald J. Trump that shutting down the federal government would make it exponentially harder for them to steal from.

Led by his Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, the Cabinet members begged Trump to prevent a government showdown that would bring their brazen spree of pillaging the nation’s coffers to a screeching halt.

“Mr. President, with the federal government up and running, I was able to take seven trips on military aircraft at a cost of eight hundred thousand dollars,” Mnuchin said. “I implore you, sir: don’t make me fly coach.”

Trump’s three oldest children, Ivanka, Eric, and Don, Jr., who have piled up impressive taxpayer-funded travel bills of their own, chimed in with an emotional plea to their father. “Daddy, please don’t make us stop plundering government money,” Ivanka said. “Not right before Christmas.”

Dang, Andy! That’s a valid point! But Trump is too stupid to get it. RESIST!!

From YouTube (NY Times Channel): The Secret History of Muslims in the U.S

Cool! I do have a Muslim friend. In fact, he’s a gay Muslim friend. He couldn’t be nicer or kinder. Reject GOP hatred. RESIST!!

From NBC: While she didn’t win the crown, Angela Ponce broke barriers on Monday in the 67th Miss Universe pageant. The 27-year-old Spanish beauty became the first transgender woman to ever participate in the international competition.

1218Spain

Kudos to Angela. She has courage and looks good. RESIST!!

 

Cartoon:

 

Share

Squatch’s Open Thread 18 December 2018

 Posted by at 12:40 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Dec 182018
 

Well I said I wasn’t going to around for a few days while I studied the new WordPress updates, but the WordPress gods listened and rolled back the updates.  Either that or TomCat rolled back the plug-in.  In either case, HALLELUJAH!!!  So here I am.  Have a safe and good day!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:41 (average 5:53). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

AlterNet — Former GOP congressman David Jolly of Florida explained Monday why Trump is struggling to come up with a coherent defense from his emerging legal challenges: He’s never faced anything like this before.  …

“Donald Trump has this long career of having to navigate civil matters, where you pay people off, you pay settlements, you reach private agreements. But it’s always monetary. The reason he’s flailing is no amount of money can turn off the SDNY case. No amount of money can turn off Bob Mueller.”

Here is MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace and guests discussing the matter.

Around the 6:30 mark, James Comey comments on some of Trump’s tweets — “This is not about Republicans or Democrats.  This is what it means to be an American. … about a set of values that represent the glue of this country … they are under attack …” — This is so in keeping with Comey’s values as seen in his book “A Higher Loyalty” which I certainly recommend reading.  David Jolly is a former Republican congressman who left the Republican party in January 2018 — I guess he had enough of the Trump bubble machine and bull shit.  

Further on, Giuliani says”… yeah, he changed his [Cohen] story 4 or 5 times,”

George Stephanopoulos: “So did the president.”

Giuliani: “but he’s not under oath.”

Daily Kos — The Trump Foundation has been sketchy from the day it launched in 1988. The board of directors consist of the Trump family members Don Sr., Eric, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Trump Organization CEO Allen Weisselberg, who recently received immunity and is currently cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office. The so-called charity has no office, no staff and the board hasn’t met since 1999. Donald Trump himself hasn’t even made a single donation to his own charity since 2008. Not a penny. While some outside the Trump family were donating to it, the Trump family was using the fund to pay for events held at . . . you guessed it—Trump properties.  …

In June 2018, AG Underwood filed suit seeking to close down the foundation due to “persistently illegal conduct.” Today the Trump family has announced they will be shutting it down and distributing any remaining funds.

I for one hope that the NYAG is 1) coördinating the shutdown and distribution of the remaining funds; and 2) going after the full restitution of all contributions made by non family donors plus interest and penalties.  As commentor Pat B likes to say, “drip, Drip, DRIP!!!”  I wonder if the 17 current investigations into Trump includes this one, or is this number eighteen?

Think Progress — The Trump administration is getting ready to use the tragedy of school shootings to justify the rollback of Obama-era guidance that address disproportionate discipline of students of color and students with disabilities.

During the school safety panel’s wrap-up meeting on Tuesday, it said schools should coordinate more with law enforcement and have programs to arm school personnel, …

School shootings put public pressure on the administration to act. After the shooting of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida on Valentine’s Day, there were numerous calls for change to gun policies across the United States. Students, parents, and community members marched, made calls to members of Congress and state lawmakers, and registered voters. During some of these marches calling for new gun policies, students risked discipline from their schools. …

There isn’t a lot of evidence to support the idea that zero tolerance policies are effective in reducing school disruptions or keeping kids in school, according to experts on school discipline who spoke with ThinkProgress in March.

Russell Skiba, a professor of school psychology at Indiana University who works with schools to address changes to student discipline practices, toldThinkProgress at the time, “In fact, the data shows that places that implement more suspensions and expulsion have higher rates of dropout, lower achievement, and are more likely to result in referral to juvenile justice.” …

Arrington [18 year old public school student and co-founder of the One Pennsylvania Youth Power Collective] added, “We believe schools have to divest from school policing and instead increase funding for more guidance counselors, mental health supports, restorative justice, and higher pay for our teachers who are already in such a stressful position. We have to stop building the school-to-prison pipeline and by adding armed police to schools, we are not going to create a supportive more inclusive schooling environment in this country.”

Trump said “we have the best people” when talking about advisers and cabinet appointees.  Surely he was not talking about Betsy DeVos!  Is this one of Trump’s infrastructure projects . . . the school-to-prison pipeline?  This is all about rolling back anything created by Obama.  Oh and creating more revenues for the for-profit prison system.  Have Democrats got their hands full countering this racist, bigoted régime of screw-ups!

My Universe

Ain’t that the truth! 

Just try ignoring those fur balls!

 

 

Posted to Care2 HERE

Share

When is enough enough?

 Posted by at 11:13 am  Politics
Dec 172018
 

Two different families in two different communities are facing imminent deportation for being in the country without the proper documentation.  One family has been in the US for over 25 years.  The other long enough that the three children were all born in the US.  Here are their stories.

Daily Kos — Rosa Gutiérrez Lopez, a mom of three U.S. citizens including a boy with Down Syndrome, has become the first undocumented immigrant to publicly go into sanctuary in the Washington, D.C. area, following immigration officials ordering her to leave the country for her native El Salvador by Dec. 10. “I don’t know how long I will be here,” she said about her new home inside Cedar Lane Unitarian, “but I feel protected here.”

Gutiérrez Lopez shouldn’t be a priority for deportation in the first place. Since 2014, she’s had a work permit issued to her by the U.S. that allowed her to work legally, so long as she continued checking in regularly with immigration officials. As someone with familial ties and no criminal record, she’d been considered low-priority for deportation. That changed following Donald Trump’s inauguration.

“Suddenly,” Think Progress reports, “she had to come in twice a month and wear an ankle monitor at all times. Earlier this fall, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began encouraging her to self-deport, and warning her that if she didn’t do it herself they’d come for her themselves soon enough.”

When she got a deportation date, her attorney appealed to a judge, but her case is still pending. With three young kids and one who requires specialized therapies, she went to DMV Sanctuary Congregation Network for help. “We don’t see why she is a priority for deportation,” said Faith In Action’s Richard Morales, who helped coordinate with Cedar Lane Unitarian. “There is no reason to separate this woman from her children.”

Orlando Sentinel — Torres-Bruno, a 60-year-old Argentinian citizen, and his wife, a 61-year-old native of Peru, have been living in Florida with their son, UCF graduate Juan Miguel Torres-Bruno, 26, since they arrived on a tourist visa in 1993, seeking asylum in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Lima.

It took seven years for their case to be heard and by then an immigration judge determined the terrorism threat in the South American country had diminished and denied their request. But the family has been allowed to remain in the U.S. under “stay of removal” orders approved annually as they fought to have their case reopened — until now.

“We did everything we were supposed to,” Miguel Torres-Bruno said. “Now, we have to reinvent our life and start all over again like we’re in our 20s.”

The couple’s last-ditch effort to stay in the U.S. was turned down Tuesday as part of President Donald Trump’s zero tolerance policy — no undocumented immigrants are exempt from removal.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement that “both cases received full due process” and that “pursuing repeated [stay of removals] is not a viable means … to permanently postpone their required return to their country of origin.”

Their son is temporarily protected from deportation because of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA. His latest renewal expires in September 2019, but Trump is trying to phase out the program started under former President Barack Obama.

These are but 2 of the undoubtedly thousands of stories from people in the US who are in the country without proper documentation.  Most left their countries of origin because of war, political violence or maybe the drug wars.  They are mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, sons, daughters, grandchildren willing to take the risks of a long and arduous journey rife with its own problems.  They spend weeks, perhaps months moving north in search of better lives for themselves and their families.  They are met by suspicion and rancor.  And now, as reported in The Atlantic , the Trump régime is turning itself onto new targets that have been in the US for 40 years or more — undocumented Vietnamese, refugees from a war that directly involved the US military.  There is such hostility in this land that is suppose to represent freedom and welcome, but has become instead hardened and capricious.  When is enough enough?  When do we start living our national values?  When do we again become the shining light on the hill?

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHEROF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Share
 Older Entries  Newer Entries