It’s been a busy day here in the CatBox. I received as notice from Google that, unless I fix a database error, PP articles will not appear in searches. After hours of digging, I finally chased it down to a Friday Fun in 2017 and deleted it. I hope it fixes the problem and will know after Google rescans the site. WWWendy is coming tonight to destink a very smelly TomCat and help with chores.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:11 (average 5:49). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (CNN Channel): These Democrats will make life harder for Trump in 2019
American Heroes, one and all! RESIST!!
From Common Dreams: In what human rights groups condemned as a "cruel and inhumane" act that must be independently investigated, agents with President Donald Trump’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Tuesday reportedly hit women, children, and journalists near the U.S.-Mexico border with tear gas, smoke, and pepper spray.
According to an Associated Press photographer present at the scene, CBP agents fired "at least three volleys of gas" into Mexico at around 150 asylum-seekers who approached the border in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Contradicting CBP’s claim that the tear gas was used to deter migrants who were throwing rocks over the border fence, the AP photographer said rocks were thrown "only after U.S. agents fired the tear gas."
Are Republicans starting a terrorist border war with Mexico? RESIST!!
From Mother Jones: Earlier this month, the US Department of Agriculture issued new nutrition standards for school lunches that make it easier for schools to offer less healthy meals to students.
The new rules significantly dilute the high standards set by the Obama administration’s 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which required that federally subsidized school lunch programs provide meals that meet certain nutrition standards: for instance, bread that is whole-grain rich, flavored milk that is nonfat, and lower levels of sodium across the board. Those standards were meant to address growing health concerns for children across the United States, including rising levels of obesity. The changes announced earlier this month undo the whole grain, nonfat milk, and sodium rules set by former President Barack Obama.
Rolling back healthy lunch standards has long been a priority for USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue, who in 2017 announced that his department was looking at the lunch rules. Perdue, a former Georgia governor and a supporter of chocolate milk, said in a statement last year that schools should have more control over the kind of food they serve in cafeterias.
“Schools want to offer food that students actually want to eat,” Purdue said as he announced the planned changes last year. “It doesn’t do any good to serve nutritious meals if they wind up in the trash can,” he added.
But experts believe that the more nutritious meals offered in schools following the Obama-era law aren’t going in the trash. Recent studies indicate that kids are getting used to the healthier meals—they are eating more fruits and veggies at lunch, and they’re starting to like them.
Republicans are what they want American kids to eat: garbage. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
8 Responses to “Open Thread – 1/2/2019”
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5:20 My first thought was “OMG, I hope that’s not a real cow!” but they were careful to say it was a model.
I wore myself out yesterday (and triggered allergies) and didn’t even realize to what extent until I woke up very late, stopped up and sneezing. Being a delayed reactor will most times save a person from dying of anaphylaxis, but then it can also prevent one from realizing quite how exposed one is getting. I’ll be fine, just complaining among friends.
This from the New Yorker has a lot of food for thought. One short quote: “She thinks it’s fine for some people to earn more than others. If you’re a brilliant potter, and people want to pay you more than the next guy for your pottery, great! (If you’re just O.K. but want to work extra industriously for the difference, that’s fair, too.) The problem isn’t that talent and income are distributed in unequal parcels. The problem is that Jeff Bezos earns more than a hundred thousand dollars a minute, while Amazon warehouse employees, many talented and hardworking, have reportedly resorted to urinating in bottles in lieu of a bathroom break. That circumstance reflects some structure of hierarchical oppression. It is a rip in the democratic fabric, and it’s increasingly the norm.”
CNN – Ways & Means, Financial Services, Oversight, Judiciary (2). Yes, the people are American heroes indeed. But I find it possibly even more comforting to look at the Committee names. That’s where the power comes from.
CD – Oh, Republicans are lying. It must be Wednesday.
MoJo – You have to give Mother credit for being the only news outlet which systematically follows the relationships between food and politics. (Incidentally, from what I have seen, food is only thrown out in schools when someone is found to have a slight backlog in paying the school.) On another note, who would ever trust a man named “Sonny”?
Cartoon – You know, we didn’t have ANY immigration laws at all until the 1870’s. Completely open borders. Part of what made America “great” in the first place. It ought to be MAGAts screaming for open borders.
CNN: Gawd, I’m so excited and giddy with this wonderful & great news!! Bring IT ON, Dems!!!
CD: This is downright sickening!! Treat people with respect, and it gets returned tenfold, imho.
MJ: Having had lunch duty in schools for many years, most of the students enjoyed their fruits and veggies, and I always felt that it it was better for them, instead of the junk one sees now in supermarkets and schools. dt will do anything to cut out anything that has Mr. Obama’s name on it. How unfortunate that is.
Cartoon: We embraced them all back then. Look at us now. How sad.
Hi, WWWendy! Hope you had a good Holiday! Hope that you have a good, relaxing evening, take good care, and Thanks, Tom.
*This just in: “In my estimation, the National debt could be wiped clean if Donald Trump’s impeachment trial was pay-per-view.” ~ Anon ~
CNN: Schiff needs to find what Nunes has been hiding! More power to all of them! But, any impeachment move without the votes in the Senate, is doomed to failure, and will unleash the fury of an emboldened Drumph.
CD: I saw the tear gas news last night, and as horrid as it was for the victims thereof, it was, the tear gas was sent across the border, into another sovereign country!! WTF??!!
MJ: Any spending on anyone but the wealthy, is anathema to the GOPIGGIES! As well, one must note that malnourished kids, and people in general, but especially kids, can not learn properly…exactly the GOP agenda! Wealthy people tend to not care about “others,” as has been found in brain imaging experiments. They are even less apt to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks!!
‘Toon: Send Dumphy back!!!
CNN: I also am getting excited to see what will be going on when the Democrats take over. tRump has been crying worse than a spoiled brat all week long that he’s been alone. Sure hope they feel like me and show no sympathy to his whines..
CD: The news tonight was saying that the border parole may of shot the tear gas before the rock throwing started. We shall see where this goes?
MJ: Truly despicable the way they significantly dilute the high standards for these children. Heartless creeps.
Cartoon: Sure wish we could turn back time.
Makin trump’s life harder…. WoopWoop!!! ?
4:16 (average 5:39) A few years ago these colourful painted fibreglass cows with the weirdest fantasy prints and dress-up were everywhere around Europe, especially in the streets and squares of major cities as part of the Cow Parade, a travelling public art exhibit.
CNN: I agree, heroes, all of them. Nevertheless there’s something very awkward about all of these excellent people spending so much time, effort, and money looking in the wrongdoings (forget about alleged) of a president, having no time left for rebuilding the country after the Republicans ransacked it, especially when prolonged legal battles and uncertain outcomes are predicted. Things have been fundamentally wrong for a long time – not just the past two years – if so much talent is perhaps wasted with little to gain. But I understand; for things to change structurally, these commissions need to show the public how purposefully deplorable Republicans have done their job of oversight.
CD: So American CBP units fired into Mexico. It may not have been with bullets or shells, but it still is a violation of Mexico’s sovereign border space, isn’t it? These units probably got their ideas from Netanyahu’s Borders 101. Drumpf’s idea for a wall is in there too and next they’ll begin to shoot at alleged rock throwers with snipers. They are all gang members after all, right?
MJ: The only reason Republicans want to lower the standard of school meals, beside it being Obama’s idea, is that they offer the cheap, low-quality food at the same rate. It’s all about making money, even if it’s at the expense of children’s health.
Cartoon: Or keep them there indefinitely, like the Aussies do. ?
Dang! They were fiberglass?!!? I was going to eat one and blow kitty-farts in technicolor.
Thanks and hugs.
Puzzle — 4:13 Cow-abunga! Sorry Puddy Tat, but this is not edible except in your dreams!
CNN — Now that is some awesome power and from what I have seen in the past, these people have integrity up the whazoo, unlike their Republican counterparts such as Devin Nunes. I am not saying they are perfect, but yes, they are American heroes.
Common Dreams — Republicans ARE terrorists! However firing into Mexico, not on one occasion but two as I recall now? To me that is truly an attack on Mexico, an invasion unlike the caravan that had not even reached the border when Trump labelled it an invasion.
Mother Jones — What crap! Does this mean that “pink slime” is back? If kids don’t get proper nutrition, their brains don’t properly develop. Is this how Trump and Republicans make sure future generations don’t rise up — don’t let them develop into thinking people but keep them as the zombie generations?
Cartoon — If you do, you have to include grandfather Trump (Drumpf) too and his issue, Diaper Don.