It’s a busy day here in the CatBox. WWWendy and I had Subway yesterday. Tomorrow please expect no more than a Personal Update with no links messages on Care2. Anne from CCC and I are going to the Madrona Studios for a look-see at what I hope will be the new CatBox.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:33 (average 5:01). To do it it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (Jesse Dollemore Channel): WATCH Emma Vigeland From The Young Turks Try Her Best to Reason With Off-The-Rails MAGA Lady!
I have to agree with Jesse. Most Republican Sheeple are so far gone that their political IQ is lower than their weekly intercourse count. And Sheeple sex life is BAAAA-A-A-A-A-AAD! RESIST!!
From Reuters: U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials knew in 2016 about a private Facebook group where border agents posted racist and misogynistic comments, acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan said on Sunday.
McAleenan said on ABC’s “This Week” that he had been told about an allegation in 2016 “that was investigated, followed up on, and that discipline was meted out on an agent that made an offensive post on that website.”
The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) service came under fire over the issue last Monday, when the nonprofit news site ProPublica reported that offensive content had been posted on a private Facebook group for current and former CPB officers.
Posts included jokes about the deaths of migrants and sexually explicit comments referring to U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the news outlet said.
Clearly the CBP racism problem existed before this Republican Reich, but now that racism is the avowed administration policy, it has become epidemic. RESIST!!
From NY Times: The death threats started in 2015, when Walter Lübcke defended the refugee policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel. A regional politician for her conservative party, he would go to small towns in his district and explain that welcoming those in need was a matter of German and Christian values.
Hateful emails started pouring in. His name appeared on an online neo-Nazi hit list. His private address was published on a far-right blog. A video of him was shared hundreds of thousands of times, along with emojis of guns and gallows and sometimes explicit calls to murder him: “Shoot him now, this bastard.”
And then someone did.
On June 2, Mr. Lübcke was fatally shot in the head on his front porch, in what appears to be Germany’s first far-right political assassination since the Nazi era. The suspect — who made a detailed confession last month, only to retract it this past week under a new legal team — has a violent neo-Nazi past and police record, renewing criticism that Germany’s security apparatus, with its long track record of neglecting far-right extremism, is still failing to take the threat seriously enough.
The German Nazi Party inspired today’s Republican Reich. Now today’s Republican Reich inspires the resurgence of Nazism in Germany. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
9 Responses to “Open Thread – 7/8/2019”
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The other JD: I can’t wrap my head at this woman’s rationale and line of thinking….gawd knows we have some here with this line of logic…..ugh! Jesse’s ending statement said it best…go Dems!!
Reuters: Horrible that this is even happening! All should be fired for this disgraceful behavior, and any who knew of this.
NYT: omg. This is so sad, that this is happening. Not only here in the US, but overseas as well. The R’s are coming out of the woodwork now. How tragic that this man died for speaking out in defense of the refugees…..
Cartoon: Hopefully..there will be more…
Good Luck for tomorrow! Hopefully, your trip to see your new pad will go well, and that you will like it! Enjoy your day, take good care, and Thanks, Tom.
*This just in: dt – “The Mexicans love me. They always call me ‘Peachy Cool’.” “No…what they’re really saying is ‘Pinche Culero’, (ignorant a$$hole).” ~ anon ~
5:43 Too much orange. I suppose it’s probably yellow actually, but all I can see is orange.
Other JD – The problem in budgeting is that I can guarantee that in every congressional district in which one of these cultists resides (which is probably every district) there is also at least one person who might be persuadable. And unless you try, you don’t know which is which. See this article from Daily Kos for an example.
Reuters – I seriously considered using this for Erinyes when it came out last Monday. I didn’t because by Wednesday it had been seen in so many places I didn’t want to overload people. Which doesn’t mean it isn’t good to try to keep it alive. Maybe I’ll still use it down the road when other things have pushed it off the front pages. Perhaps the scariest thing is that CBP is said to have 19,000 employees, and this group has 9,500 members. The math is simple.
NYT – My deepest condolences to the family and friends of Herr Lübcke. And to those sane German people who have cried out against RWNJ thinking, both before his death, and since. Maybe the worst part of privilege isn’t just that it blinds you to the sufferings of others, but that it also blinds you from realizing that someone who looks like you can be serious about insane threats. Or maybe it’s a tie.
Cartoon – An impressive achievement. Following up on it would have been nice.
Oh myyyyy.
This just in.
Jeff Sessions Redux.
Dollemore: “…to come back to planet Earth?” “…to appeal to rational Americans who were taken in….” I agree, no money, or time and effort, ought to be spent in trying to reach so many of these cultists. The woman interviewed may never have been on planet Earth, and probably does not know what rationality even smells like! As I’ve said previously, one good(?) lesson from the Dumpy’s existence, is our learning just how amazingly stupid so many of our fellow country people are!
Reuters: Just sad.
NYT: Condolences and condemnations! Herr Lübcke is just the newest victim of Trumpism, which is tied to the apparent tide of hatred towards anyone “different,” that is simmering in the toxic underbelly of humanity, around the world.
‘Toon: So, here we are 9 years later, and the majority of passenger vehicles seen on the road, in my experience, are gas guzzling, oversized SUV’s, here in ” Never-never-land.”
While the Dollemore interview was entertaining, the only thing I would say to the blathering idiot Trumpkin:
“Go Home! YOU’RE DRUNK!”
JD: Seems confused and too mixed up to me.
Reuters: Despicable to read of these agents shameful actions. Agree with Pat that they should be fired and fined for their actions.
NYT: How awful. My deepest condolences to the family and friends of Herr Lübcke.
Good luck tomorrow, TC. Hope everything goes well with your visit with Anne from CCC.
Will be looking forward to hear the outcome on Wednesday.
3:10 Wouldn’t mind putting my feet up for a moment there.
Other JD: The interviewed woman is a perfect example of Trumpism: deaf, blind and dumb in all the wrong places, at all the wrong times. We need to accept that there are people like that. What we need not accept is that they take over the country with fraud, lies, voter suppression and intimidation, gerrymandering and with politicians that set the law and the rules of the land to their own wants and needs as they see fit. Focus on things that can be changed, please, Democrats. Not on those that are irrevocably lost.
Reuters: Haven’t you posted a short take in 2016,when the news broke, TomCat? It only goes to show that there’s nothing new under the sun and that so called disciplinary measures don’t mean a thing if the racist and misogynist culture is allowed to thrive and have become the new normal.
NYT: The news may be a month old, but certainly not less pertinent. The far-right Blut-und-Boden extremists are under far less scrutiny in Germany, and elsewhere, than the far-left or Muslim extremists, even though there are many more of them and their number is growing. A decade ago, they would have been arrested for their hate speech and inciting violence under German law, but slacker European laws on free speech and a growing influence of the far-right have brought the security apparatus to narrow their scope. With Merkel gone soon, it’ll only get worse.
Sometimes I wonder if Agent Orange opens his mouth just to change feet.
Thanks and Hurry Hugs.