It has been quite awhile since I did an Open Thread but there is just so much going on that I could not keep quiet. I am not American and I get frustrated with all the BS I see coming out of the White House and Senate. I certainly can appreciate that Americans will be a hundred times more frustrated than me. The late John Turner, the 17th Prime Minister of Canada and a Liberal, who died two weeks ago at age 91 said “Democracy does not happen by accident. Become involved! Get out there! Give something back!” That is the only way Trump and Republicans will be defeated.
Vote like your life depends on it, because it does!
Cartoon
From Common Dreams
Just send my royalties to the Biden Harris Campaign!!! I am ready for my closeup now, Mr DeMille!
The Guardian — Donald Trump suggested on Thursday that relatives of fallen soldiers could have given him coronavirus after they visited the White House ,..
In a phone interview with the Fox Business TV channel on Thursday morning, Trump complained about coming into close contact with the veterans’ families in a gathering one day after an event at the White House where Trump nominated a new supreme court judge. Many senior figures in attendance later tested positive for Covid-19.
Of the Gold Star families event at the White House on Sunday 27 September, Trump told Fox he “went through, like 35 people” whose family members had died, “and everyone had a different story”, adding: “I can’t back up and say: ‘Give me room. I want room. Give me 12 feet. Stay 12 feet away when you talk,’” he said.
Of course it was the Gold Star families that gave Trump the corona virus. Give me a break! After the better part of a year downplaying the virus and not wearing a mask, even at packed rallies, the idiot Trump (I know, that is an insult to real idiots) has the temerity to try to blame Gold Star families who likely had to be tested before entering the WH. The super spreader event the day before to introduce Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his SCOTUS nominee to replace the deceased Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, after which multiple people have since tested positive, were not at the reception for the Gold Star families. This is classic Trump modus operandi, blame someone else and do not accept responsibility for anything! There is additional information at Slate about the two events. I wonder why the Gold Star families were not wearing masks and if any of them have developed COVID-19.
CNN — President Donald Trump has been celebrating the dose of experimental monoclonal antibodies he was given last Friday, saying he thinks it helped him vanquish his coronavirus infection in record time.
“It was incredible the impact it had,” he said in a video he tweeted Thursday.
What he didn’t say is that the treatment was developed using technology his administration has worked for four years to ban.
It has to do with abortion politics, and the science of using human tissue to test and to make medicines. Regeneron’s therapy indirectly relied on tissue taken from an abortion.
Trump’s base, of course, is strongly against abortion rights and his administration acted quickly to reverse many Obama era policies — including policies that moved forward scientific research involving human fetal tissue. …
People against abortion rights oppose both uses, as does the Trump administration. The US Department of Health and Human Services has stopped the National Institutes of Health from obtaining any more fetal tissue for research and has set up a board that has virtually stopped it from funding any academic groups that use it.
How do you spell HYPOCRISY? T-R-U-M-P and R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N-S! The only good Republican is an unemployed Republican!!!
Common Dreams — Law enforcement officials announced Thursday they had charged 13 suspects with conspiracy to commit kidnapping and terrorism crimes, after an investigation revealed the right-wing plotters had planned to overthrow the state government of Michigan and take Gov. Gretchen Whitmer hostage.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Thursday afternoon that while six men—all of whom were arrested by agents on Wednesday night—were being charged in federal court related to the kidnapping plot, another seven men, all linked to a group called Wolverine Watchmen and allegedly planning an attack on the Michigan State Capitol, are being charged in state court.
According to an affidavit filed as part of a federal criminal complaint on Thursday, hours after FBI agents raided one of the suspects’ homes in Hartland Township, Michigan, the men began plotting a coup earlier this year and had been making preparations for a violent takeover since the summer. …
“This is a pattern: Trump paints a target. An attack or plot follows,” tweeted Washington Post national security correspondent Greg Miller—one of several observers who connected the president’s rhetoric to the violent plot. [emphasis added]
Do you remember this picture? Right-wing protestors tried to storm the Michigan Capitol in April 2020 with the intent to gain access to the Assembly floor after Trump tweeted “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” ON 17/04/2020. They were confined to the rotunda but that was not the end of the story.
As we see today, the FBI have made arrests — 6 who face federal charges and 7 who face state charges. This is not a spur of the moment action, but an organised action, well planned and about to be unleashed by these domestic terrorists. In some ways, there is little difference between the actions of Sarah Palin when Gabby Giffords and 17 others were shot or killed by Jared Loughner in Tucson, Arizona in 2011. Palin put a bullseye on Gifford and Loughner reacted. This time it was Trump who put a bullseye on Gov Gretchen Witmer and stoked the flames with his rhetoric. Words have power! Is this what “the American experiment” now means? Trump golfs while the nation burns because of his demagoguery, stupidity, narcissism and lust for power!
As follow-up to these arrests and Witmer’s comments about Trump’s rhetoric (CNN), the “Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller lambasted the governor, who had tied Trump’s rhetoric to the plot in earlier televised remarks,” Later, in an interview with CNN, Witmer said:
“”I think that tells you everything that’s at stake in this election,” she said. “It tells you everything you need to know about the character of the two people on this ballot that we have to choose from in a few weeks.”” [emphasis added]
For his part, Trump responded with a series of tweets:
“Governor Whitmer of Michigan has done a terrible job. She locked down her state for everyone, except her husband’s boating activities,” he wrote, urging her in another tweet to “open up your state, open up your schools, and open up your churches!”
Nancy Pelosi. as noted in The Guardian, is setting up a commission in Congress to determine whether Trump can be removed from office under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. While the House can do this, it would be up to the Vice President and members of the cabinet to carry it out. That will never happen. Pence has his nose so far up Trump’s ass, I am surprised he can even breathe.
Good luck America! You’re going to need it until the Squatter in the White House is gone!!!
Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!!
19 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 09 October 2020”
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What a joy to read, Lynn. No, not so much the contents; no matter how eloquently presented, they remain basically disheartening. But you hit the nail on the head in every case you bring against Trump and his cronies.
I think Nancy Pelosi knows well that her 25th amendment case will never take off but some Republicans will have to make a stand when asked and it will undoubtedly drive even crasier tha he already is. Her intentions are nothing more than to drive Trump completely around the bend and have Republicans in Congress forsake him if he won’t concede to having lost the election. Having to concede will finish him off.
I hear a parody playing in my head:
Although I am poking a little fun at the situation, disaster planning and continuity planning are essential for any business or government. That is what Nancy is doing — some of the prep work that will aid Congress in the future. I say that as someone who was charged with developing a continuity plan for our operation before I retired.
Thanks Lona!
Cartoon: Yep!
The Guardian: I am so sick & tired of dt blaming everyone else, and not himself for his behavior and his words and so very hypocritical. He’s like a petulant child in not getting his way, with his whining. ugh!
CD: So glad that law enforcement found out who they were, and arrested them! Downright scary for the Governor, and her aides.
The Guardian: Nancy P. deserves the utmost respect. She’s looking out for us, and she knows what she is doing. And,….he plays into her hands with his rants, and unsupervised tweets….
Great post, Thank you, Lynn.
That’s what malignant narcissists do — blame others for their own short comings so they don’t have to take responsibility, ever! I think Trump took master classes in not taking responsibility unless it is something good ie the stock market going up. I no relief in sight unless he is soundly defeated, but even then he will still crow about the “rigged” election and the rigged judicial system when he is brought to trial for all his nefarious dealings.
The situation in Michigan is scary! Makes me wonder how many other Governors are in Trump’s crosshairs. Such a despicable little slug!
Thanks Lynn–I’d add that Trump has reportedly got a financial interest in the firm with the drug he did the infomercial for and that the other new drug he got at Walter Reed also used the fetal tissue in its development. While some so-called pro-life voices view it as OK because it was all done before the administration’s new rules prohibiting, not all similar voices have been willing to take that inconsistent position.
It is noteworthy that Barr remains silent on Michigan–yet thankfully he has not stopped the FBI from doing their sworn job to protect us from such domestic terrorism even if he has gotten Senator Johnson to stop action in the Senate on the fully bipartisan bill to add such a definition to statute that passed the House recently:Trump DOJ ‘Technical Concerns’ Help Block Bill Targeting White SupremacistsThe block by Senate Republicans came in the same week the president refused to condemn white supremacists and told a neo-fascist gang to “stand by.”https://www.huffpost.com/entry/domestic-terror-bill-white-supremacists-blocked-justice-department-gop-ron-johnson_n_5f7ca205c5b6e5aba0d0efd2
Thanks JL! It’s good to see you back more regularly!
I was reading that Trump had a financial interest in Regeneron which does not really surprise me given how corrupt he is. I wonder what his complete quid pro quo is for his infomercial from the WH!
Barr is another sleazeball with his nose so far up Trumps ass that it is a wonder he can still breathe!
Guardian – Does he think CoViD-19 has a mind of its own> Or that it transmits on the basis of how positive or negative people feel about the people they do or might transmit it to? Give me a break. The reverse is more like ly to be true (although if it were 100% true he would never have gotten it – no one, absolutely no one, likes him.) Of course they had different stories, you jerk – they each had different loved ones who were killed. Knowing who he is, I can’t grasp why any God Star family would want to tell him their story, only to have it mocked.
CNN – Noe, Lynn, you know the pro-file party doesnt actually care about saving lives, only about controlling women. And you als know he is not smart enough to know, nor curious enough to care, where anything comes from (except immigrants.) P.S. They can also cause trouble when unemplyed – look at the Arrogant Manchildren and all the Karens. No, the only good Republican is an incarcerated Republican.
CD – Governor Whitmer responded like a real leader – with high praise for the operatives who foiled the plot, and with substantive advice on how to minimize the odds of future incidents. “Many people are saying”* that she’d be a good cabinet member, though Michiganders are rersponding, “Noooo! We need her?” (* and when I say that, you can take it to the bank that I have seen comments on the ‘net in good number, though I may not be able to tell you where.)
Thank you, Lynn! And in particular for your good wishes! From your keyboard to God’s monitor!
“They can also cause trouble when unemplyed – look at the Arrogant Manchildren and all the Karens. No, the only good Republican is an incarcerated Republican.”
I take your point and stand corrected!
Witmer IS a leader, something that Trump knows nothing about. He is a dicktator!
YVW JD!
Wonderful Lynn! If 90% of US voters knew 10% of what you do about US politics, this country would be infinitely better off. I’m sure that I can safely say that I am not alone in saying that “Squatch’s Open Thread” needs to become a regular feature of this site.
Thanks boss primus of bosses! Back when you were off with your leg issue, I decided to join in to cover for you. I found that to be daunting but I did it daily for about 2-3 months for you. I have been thinking of publishing more regularly now that my schedule is quieter. We’ll see what happens.
BTW, what I learned about US politics came primarily from you and the fact that I am a social democrat (NDPer here) willing to look and learn.
Cartoon: This election is the most important one our country has ever faced. Hopefully Biden/Harris will be the winning team, otherwise many of us will be wishing we could move to another planet, to avoid the disaster that will take place here on Earth.
Guardian: tRump and his ill minded thoughts. He had it well before he meet with the Gold Star Families. We are so sick of his dumbas* remarks. He’s the one who called it “Fake News” for the first three months, then said it would go away, never wore a mask and continued going to rallies. With all of his ill acts, I’m surprise it didn’t attack him way sooner. The W.H. Covid-19 count is up to 34. He’s already saying that he want to go out rallying again, spread it more to his loyal fans. Hey the more he kills, the less voters he’ll have.
CNN: Agree with Joanne.
CD: I’m grateful that the FBI was able to get these terrorists well before they were able to do harm to Governor Whitmer and her staff. I agree with her thought about tRump encouraging these terrorists. May they all rot in hel* for there evilness…that includes tRump too.
Guardian: I’m all for standing behind Nancy P. Too bad pEnce is so far up tRump’s as* that he doesn’t give a damn about us, the people.
Thanks for posting Lynn. Really enjoyed readying it.
Thanks Colleen!
“tRump and his ill minded thoughts.” — Ill minded? How about deranged, delusional, corrupt, anti social, and repugnant! You’re too polite in describing the Squatter! LOL!
I see in today’s news that he held his first post-diagnosis event on the south lawn of the WH (he on the balcony above them in dicktator fashion) with a sea of MAGAt hats in attendance. I wonder who will pay to have the lawn sodded yet again? And here I thought that the WH and grounds were not to be used for campaigning as they are The People’s!
I wholeheartedly agree with you and Gov. Whitmer: Those cretins should not be called “militia” – but Domestic Terrorists, which is exactly what they are!
AMEN Nameless! I wonder if they could be incarcerated at Gitmo after they get their fair trial? After all, they are terrorists doing more damage to the Homeland than any other foreign terrorist!
Hey there. Could you please tell TomCat that I finally found his blog after all this time! I was lookin for it and lost it when Care2 dissolved. Hope he is doin good with all the smoke up there and Covid19. Man. Haven’t heard from him in a loooong time. Best wishes to all in the Catbox and I’ll be back since I know where you are now!!
Voting from home for #BidenHarris2020 and all BLUE all the way down ballot!! Sent ballot in today!!
Welcome back Viv!!! The changes at Care2 rather put a spanner in the works, didn’t they!
I’ll tell TC to look at your comment and I am sure he’ll reach out.
“Voting from home for #BidenHarris2020 and all BLUE all the way down ballot!! Sent ballot in today!!” —- AMEN!!!
She didn’t have to tell me, since it was I who sent you the link.
Hiya Dawgsie!
We are nonetheless blessed from your presence, Squatch.
Amen!