It’s another hot humid day, and I did not get much sleep last night. Tomorrow and Wednesday will be cooler, but it will take a day or too for the excess heat in the interior hallways and bathrooms of the building to moderate. After my morning Trump making on the throne at 5:45 AM, I had to change my shirt, as the one I had on was wet. I have a reason for not covering the Manchester Arena attack. I had MSNBC on for three hours last night through Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and Lawrence O’Donnell, and none of them covered any other news. They repeated mostly the same information over and over and over again. I would never downplay the tragic loss suffered by the dead, the injured, the traumatized and their families. They have been in my thoughts and prayers. However the losses from that one incident cannot begin to compare to the tragic losses of both life and human suffering that the policies Republicans have wanted for many years will bring. Therefore, I’ll cover other things that need covering.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:07 (average 5:15). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (GQ Channel): This is How Low the Trump Apologists Will Stoop | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann
Republicans could not be more desperate to project their Fuhrer’s treason away. One cannot stoop lower than fronting the story with Scumbag Sean and Newtered. RESIST!!
From Daily Kos: Because he never stops being an entitled jackass:
President Trump’s first major budget proposal on Tuesday will include massive cuts to Medicaid and call for changes to anti-poverty programs that would give states new power to limit a range of benefits …
… The White House also is expected to propose changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, though precise details couldn’t be learned. SNAP is the modern version of food stamps …
Every penny spent to provide for the needs of sick seniors or hungry children is a penny Republicans can’t give to a billionaire. RESIST!!
From NY Times: The Trump administration, in a significant escalation of its clash with the government’s top ethics watchdog, has moved to block an effort to disclose the names of former lobbyists who have been granted waivers to work in the White House or federal agencies.
The latest conflict came in recent days when the White House, in a highly unusual move, sent a letter to Walter M. Shaub Jr., the head of the Office of Government Ethics, asking him to withdraw a request he had sent to every federal agency for copies of the waivers. In the letter, the administration challenged his legal authority to demand the information.
Mr. Shaub returned a scalding, 10-page response to the White House late Monday, unlike just about any correspondence in the history of the office, created after the Nixon Watergate scandal.
“O.G.E. declines your request to suspend its ethics inquiry and reiterates its expectation that agencies will fully comply with its directive,” Mr. Shaub wrote in a letter he also sent to every federal agency ethics officer, six members of Congress who oversee government operations and the inspector generals from agencies governmentwide. “Public confidence in the integrity of government decision making demands no less.”
Kudos to Schaub and O.G.E. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
13 Responses to “Open Thread – 5/23/2017”
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5:13 Too fast for me.
Good grief. These are the projected temperature highs and lows for us this week:
DAY HIGH/LOW
Today 63/39
Wednesday 80/51
Thursday 77/47
Friday 72/49
Saturday 63/43
RIP Roger Moore. To me you will always be The Saint.
Keith #77 – Reminds me of Al Franken's book title, "Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them." I do wish Keith wouldn't slander pigs, though. They are smarter (and sweeter) than Republicans. Incidentally, Keith makes an excellent case that if there is no Hell, we would have to invent one. Human beings with any actual humanity just cannot live with, and can't be expected to live with, the despair that comes with thinking or fearing that scum this evil won't – somehow – have to pay for it. Which is why I run my "Erinyes" column.
DKos – Well, there is a multitude of petitions opposing the budget an many different grounds, and all valid. Daily Kos no doubt has at least ne. Shorrod Brown has one. Raul Ruiz has one. Of course Jeff Merkley has one. That's just off the top of my head; I know there are more. At leasy we can do that.
NYTimes – It looks like the OGE is an independent office so that Trump can't fire him, though of coursr he will try. Lawyer up, Mr. Schaub! We need you!
Cartoon – The only tragedy was that he cheated the gallows. Or whatever they were using at that time and place. I think it was the gallows. Does anyone know when and where the photo was taken? I ask because, contrary to popular belief and to art, people's eyes open and stay open upon death (and their jaws sag.) If it purports to have been taken when and where he fell dead, I am skeptical.
Thank goodness for the O.G.E.SHAUB!!! So proud of his sticking to his ethics!!! That's SOMETHING that tRump wholey lacks!!!
RESIST!!!
KO: Yeah, the hole gets deeper and deeper, with the bs, and lies!! unreal.!!
NYT: Good for you, and Kudos to Mr. Shaub for standing up against this administration!
Cartoon: "On Hitler's behalf, Himmler formed the Einsatzgruppen and built extermination camps. As facilitator and overseer of the concentration camp he murdered millions of people. Himmler took the coward's way out, imho.
*Joanne: The photo was taken by Lance Corporal Guy Adderley of British Intelligence in May 1945.
*http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/8329493/Picture-of-Heinrich-Himmler-moments-after-suicide-on-sale.html
Dated: 16 Feb 2011
It's been cool here, I wear sweatpants in the a.m. Global warming, y'all. Hope you have a good evening, take care, and Thanks, Tom.
A LEAK THAT WE CAN USE
The private email address that the Senate Committee working on their version of the AHCA sent to CORPORATIONS and asked them for their input has been leaked! It is healthreform@finance.senate.gov Now WE can use it to send comments – today is the deadline, unfortunately – from the other side of the fence. There's no canned letter, one has to write one'sown email, sadly, but i'll bet PP readers can mostly do that.
Keith: Gingrich has to be one of the scuzziest Pile of Shits around! The rest are little shits.
DK: This is the GOPig agenda in full bloom, tearing food from the mouths of the hungry, some of whom happily cast their possibly last vote, for their jackass!
NYT: "Integrity?" With this bunch of puss?
Cartoon: But, first, he and his wife poisoned their children!
Puzzle — 4:00 To quote a Mazda commercial, "Zoom! Zoom!"
YouTube — I listened to #77 and #78 this morning with interest. As to Hannity and Gingrich, a million diseased camels could piss on these two (and many other Republicans) and it still would not be enough. I cannot add to what Keith said other than my total disgust for these two immoral POS.
Daily Kos — Notice the Republicans opted to bring down the budget while Drumpfenfarten is away in the Middle East and Europe. I wonder, is that to prevent him being asked questions, answers to which he is likely to contradict what his people are saying? It would not surprise me since he has, IMO, such an addled brain. I hope that the people who voted for him, when they see the budget cuts, will wonder why they put him in office. Mind, I am not going to hold my breath on that one. He is a USDA grade A grifter and fraudster.
NY Times — AMEN!!! Schaub has not been castrated by Republican political hacks and Drumpf with his bullying ways.
Cartoon — An ignominious death, the coward's way. May Drumpf and his administration suffer such an ignominious end.
Resist and Persist!!!
I did not sleep well last night as I was afraid I would sleep in and miss a telephone call from the UK. Once that was done, a few chores and then some time with my furbabes before we headed off to the vet's. The babes were very glad to see their Dr G who is also their godfather. There was a brand new vet shadowing him who was very impressed with my 3 because they were so relaxed, friendly and loving. All 3 have lost a little weight which is good and received a clean bill of health which makes this mum very happy. We arrived home just in time before the wind started. It is gusting at the 40 – 50 km/hr range. I swear the trees infront of my livingroom are twisting in the wind like there is no tomorrow. The big evergreen which is at least 46 cm (18 in) in diametre looks like it could come down. I hope not as it gives me privacy from the apartment towers across the street. Tomorrow is very busy with physio, a hair cut, teaching and a meeting. I think I shall sleep well Thursday night as it will be 3 very busy days in a row. I hope the temps and humidity have abated so that you can get some sleep. Take care.
How I envy you your docile critters. I have to put leather gloves on to get mine out of the cage at the vets – unless he's really sick. And it's to the point I don't go unless he's really sick. Just takes too much out of him, me and the vet for a confrontation.
Thankfully he's an indoor cat, and is on his full Hill's CD diet (wet and dry).
Say, how often do you change out your whole box of cat litter, assuming you use the clumping kind? I can't really find a good answer to that – at least a reasonable one.
Do you haver a Brit boyfriend?
Me a boyfriend? Nah! Just a hold over matter from when I worked for HSBC. They owe me money! I have lived here for 28 years this August which includes all the time I worked for them. You'd think they'd know how to get intouch with me to repatriate the funds.
I was hoping for something more salacious.
Right now my thoughts are with the relatives and friends of those 22 victims of the bombing massacre in Manchester, UK, with those of the many critically wounded in hospital and with those of the missing, who still hope their loved ones will still turn up alive.
Apparently many of the 22 bodies were so terribly mangled that on the first day only three victims were identified and family and friends started a frantic search on social media for the many people that had gone missing after the blast in the hope they had ended up dazed somewhere else or wounded in hospital. Only six more of those missing have been identified by now among the victims, leaving the families and friends of the remainder in desperation. As the suicide bomber blew himself up in the foyer during a concert of a teenage idol, the dead and missing are either children and young people, or parents waiting for to pick up their children. Targeting these very young and innocent people has made the attack even more heinous.
Many people are finding this helpful; of course many of us who are have childhood (or adult) memries that tie in which in the Netherlands I would guess those are absent, butstill.
Thanks all. Very tired hugs!