Well Puddy Tat is back to posting so I hope everyone is tuning in. I said at the beginning of November that I hoped to post more often. TC’s illness kick started that for me so I will continue. I probably won’t post daily because it definitely takes a lot of time to research and write. Is it any wonder that Puddy Tat gets tired and run down! Welcome back Puddy Tat!!! On another note, I received the blood test results from my Winnie’s vet and they were very good . . . so good that he no longer needs insulin. In addition he has lost a total of 2.3 kg (5 lbs) over the past 8 weeks. I wish it were that easy for humans. Hope you are having a great weekend!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:55 (average 6:42). To do it, click here. How did you do? This is not the same puzzle as on TC’s OT.
Short Takes:
Common Dreams — For ten years, Jim Hightower’s weekly column – Little Puffs of Populism – has been distributed week in and week out by Creators’ Syndicate to newspapers around the country.
Not one problem.
Until this week’s column titled Free The Free Press from Wall Street Plunderers.
Earlier this week, Creators’s Syndicate informed Hightower they were not going to distribute this one.
Why not?
“The big, hedge-fund owned newspaper chains that Hightower calls out in his column are big customers of theirs, and as such, they don’t want to risk offending them,” said Hightower assistant Melody Byrd. “But while Creators’ reluctance to anger these powerful interests is somewhat understandable, the implications are frightening. It’s one more example of this dangerous time for America’s decreasingly-free press that, ironically, Jim lays out in this very column.”
In a note to newspapers urging them to run the column anyway, Byrd wrote – “the American people deserve to know more about the entities that are squeezing so many of our community newspapers for cash and, in the process, choking our democracy.”
Byrd said that Creators’ Syndicate told her that while the hedge funds that Hightower fingered in his column don’t own the syndicate, they do own many of the newspapers that the syndicate distributes to.
“The demise of the real news reporting by our city and regional papers is a product of their profiteering owners,” Hightower wrote in the column. “Not the families and companies that built and nurtured true journalism, but the new breed of fast-buck hucksters who’ve scooped up hundreds of America’s newspapers from the bargain bins of media sell-offs.”
There be “fake news” out there, but it be not the news that Trump calls out and condemns because he does not agree with him. The real “fake news” are the ones like those that Jim Hightower mentions, the ones guilty of profiteering at the expense of democracy.
DC Report — Its [Wednesday’s New York Times article] sole named source is Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s television lawyer. Giuliani acknowledged that information gleaned from Manafort’s meetings with FBI agents and prosecutors as a cooperating witness was being passed to Team Trump by Manafort lawyer Kevin Downing.
That one fact could well doom Trump’s presidency and perhaps land Trump and others behind bars. …
That Mueller’s team knew enough to say it can prove Manafort lied repeatedly and committed new crimes in doing so had to vex Trump. …
Two days after the election, Trump told a Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, the New York Post, that he would not “rule out” a pardon for Manafort, a signal to the jailed felon that he was still in good stead with Trump. Today Trump reiterated that position, which could be seen as obstruction of justice by dangling a pardon to cover up Trumpian crimes. …
If Trump and his lawyer relied on what Downing passed on from meetings with Team Mueller, using it to shape the written answers to Mueller’s questions, this double-agent legal game may blow up in Trump’s face. …
If I’m right about this, it may become crucial for state-level prosecutors in New York, Virginia, and the District of Columbia to indict Manafort sooner rather than later for felonies that he admitted under oath in his now broken cooperation agreement with Mueller.
I hope you will click through for David Cay Johnston’s entire article and the NY Times article he highlights. Rudy Giuliani? Now in my mind, Giuliani is a joke and has zero credibility for the most part. Does he really think he is helping Trump? More like helping him break into prison! You should also know that Trump can only pardon federal crimes, not state crimes. So if Trump pardons Manafort, state prosecutors should be ready to jump in and charge Manafort, something that Trump cannot touch with his pardon promises.
Common Dreams — With the Dec. 10 deadline for the House of Representatives to reverse the FCC’s deeply unpopular repeal of net neutrality rapidly approaching, a coalition of websites, prominent celebrity activists, and advocacy groups representing millions of Americans are participating in an internet-wide day of action on Thursday to pressure members of Congress to back the legislative effort to restore net neutrality protections before it’s too late.
During the day of action and in the week leading up to the final deadline, advocacy groups are urging supporters of the free internet to flood the phone lines of their representatives and sign on to their open letter to Congress demanding that they act to save net neutrality.
Read the full open letter and sign on here.
Congress is running out of time to overturn Ajit Pai’s #NetNeutrality repeal. Join us for the last epic push at http://DeadlineForNetNeutrality.com: arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…
Democracy depends on the free flow of thoughts and ideas. One need only look at China and other nations as examples where the free flow of thoughts and ideas are not allowed by the state. What is to stop Trump with his dictatorial bent (or any other “leader” for that matter) from taking over the internet? The first amendment in the 21st century depends on it! — SquatchAlterNet — With President Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen spilling the beans on Trump’s participation in his team’s illicit negotiations with the Russians in a plea agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller, the allegations of collusion are looking more serious by the day. And one person who does not come off looking good amid the whole affair is outgoing House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA), who will cease to lead the committee next year as Democrats assume the House majority.Nunes, a close ally of Trump, has gone to great lengths to twist his committee’s investigative power away from Trump’s ties to Russia and onto the supposed misconduct of federal investigators who were looking into Trump’s ties to Russia, from writing a shoddy, partisan memo that alleged the FBI improperly obtained FISA warrants against the Trump campaign, to traveling to London to try to get British intelligence officials to discredit ex-MI6 spy Christopher Steele’s dossier on Trump.
My Universe
. . . and I barely got my feet wet!!!
15 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 01 December 2018”
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WRT Mr. Hightower:
Absolutely perfect summarization of the sadly wonderful poem!!
Cats have the wonderful ability to heal their damaged pancreas and never have diabetes again as I found out after months of administering insulin to a cat hurt in an accident. Perhaps your Winnie is just as fortunate if you manage to keep his body weight under control, Lynn.
4:33, What a beauty, wonder what bird it’s after.
CD: So the Free Market, so coveted by the 1%, is the death of Free Journalism and Free Speech. Capitalism at its worst.
DCR: Drumpf, so dumb that he needs to call himself a genius in the hope others will believe it, habitually will not employ anyone who is smarter than he is, hence the loyalist like Giuliani and erstwhile loyalist Cohen. All other lawyers have left the building. As a result there appeared to be no intelligent lawyers around who could see through Mueller’s set-up. Mueller of course being a master at this chess game. I hope Drumpf’s hubris will finally bring him down.
CD: I supported Net Neutrality, but with the current Congress still dominated by Republicans I’ve got little hope they’ll listen and save it.
Alternet: I hope you’re right, Lynn, and Democrats put Nunes high on their priority list in January. I also hope there’s some evidence left in that basement, because he and his cronies – he wasn’t alone in this – will surely have it cleared out by now, if they haven’t burnt it all to cook the Thanksgiving turkey.
MU: ??
Wonderful news about your Winnie!!
Yup wish 5 pounds was that easy for us!!!
Petition, for net neutrality signed & shared.
Thanx Lynn
Want to lose weight like Winnie did? Do what Winnie did!
If for eight weeks you ate exactly what Winnie ate for those eight weeks, you probably would lose 30-40 pounds … I’m guessing, because i don’t really know what percentage of his initial weight Winnie lost, nor do I know what you or anyone else here weighs. But I doubt whether Winnie’s diet contained all the MDRs that humans need, if indeed any MDR. So the cost might be too high.
I did not mean eat what Winnie eats. ?
I’m guessing here, but I suspect that Winnie lost weigh because she ate less and/or ate a different diet. She needs to continue it, otherwise she will just gain back the weight.
Winnie lost weight because he ate almost exclusively protein and almost no carbs. This diet was begun for control of his recently diagnosed diabetes. The weight loss was a side effect but one that has helped his diabetes. The protein diet and weight loss are responsible for him no longer requiring insulin injections. He is staying on this diet.
CD: So sad !! Bit by bit, piece by piece…..nor do they care, unless it on their agenda/terms/rhetoric. ugh!
DCR: Good article by Mr. Johnston. Lays all the information out, how they did it, and lied, and lied some more, then got caught. Ooops…!
CD: Have signed. Thx!
AN: I think he’ll be toast too, he’s stuck in the mud, and will be caught, and rewarded with an investigation. YAY!
MU: Look at him go! Now, that’s one fast puppy!!!
Glad to read that your Winnie is doing good. That’s good news!! Enjoy your day, and relax! Thanks for your post.
This just in: ‘MAGA’ = ‘Many Are Getting Arrested.’ ~ Andy C. ~
CD: Signed, several times. Hedge fund owners, and the Republicans that they run with are in for the long haul, as far as trying to control the way things get defined within the culture, run the propaganda.
DCR: Giuliani is living in Donny’s Land of Grand Delusions, and may be the best mole the left has. If his machinations help bring down the Orange Fool, I might try to nominate him for a Nobel prize of some sort. Anything printed in a Murdoch run paper needs to be taken with several pounds of salt. State AG’s may have a Grand New Party with the Dumpster and his family.
CD, Again: A free internet is the best antidote!
‘Toon: Wonderful!
CD: Death of free speech? DCR: Good article. Giuliani is a disgrace just like his boss. Sick of their filthy games. .They feel that they are getting away with this and will soon have their bubble popped and all go to prison. Will be so happy when it all comes to an halt and our country can breath a big sigh of relief. CD: Signed the petition. We must get them to pass the free internet. Good to hear about Winnie. Cartoon: Good one.
Thanks Squatch. Great Job!
Thanks boss!
YVW!
Good grief! Five pounds in eight weeks is like 25-30 or more for one of us. My hat;s off to Winnie!
CD – I expect you can get this link from the source article, but you can read the censored column HERE at his blog, “The Hightower Lowdown.” (You can also subscribe, by email, in print, or both.) Pat B, have you ever met him?
DC – Manafort has ALREADY PLEADED GUILTY to STATE CHARGES as part of his plea deal. Gee, I wonder why Mueller made that a condition. Hmmm.
CD2 – signed. Used photo of Archie.
AlterNet – I’m not sure about an open fire in the Capitol building, but I do think Nunes is going to wish he had lost reelection.
Universe – I know a joke about that …
RESIST!!! and PURR-SIST!!!
Nameless’ Niemoller adaptation, Medieval version: