Jul 162020
 

It’s a busy muggy day here in the CatBox.  My back is painful today.  Store to Door should come with my groceries between 11 AM and 1 PM.  By now WWWendy is on a plane.  Her plans changed, and she’s going to CO instead of CA.  JD, you ought to give her a call.  She’ll land around 1 PM your time.  Everyone, please keep her in your thoughts and and prayers.  If you find yourself in an elevator with a Republican, please fart.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:51 (average 4:37).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0716TrumpVirusMap

Map Reference: click through for interactive map

US Cases: 3,618,739
US Deaths: 140,185

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Trying out a new line of attack against the former Vice-President, Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Joe Biden could never have a pandemic as big as his.

“Biden was Vice-President for eight years and had all the time in the world to have a pandemic,” Trump said. “Where was his pandemic?”

By contrast, Trump asserted, “In just a few months, I’ve built the biggest pandemic this country has seen in a hundred years.”

“People are going to be talking about my pandemic for generations to come,” Trump said. “What did Biden ever have? Swine flu? What a joke.”

Dang, Andy! Don’t do that! Portraying criminal Fuhrer Trump* telling the truth about the severity of his plague is enough to make someone throw up!  RESIST!!

From Alternet: …In the context of what we’ve been hearing from the Trump administration—or rather what we’ve not been hearing—I have to think that Donald Trump and his billionaire sycophant, Betsy DeVos, our current Secretary of Education, have absolutely no clue about what is metastasizing in the fevered swamps of American parents of school-age children right now in this country, or its potential to explode in a wave of electoral anger that could dwarf what occurred to the Republican Party in 2018.

I’m talking about a thermonuclear, cataclysmic, event of raw, unbridled voter fury. I’m talking about an existential, political wipe-out of Biblical proportions. A tsunami, if you will.

The most generous characterization of the Trump administration’s approach towards the situation facing our public schools in less than two months—six weeks or less, in fact, for many schools, including ones in Texas– is one of willful blindness, suggestive of an astonishing degree of deliberate, magical thinking– that imagines an idyllic sequence of cause and effect, where these schools will miraculously reopen, filled with rows of smiling teens, pre-teens,  elementary schoolers and their teachers, happy to share and mingle in their wondrous educational experience in the face of this horrific and unprecedented health crisis…

I wish Trump* and DeVos would back down for the sake of the families they are about to murder, but they won’t back down. Let that tsunami wipe the Republican Party out of existence!  RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from Labor): Union Maid

Except for police unions, support labor!  RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

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  17 Responses to “Open Thread–7/16/2020”

  1. Sorry the back hurts – no fun. Hope you get the putting-away done – and, at least, when that’s over, it’s over. Colorado is safer than southern California but far from perfect. Fingers crossed. Update: waited till about an hour after landing, then called, left a VMX. Then I remembered thet, while she was still in the air, our governor issued a mandatory masks in public order effective midnight tonite. I cannot imagine her not wearing a mask, but I “tested” anyway

    Apparently, everyone is making ads now. Or at least everyone on Twitter.


    No CC, but here’s a transcription.
    “Thank you for calling the White House. Please listen carefully, as our menu options have changed. To find the location of the next KKK meeting in your area, press 1. To collect your Putin bounty for killing an American soldier, press 2. To hear a list of the President’s latest racist tweets, press 3. If you have been sexually assaulted by President Trump, please call again, as that mailbox is full. To report a COVID case, please hang up and call after the election. Your estimated wait time for a new President is roughly six months. Please check back on January 21st. Seniors needing immediate assistance, GOODBYE.”

    Lincoln Project (and there will be sequels – at least 6)

    Meidas Touch

    Don Winslow – long-ish, but not really any waste.

    TJI – “There are lawyers in Florida giving teachers free wills.” – Beau

    Cartoon – To the people who are corporations, in other words. Grrrrrr.

    Map – My county is yellow, but I’m staying in anyway.

    TNY – Gaaah! Well, I’m not in charge, so I don’t have to worry about setting up a fake Twitter to keep him entertained behind bars. I know, that’s too kind, but I have some compassion for corrections officers.

    AlterNet – written by Dartagnan at Daily Kos. He (I think that’s the pronoun) is not staff, but he’s pretty dependable, and in any case, this is more of an opinion piece – a prophetic piece, if you will. May the prophecy be fulfilled!

    Past – Oh, thank you! (And I’m not totally opposed to police unions existing, but they need tight control so they can’t make forces bargain away the people’s right to justice.)

    • Story Hour: “See, Donald, one hand.”  Still laughing!!!!!!!!!
      Meidas Touch: No, tillers called him “A fucking moron!”  But I can understand why they left that out.  Maybe, they should have borrowed the line about being “…a special kind”of moron.
      “We don’t want CDC guidance…”  Of course YOU don’t…asshole!  “Four more years!” wearing a Florida tee shirt, clearly one of the many cult members, here. My county, in Fl., is planning to make no, I’ll repeat, NO, accommodations.  

    • TPMO –Amazing, fits the current W.H. perfectly.LP: Enjoyed the reading, speaks such truth.Meidas: Fits tRuth to the t.DW: Sad to think that these two heartless bozos don’t give a da*n about the children in the U.S. So grateful that they don’t have the last say regarding school openings. We have governors who have put the kid’s, teachers, and school workers health first. 
      Excellent videos. Thanks Joanne

    • Redo the one above came out sloppy. Sorry. Hope this one is better.
      TPMO –Amazing, fits the current W.H. perfectly.
      LP: Enjoyed the reading, speaks such truth.Meidas:
      Fits tRump to the t.
      DW: Sad to think that these two heartless bozos don’t give a da*n about the children in the U.S. So grateful that they don’t have the last say regarding school openings. We have governors who have put the kid’s, teachers, and school workers health first. 
      Excellent videos. Thanks Joanne

    • Thanks for the great vids, JD! 02

  2. Back pain is a bitch! Sorry!
    ‘Toon:  That’s Trump’s Republican theme song!
    TVU:  Now that Dumpshit has ordered all Covid stats to go around the CDC, and right to the WH, we can expect see him unroll a “miracle” ending of the thing.  Same thing with vote by mail, as the USPS will “miraculously” die before November!
    New Yorker: It’s SOOOOOOO  bigly!
    Altrnet: It will be interesting to see how parents deal with the requirement to send kids to their deaths.  The response could dwarf the BLM activity, would be nice to see.  Trump and DeVos will not back down.  She and Carson will remain in the cabinet of morally bankrupt people until the end.  
    Y/T: Wonderful!  Try this on for size: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/16/1961206/–Thank-you-for-calling-the-White-House-Make-this-incisively-funny-video-go-viral

  3. Cartoon: Why, of course! 
    TVU: Saw this note from the a.m. paper:  ‘in Texas, the Austin, Cameron, Hidalgo, Nuenes, and Travis Counties have ordered refrigerated trucks amid rising deaths connected to Covid19. 
    NYer: At least I can elicit a smile when I read Andy’s articles. Otherwise, I’d be crying. 
    AN: If a tsunami wipes out the R party, let it be so. I’ll even volunteer to pick up the trash. 
    BFTP: Amen! 
    I hope that your pain goes away quickly,  and that you get a chance to get your chores done. Rest and relax, take good, good care, and Thanks, Tom. 

    *This just in: “I’m pretty sure Kompromat is how Putin is keeping trump in line. We all know Vlad has hidden cameras in hotel rooms used by foreign visitores. My eyes are burning on what he has on trump.” ~Bev H.~
    2. “They’re not trying to keep us safe, they’re preventing us from knowing how endangered we are.” ~ Lincoln Project ~ 
    3. “Our local paper – The Houston Chronicle obituary section was 43 pages today.” ~ Rogelio Garcia, Lawyer ~ 
    4. Chelsea Handler put out a picture of her holding up a competitor brand name can of beans with the caption..”If you want your beans without a side of racism, try other brands. I am.~ 
    5. FYI – Mary Trump on Rachel Maddow show this evening, 7/16/20 Thursday!! “It’ll knock off Hannity out of prime time! Mwahhahaha!” ~ Jerry J. ~ 

    TPMO – Yes, absolutely brilliant! 
    LP: I’m already tuned in…great!
    Meidas Touch: The truth!! 
    DW: I got choked up watching this one. I’m for re-opening in 6 months, maybe…but not Aug/Sep, no way! 
    By dt’s & devos’ proposed decision on reopening schools,  they want to incur as much mayhem, deaths and torment as possible. Not just for our children, but of our teachers, and the support staff. How horribly, sickening, and so very, very cruel. 
    Thanks, Joanne for videos. 

    • I saw that about the 43 page obit section.  Cringe.  Glad it wasn’t Austin – but – if you are ordering refrigerated trucks -it could get there.  I hope and pray not.

      tji #1 – Yes, but – Trump is so lacking in shame, it can’t be the GRU’s usual brand of Kompromat.  It has to be something that would send even him to prison – but I honestly can’t think what that would be.  We already know enough to send him to prison for multiple life terms.  I admit to curiosity.

      I think I’ll watch my opera early tonight and look for Rachel clips on line afterwards.  That sounds way too good to miss.

  4. Cartoon: Shame on them to even pay the 1% a cent… Stinking rich R’s.
    TVU: Awful that the numbers are sky rocketing all across the states. Yesterday we were just under 22,000 cases. Plus 448 deaths.
    TNY: Despicable that this idiot has nothing better to do than to go off on his crazy tantrums. Where he comes up with his insane comments, we’ll never know.
    AN: Awful that bEtsy and tRump are both heartless fools that don’t give a hoot about the Kids, Teachers, or School worker’s health. I’m happy that the governor in CA aren’t planning on schools opening. They already stated that they will be doing classes online.
    BFTP: Great song/video.   
    Sorry to hear that you’re suffering so much with back pain today. I will be praying that you get to feeling better.
    Plus will be praying that Wendy has a safe flight and trip.
    Take care. Thanks TomCat

  5. Sorry to hear about your back pain, TomCat.I hope they come to change your patch soon.

    3:28 Could do with one here in this draught.

    Cartoon: Thou shalt starve for it, if necessary.

    Update: Soon all counties in Florida will be bright red. Please take care, Mitch, and your wife too.

    TNY: It always gets very creepy, Andy, when you have Trump telling the truth.

    Alternet: Trump and DeVos may not back down this, but I hope individual states can and will. The Democratic states, that is; the Republican states rather kill their electorate than disobey their leader. In those Republican states, parents have civil disobedience as a last resort, which might become detrimental to their kids if November 3rd doesn’t turn out to be a Blue Tsunami.

  6. Any background WRT Wendy changing her destination?  Hope it wasn’t any type of emergency.

    • She her plans with relatives was likely to fall through, so she had an alternate itinerary to visit a friend in CO. 26

  7. Thanks and TGIF Hugs to all! 17

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