Open Thread for September 14, 2021

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 7:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Sep 142021

Yesterday, I received a grocery delivery. It was all there – and no substitutions – and I was smart enough for once to put out an insulated backpack on the porch for frozen stuff that melts rather than just thawing. So I got it all in with I’m pretty sure no loss. So I have a sense of accomplishment.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The Hill – Dodd, Frank urge Biden to reappoint Powell
Quote – In a Monday op-ed for The Hill, former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) argued that Powell’s reappointment would give Biden “strong support” to pass a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure and social services plan — what they called the “most important issue facing us today…. We believe the national interest will be best served by President Biden reappointing Jerome Powell to chair the Federal Reserve System,” Dodd and Frank wrote.
Click through for more. Yes, it’s THAT Dodd and THAT Frank. They have earned enough respect for me to listen and pay attention when they speak, whether or not I end up agreeing.

HuffPost – Texas Embalmer Shares Nightmare COVID Experiences: ‘Unlike Anything I’ve Seen Before’ TRIGGER ALERT
Quote – These folks were so swollen they were completely unrecognizable. We were also getting sent a lot of people who had died from COVID in nursing homes back at that time, and many of them had not been dead very long at all…. The blood tends to settle out because it’s no longer flowing and it’ll gravitate to the dependent part of the body. The longer a body sits, the more blood clots that they develop. I was having people that had only been dead for a few hours and there were major clotting issues. The clots were the size of pancakes ― you never, never see those with someone who didn’t die of COVID.
Click through if you can take it (it gets worse). I won’t say we have been lied to, but we have definitely not been fully briefed on what CoViD does to the human body. I can see why not … but I still thik it was a mistake.

Mother Jones – 59 Percent of Republicans Say It’s Important to Believe Trump Won the Election
Quote – Donald Trump definitely did not win the 2020 presidential election, but nearly six in 10 GOP voters polled by CNN say it’s at least somewhat important for Republicans to continue believing that he did.
Click through for the story. Fortunately it’s short.

Food for Thought –

Open Thread – 11/28/2020

Posted by TomCat at 11:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Nov 282020

It’s another tired day here in the CatBox, but I have enough gas in the tank for a full post today. Tomorrow please expect no more than a Personal Update, as it’s a WWWendy day, and we are having our Thanksgiving dinner. It’s also a Holy Day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. My Broncos are praying the Saints, but it won’t be televised here. I hope you are having a fine holiday weekend, even if it isn’t a holiday for you.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:01 (average 4:26). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From Crooks and Liars: Now, as states across the country contemplate new lockdowns to slow down the rampant spread and record hospitalizations, the unprecedented demand for food aid is on the rise, according to the Guardian’s latest snapshot survey:

In Cleveland, 5,000 families showed up last Thursday for the pre-Thanksgiving drive-in distribution compared with 3,300 a week earlier and an average of 1,600 over the summer. Some 54% of the food distributed was for children and seniors. “We’re now seeing families who had an emergency fund but it’s gone and they’re at the end of their rope. We’re going to be doing this for a really long time, and that’s frankly terrifying given the impact hunger has on physical health, learning and development for children and parents’ stress,” said Kristin Warzocha, president of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.
One woman in Cleveland, who didn’t want to be identified, discharged herself from the hospital against medical advice so that she didn’t miss the Thanksgiving food box delivery. “That’s the depth of need and desperation some families are feeling,” added Warzocha.

Not surprisingly, the Trump administration is making a bad situation worse, The Guardian reports. Instead of boosting Snap benefits (food stamps), it cut eligibility. The USDA’s Farmers to Families program expires at the end of the year, as does a $450 million boost to the Emergency Food Assistance Program. “Without government assistance, ‘we’re headed toward a massive cliff come January,’ said Erin Pulling, CEO of the Food Bank for the Rockies which serves Colorado and Wyoming.”

Barf Bag Alert!!

This will not change when Trump* is gone. How many years have you seen me say, “Every penny Democrats spend to feed hungry families is a penny Republicans can’t give to a billionaire.”? RESIST!!

From NY Times: Iran’s top nuclear scientist, long identified by American and Israeli intelligence as the guiding figure behind a covert effort to design an atomic warhead, was shot and killed Friday in what the Iranian media called a roadside ambush as he and his bodyguards traveled outside Tehran.

For two decades, the scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was the driving force behind what American and Israeli officials describe as Iran’s secretive nuclear weapons program. His work continued after Iran’s push to develop a bomb was formally disbanded in 2003, according to American intelligence assessments and Iranian nuclear documents stolen by Israel nearly three years ago.

One American official — along with two other intelligence officials — said that Israel was behind the attack on the scientist. It was unclear how much the United States may have known about the operation in advance, but the two nations are the closest of allies and have long shared intelligence regarding Iran, which Israel considers its most potent threat.

There are three possibilities. Butcher Bibi, criminal Fuhrer Trump* or both in unison. I pick door number three. RESIST!!

From Alternet: A new viral video released by “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” on Friday offers an in-depth look into President Donald Trump’s ongoing refusal to condemn white supremacy.

According to the three-minute YouTube video’s description, it aims to highlight Trump’s “cozy relationship with supremacists.” The video, which garnered more than 700,000 views in less than 24 hours, notes Trump’s repeated attacks on nearly everyone under the sun.

Roy Wood Jr., a correspondent for the Noah’s show, provided the commentary for the video. During the video, he noted that Trump has often been “famous for being quick with an insult,” reports the Huffington Post. From lawmakers , state, and local officials, to Democratic voters, Trump has so easily insulted tons of people—except white supremacists.

When Trump was elected, racists rejoiced. White supremacists rallied around him holding rallies and blatantly making their racial bias known. On multiple occasions, Trump has retweeted white genocide posts on social media and subtly defended the actions of white supremacists.

This will not change when Trump* is gone. Trump* did not choose the Republican Reich. The Republican Reich chose Trump*, because he represents them. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast for the planet): Paradise

John Prine was a man who loved this planet. Sadly his fight is over. Seven months ago, Trump* and the Republican Reich murdered him with Trump* virus. RESIST!!

52 Days Until the Big FLUSH!!

Trump’s* Wonderful Economic Recovery

Posted by TomCat at 11:52 am Politics

Sep 082020

Almost every time I see criminal Fuhrer Trump*, aka Nincompoop Nero, he crows about his wonderful economic recovery, calling it the best recovery in US history. He also claims that if Joe Biden becomes President, he will destroy the economy. In truth, Nincompoop Nero fiddled while America burned.

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough was astonished by a detailed analysis of the economic pain suffered by many American workers — but not all of them.

“Morning Joe” contributor Steve Rattner, a former economic adviser to President Barack Obama, brought charts to fact check claims by President Donald Trump and his advisers about the recovery since the coronavirus pandemic destroyed the U.S. economy.

“The pace of job recovery is actually slowing fairly dramatically,” Rattner said. “One other small point, the 8.4 percent unemployment rate is really 9.1 percent — the Department of Labor said there was a misclassification error, so that number isn’t as good either. Let’s turn to this question whether we’re dealing with a broad-based recovery of jobs or something more narrow. What you can see on the next chart are the disparities in how different Americans have fared. This is because the pandemic or the economic crisis didn’t hit every industry equally, travel, recreation, restaurants, so on, where people of color, lower income, women work and it was hit disproportionately hard.”

“If you are a Black person, 11.2 percent of Blacks lost their jobs, compared to 6.4 percent of whites,” he added. “If you have less than a high school diploma, almost 19 percent of those folks lost their jobs. If you have a college degree, you probably didn’t lose your job at all, because virtually none of them lost their jobs since this started.”…

Inserted from <Alternet>

Here’s the included video.

As you can see, Trump* and the Republican Reich* have destroyed the economy, and the recovery is both too slow and decreasing over time. If Biden becomes President, he needs to shut down at once, support those who do, perform extensive testing and contact tracing, and wait till it’s safe to re-open. That will allow a rapid recovery. I’d like to say it will be a complete recovery, but many of the jobs Republicans destroyed are gone and will never come back. To fully recover we need major investments in infrastructure and green energy to put America to work. If Trump* had shut down properly, Trump* virus would be behind us already. So we can’t blame Biden for the short term effects of doing what Trump* should have done.

RESIST!!

Biden: Build Back Better!

Posted by TomCat at 11:10 am Politics

Jul 102020

We already know the economic plan offered by criminal Fuhrer Trump and the Republican Reich. First provide massive welfare payments to the 0.1% and corporate criminals by fleecing everyone else. Second, destroy the economy by causing a plague of Trump* virus. On a brighter note, Joe Biden also has an economic plan called Build Back Better.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, laid out a key plank of his economic agenda for the country — dubbed “Build Back Better” — in a half-hour speech Thursday, offering a competing vision of economic nationalism that President Trump has trumpeted in recent years.

“The truth is throughout this [coronavirus] crisis, Donald Trump has been almost singularly focused on the stock market — the Dow and Nasdaq — not you, not your families,” Biden said during his remarks Thursday afternoon in Dunmore, Pa., near his hometown of Scranton. “If I’m fortunate enough to be elected president, I’ll be laser-focused on working families, the middle-class families that I came from.”

Biden’s economic plans to date have focused on immediate relief for families, small businesses and communities struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic. But the proposal he detailed Thursday centered around manufacturing and innovation.

He outlined an agenda to “Buy American,” which includes a $700 billion investment in procurement and research and development for new technologies such as biotech, clean energy and artificial intelligence.

“This will be a mobilization of R&D and procurement investments in ways not seen since World War II,” Biden said.

His campaign posits the new plan will help create 5 million new jobs… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NPR>
Graphic credit: Newsbreak

For more detail, go to Joe Biden’s website.

Here is the complete half hour speech.

Biden unveils economic plan to spur American manufacturing

Although Biden couches his plan in progressive terms, it’s actually more center-left. Nevertheless, compared to the rabid, reactionary, racist Republican policies, including massive transfer of our wealth to billionaires, foisted on America by criminal Fuhrer Trump* and the Republican Reich, Biden’s plan is a welcome breath of fresh air!

RESIST!!

Open Thread–5/24/2020

Posted by TomCat at 9:44 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 242020

It’s a very busy day, here in the CatBox. WWWendy should be here in half an hour, so I’d better burn rubber. This is today’s only article. Have a great holiday weekend. If you must travel, please protect yourselves.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:07 (average 5:58). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0524TrumpVirusMap

Cases: 1,669,311
Deaths: 98,740
Recovered: 446,982

Short Takes:

From Alternet: …A new study shows that when it comes to forcing workers to go back into offices, stores, and factories, almost half the online voices shouting for the “reopening of America” were, and are, bot accounts. Of the accounts that have tweeted most on this topic, more than half are bots. Of the most influential, almost all are bots. And behind the bots … is someone still unknown.

The report comes out of Carnegie Mellon University. Digging through over 200 million tweets discussing COVID-19 or the novel coronavirus, researchers focused in on the most influential accounts—those most active, most retweeted, and most liked. Out of the top 1,000 accounts, 62% are bots. Perhaps even more amazing: of the 50 most influential accounts on this topic, 82% are bots.

The bots may be numerous, but their message isn’t varied. They’re not being used to pass along accurate news about COVID-19, to encourage social distancing, or to support state government calls for preventive measures. In addition to pushing false cures, like Trump’s much-pushed hydroxychloroquine, and spreading general false information about the dangers of COVID-19, there’s one point where bots are driving the whole of social media. According to the report, they are “dominating conversations about ending stay-at-home orders and ‘reopening America.’”… [emphasis added]

We can be sure of one thing. Those bots are smarter than the Republican sheeple they influence. Even artificial intelligence is more than no intelligence at all. RESIST!!

From CNN: With restaurants closed or open with limited capacity due to the coronavirus pandemic, a certain subset of those establishments’ “patrons” is struggling.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning that certain areas across the country are reporting “an increase in rodent activity,” as rats search for sources of food other than restaurant dumpsters.

“Jurisdictions have closed or limited service at restaurants and other commercial establishments to help limit the spread of COVID-19,” the CDC said. “Rodents rely on the food and waste generated by these establishments. Community-wide closures have led to a decrease in food available to rodents, especially in dense commercial areas.”

As a result, rats are scampering elsewhere — including residential areas. Given the circumstances, they may even exhibit “unusual or aggressive” behavior, the CDC said.

We need to do some heavy duty pest control to kill those rats. Not only do they spread disease, but also, you know they’ll vote Republican in November! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): If I Were a Carpenter

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread–5/9/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:15 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

May 092020

It’s a very painful day, here in the CatBox. The Radiation Oncologist told me to expect increased pain for a few days and a week before relief. Tomorrow and Monday please expect no more than a personal Update or an Open Thread. Tomorrow is a WWWendy Day, and Monday is my chemo infusion.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:54 (average 5:26). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

This is another oldie!

Trump* Virus Update:

0509TrumpVirusMap

Cases: 1,325,521
Deaths: 78,762
Recovered: 223,937

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: In a test result that he called “a tremendous relief,” the Attorney General, Bill Barr, has tested negative for integrity, Barr confirmed on Friday.

Barr submitted to the test after learning that he had come into contact with career Justice Department prosecutors who were found to be integrity carriers.

“When I learned that there were still people at the Justice Department with integrity, I was understandably furious,” Barr told reporters. “I told them to go home at once.”

Barr said that he was putting into place new protocols that would require Justice Department employees to be tested for integrity before entering the building.

But Andy… Barrf need not worry about catching integrity. He’s immune. RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): U.S. Logs Record High Unemployment Numbers – What Comes Next?

This is the other half of the Republican Reich crisis. The first half is Trump* virus. The second is the Republican depression of 2020. The solution? Flush the Republican Reich! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Matthew’s Southern Comfort – Woodstock

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Trump* Virus Tanks Economy!

Posted by TomCat at 10:58 am Politics

Mar 102020

I trust that you know by now that the bottom is falling out of the stock market, and Republican welfare billionaires are freaking out. Trump* tanked the economy for rest of us long ago. This will make our economy even worse, but Trump and the Republican Reich don’t care if we live or die. But they care about their billionaires, and they fear that this Republican Recession will hurt them the way it did when they tanked the economy in 2008.

The fast-spreading coronavirus and a plunge in oil prices set off a chain reaction in financial markets on Monday, a self-perpetuating downward cycle that could inflict serious harm on the global economy.

What started last month as unease about a potential economic slowdown in China has evolved into a borderline panic, with the S&P 500 on Monday crashing nearly 8 percent. The mayhem is threatening to roil the underlying global financial system and the abilities of companies large and small to survive a potential economic monsoon — a downward spiral that is fed and intensified by these destructive forces.

The odds of such a storm grew after an unexpected fight between Russia and Saudi Arabia. After failing to reach an agreement about how much oil to produce and sell on international markets, Saudi Arabia announced it would quickly ramp up production.

Oil prices had been falling as investors fretted about a possible recession. On Monday, they plummeted over 20 percent — the sharpest decline since the first Persian Gulf war. [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>
Graph credit: Know Your Meme

Trump Faces Huge Leadership Crisis Over Coronavirus And The Economy

Payroll tax cut? That’s only temporary, and the suckers will have to pay it back on 4/15. This fool* wants people to go out into crowded stores and get infected. Will Goose-step Gohmert infect the Republican Reich in Congress?

Dow logs biggest point-drop in history as stocks tumble

The announcer said that, if it wasn’t the Trump* virus, it would have been something else. I agree. Two great minds said that Trump would tank the economy. In July, 2019, Elizabeth Warren said so. In November, 2016, I said so. Great minds clearly fell in the same ditch!

RESIST!!

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