Open Thread – 1/3/2021

 Posted by at 11:05 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jan 032021
 

It’s a busy day here in the CatBox.  I’ve had a ton of beginning-of-the-year file keeping to do.  It the past, I’ve planned for and done most of it well in advance, but this year, I was not supposed to need it.  I’m caught up on most of it.  For the first time in my life, I won’t bitch about paperwork.  Today is a Holy Day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos are playing the Raiders in their last game.  Of course it’s not televised here.  Tomorrow please expect no more than a brief Personal Update.  It’s a WWWendy day, and she’s coming earlier in the morning than usual because of her schedule.  May the Holy Orb shine its blessed light on your team, unless they raid lost wages.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:24 (average 5:11).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: One of the criticisms of former President Barack Obama in his first term was a lack of focus on judicial nominations, letting many vacancies go unfilled even while Democrats held the Senate. President-elect Joe Biden learned the consequences of letting nominations languish and is already on it, contacting Democratic senators to get their recommendations for judicial candidates. And not for just any good candidates: for the kinds of judges that have been lacking in the federal judiciary.

“With respect to U.S. District Court positions, we are particularly focused on nominating individuals whose legal experiences have been historically underrepresented on the federal bench, including those who are public defenders, civil rights and legal aid attorneys, and those who represent Americans in every walk of life,” reads a Dec. 22 letter obtained by HuffPost from incoming White House counsel Dana Remus to Democratic senators. Remus continued that Biden doesn’t just want those names for a list for potential nominees, he wants recommendations—as soon as possible and with a final deadline of Jan. 19—for any existing district court vacancies. That sets him up to get those nominations rolling literally on Day One, Jan. 20. Additionally, Remus told senators that Biden will expect nomination recommendations from them “within 45 days of any new vacancy being announced, so that we can expeditiously consider your recommendations.”

I am pleased to see and do support the areas in which Joe wants to focus with respect to fixing the judiciary. However, without both GA Senate seat wins, it’s meaningless, given the smug smirk of Blatant Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch.  RESIST!!

From NY Times: Vice President Mike Pence signaled support on Saturday for a futile Republican bid to overturn the election in Congress next week, after 11 Republican senators and senators-elect said that they would vote to reject President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory when the House and Senate meet to formally certify it.

The announcement by the senators — and Mr. Pence’s move to endorse it — reflected a groundswell among Republicans to defy the unambiguous results of the election and indulge President Trump’s attempts to remain in power with false claims of voting fraud.

Every state in the country has certified the election results after verifying their accuracy, many following postelection audits or hand counts. Judges across the country, and a Supreme Court with a conservative majority, have rejected nearly 60 attempts by Mr. Trump and his allies to challenge the results.

And neither Mr. Pence nor any of the senators who said they would vote to invalidate the election has made a specific allegation of fraud, instead offering vague suggestions that some wrongdoing might have occurred and asserting that many of their supporters believe that it has.

The senators’ opposition to certifying Mr. Biden’s election will not change the outcome. But it guarantees that what would normally be a perfunctory session on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to ratify the results of the presidential election will instead become a partisan brawl, in which Republicans amplify specious claims of widespread election rigging that have been debunked and dismissed for weeks even as Mr. Trump has stoked them.

I suppose the fly got away with whatever gray matter that evil Republican Vice Fuhrer Pence used to have. Stay tuned. Wednesday is going to be a zoo, and I’ll be following it closely.  RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Jefferson Airplane – Somebody to love

Ah… the memories.  If they had ruined the beautiful music quality, if they had changed the weed in the clip to Clorox, and if they had changed “love” to “hate, this would have become the Republican theme song.  RESIST!!

16 Days Until the Big FLUSH!!

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Open Thread – 12/14/2020

 Posted by at 11:33 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 142020
 

It’s a Republicitis day here in the CatBox.  I just spent 45 minutes on the throne and cast an unbelievable number of electoral votes, among other things.  Speaking of Republican feces, we just passed 300,000 Americans murdered by Donald Trump* and the Republican Reich with their plague.  WWWendy is coming tonight.  I want to get as much rest as I can this week, because Thursday is a Hospital/Infusion day, followed by a will notary appointment, followed by a WWWendy day all on the same day.  Expect exhaustion.  Oh God, it’s Monday!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:31 (average 4:48).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

Religious Ecstasy:

1213Broncos32-Panthers27

And a glorious, wonderful Orb it is!

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: One of the great strangenesses and perversions in the QAnon conspiracy theory is that part of what Donald Trump—a man who was good friends with convicted child molester Jeffrey Epstein—is doing in his fight against the “deep state,” is to clean up a vast child-sex human trafficking cabal. The idea that there are powerful people engaged in illegal human sex trafficking that involves underage children is very believable. In fact, Donald Trump seems to have intimately known some of those people, and even hired the former Florida Attorney General Alexander Acosta—one of the main guys who cut a deal to let one of those human traffickers off with a hand slap.

Anywhos, QAnon theorists have evolved the Hillary Clinton and Pizzagate and whatever else anti-Semitic globalist bullshit theory that makes them feel like they know what’s going on. It’s like chemtrail conspiracy theory with a touch of sex and child abuse because QAnon is even more of a religious cult than Pizzagate was. And religious cults usually help define themselves by saying other groups of people do terrible things to children. And guess what? Republican QAnon conspiracy theorist and failed Louisiana candidate Ben Gibson was just pulled into custody on Wednesday and charged for … yup: four counts of possession of child pornography “involving juveniles under the age of thirteen.”

I’m not surprised. Republicans are not original enough to invent new crimes and perversions for their conspiracy theories, so they fall back on their own behavior for reference material and accuse Democrats of doing it. We call this projection.  RESIST!!

From NY Times: In Michigan, Democratic electors have been promised police escorts from their cars into the State Capitol, where on Monday they will formally vote for Joseph R. Biden Jr.

In Arizona, state officials are holding the vote at an undisclosed location for safety reasons, far from what is expected to be a heated hearing on election integrity issues that Republicans will conduct in the Statehouse.

Even in Delaware, the tiny, deeply Democratic home state of the president-elect, officials relocated their ceremony to a college gymnasium, a site considered to have better security and public health controls.

For decades, Electoral College voters have served as the rubber-stamping bureaucrats of American democracy, operating well below the political radar as they provided pro forma certification of a new president. Despite its procedural nature, the role has long been considered an honor, bestowed as a way to recognize political stature or civic service.

This year, the Electoral College is another piece of routine election mechanics thrown into the cross hairs of President Trump’s sustained assault on voting integrity. After five weeks of lawsuits, recounts and Republican inquiries into unfounded claims of fraud, Americans will turn to the 538 members of the Electoral College to provide a measure of finality to Mr. Biden’s decisive victory.

And as small-town electors face harassment and more prominent figures adapt to increased security measures, a duty long considered a privilege has also become a headache.

I find it shameful that these people have to perform their civic duty under the threat of death and violence from the Republican Reich!  As of now 168 Biden votes have been cast.  RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast of Christmas): Frank Sinatra *☆* Adeste Fideles * (O’ Come All Ye Faithful)

 

Believe it or not, I first learned to sing this carol in Latin, as an assignment for sixth grade Latin class. Ah… the memories! HUGS!!

36 Days Until the Big FLUSH!!

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Open Thread – 12/11/2020

 Posted by at 11:06 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Dec 112020
 

It’s a painful day here in the CatBox.  I overdid it yesterday when pitting groceries away.  WWWendy is coming late this afternoon.  I will be in the saddle tomorrow.  To give you a heads up, next week will be gruesome.  Happy Hanukkah!  Thank God it’s Friday!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:36 (average 7:51).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: A furious Donald J. Trump attempted to fire the Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, sources report.

According to the sources, Trump was so irate about the Supreme Court’s dismissal of his election challenge on Tuesday that he phoned Barrett directly to inform her that she was “history.”

“I hired you to get a job done, and you didn’t get it done,” Trump angrily informed Barrett. “You’re out of here.”

Sources say that Barrett had the unenviable task of informing Trump that Supreme Court Justices are appointed for life and therefore cannot be fired, a revelation that left Trump “flabbergasted.”

Dang, Andy! I thought this was satire, until the part that Trump* didn’t know that it’s a lifetime appointment before Injustice Amy Coney Bullshit told him. Now I believe it.  RESIST!!

From Alternet: Rep. David Byrd (R-TN) made a post on Facebook [Fakebook delinked] this Thursday saying that he may be soon placed on a ventilator due to coronavirus, and asked people to pray for him.

“I really need a miracle today!!” Byrd wrote Thursday. “My doctor said if my oxygen level doesn’t improve then he has no choice but to put me on a ventilator. So please pray that God will breathe His healing spirit into my lungs!!”

Byrd was flown by helicopter from Wayne County Hospital to St. Thomas in Nashville, where he still remains. According to the Tennessean, he was among the nearly 70 House Republicans who attended a caucus meeting held in the House chamber on November 24. A week and a half later, he was hospitalized with the virus. Reports say he was seen on the House floor without a mask. Just days before, he hosted a dinner for dozens of his fellow caucus members at a restaurant.

I’ll tell you what infuriates me. Because he’s a Republican pseudo-Christian Nazi who helped his Fuhrer spread Trump* virus to dozens (if not hundreds) of innocents, he will get special drugs and special treatment not available to those who deserve it. That is so sick!  RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: After the Electoral College presumably votes Monday to affirm Joe Biden’s win, some Republican senators are reportedly preparing to acknowledge the de facto truth that never should have been in question: Donald Trump lost fair and square.

Many Senate Republicans have viewed the Dec. 14 vote both literally and figuratively speaking as the moment of truth, according to CNN. After electors in state capitals across the country finalize the certified results, those same Republicans are realizing they may have to actually part ways with their whiny, rage-y, delusional Dear Leader.

Now that’s a shit storm I can’t wait to see!  RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast of Christmas): Bing Crosby – Silent Night

 

As a small child, this is the first carol I ever learned.  Ah… the memories!  HUGS!!

39 Days Until the Big FLUSH!!

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