Open Thread – 8/6/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:46 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Aug 062020

It’s a cool day here in the CatBox with 77° forecast, and humid as hell. It’s also a busy day, as Store to Door is delivering my groceries. I have to unpack and put them away. I had other things to do, so I have no time for a morning nap. Tomorrow, please expect no more than a Personal Update. In the morning WWWendy will be destinking the vile TomCat, changing my patch, doing chores and gooping. Then we go to the hospital, where Evelyn, my Oncologist, will interpret my PET scan. I’ve seen the results, and to me, they look pretty bleak. But I guess I should not be disappointed that I’m dying. That’s what dying people do. In addition, Becky, my palliative care specialist will talk to us, and I expect her to increase my Fentanyl patches from 12.5 mg to 25 mg. Saturday WWWendy and WWKristen are going to the mountains until Tuesday morning. Diana, my home palliative care nurse, changed her schedule to change my patch on Monday. Then WWWendy will come a day late on Tuesday. Crazy enough? Have a great day!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:32 (average 5:48). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

US Cases: 4,975,279
US Deaths: 161,660

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Despite how many times you hear “what goes on the internet, stays on the internet” some people just don’t learn. Deleting a photo doesn’t make it go away, yet infamous Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. seems to think otherwise. Again, Falwell has deleted something on social media—but this time not because of its obvious racism, but its bizarre nature.

The photo posted on Falwell’s Instagram was captured and shared to Twitter by Houston Chronicle reporter Robert Downen before it was deleted.

0806FalwellJr

Hat-Tip and kudos to JD for suggesting this subject. When I lived in Phoenix, a close friend (platonic, not carnal or professional) was an exclusive call girl. She told me that when there were conventions of Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians (the polar opposite of real authentic Christians) in town, she and her friends had to import girls from Las Vegas. There weren’t enough hookers in Phoenix to meet the demand for their services. As he parties on his yacht, bought with funds bilked from his victims, Falwell shows that he’s as big a hypocrite as his father was. Of course, that’s a Republican trait. RESIST!!

From ProPublica: A teenage girl carrying her baby arrived at the U.S. border this summer and begged for help. She told federal agents that she feared returning to Guatemala. The man who raped her she said had threatened to make her “disappear.”

Then, advocates say, the child briefly vanished — into the custody of the U.S. government, which held her and her baby for days in a hotel with almost no outside contact before federal officers summarily expelled them from the country.

Similar actions have played out along the border for months under an emergency health order the Trump administration issued in March. Citing the threat of COVID-19, it granted federal agents sweeping powers to almost immediately return anyone at the border, including infants as young as 8 months. Children are typically entitled to special protections under the law, including the right to have their asylum claims adjudicated by a judge.

Under this new policy, the administration is not deporting children — a proceeding based on years of established law that requires a formal hearing in immigration court.

It is instead expelling them — without a judge’s ruling and after only a cursory government screening and no access to social workers or lawyers, sometimes not even their family, while in U.S. custody. The children are not even granted the primary registration number by which the Department of Homeland Security tracks all immigrants in its care, making it “virtually impossible” to find them, Efrén C. Olivares, a lawyer with the Texas Civil Rights Project, wrote in a court declaration arguing that the practice is illegal.

This travesty is criminal and deplorable, typical of both Trump* and the racist Republican Reich! On a related note, I’ve been watching and highly recommend Immigration Nation on Netflix, which Trump* and Barrf tried to ban. It makes me want to scream in anger and cry at the same time. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast of protest): Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)

This clip refers to Crawford Caligula’s Republican Fourth Reich. GW ChickenHawk was saint compared to Trump*, Putin’s Pee-Pee Puppet, Fuhrer of the Nazi Republican Fifth Reich! Kudos to the left-wing demonstrators! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread–6/12/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:18 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 122020

It’s a busy day here in the CatBox. A Providence Home Health Nurse is coming for san initial evaluation. Tomorrow is a WWWendy day, and we have lots of chores, so please expect no more than a Personal Update from me, This is my only article today. TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:01 (average 4:30). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

20200611_Covid_US_States

Cases: 2,090,542
Deaths: 116,063
Recovered: 816,463

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: In a series of angry tweets on Thursday, Donald J. Trump lashed out at the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, declaring, “This is not the military I avoided serving in.”

Calling Milley’s apology for appearing in last week’s controversial church photo op “a disgrace,” Trump said, “The United States military of my youth was known for courage and valor, which is why I got a podiatrist’s note to get out of being a part of it.”

Recalling that episode from a half century ago, Trump said, “As I watched my podiatrist dictate that note, I thought about the great institution of the U.S. military, which I would be exempted from participating in. That institution is unrecognizable today.”

Andy, he’s lying again. The military certainly is still recognizable. It is the Republican Party of Lincoln, after transforming into the Republican Reich, that is not recognizable. RESIST!!

From CNN: Attendees of President Donald Trump’s upcoming rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, must agree not to sue the campaign if they contract coronavirus.

Rallygoers are asked to RSVP to gain admission to the event and by registering, they must agree to a disclaimer that states they acknowledge the “inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present.”

“By attending the Rally, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; BOK Center; ASM Global; or any of their affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers liable for any illness or injury,” the disclaimer reads.

What hypocrisy! Criminal Fuhrer Trump* and the Republican Reich have been screaming since the beginning that danger from COVID-19, aka Trump* virus, is a hoax foisted on America by Democrats. Even more incredible, in spite of this, Republican Sheeple have such BAAA-A-A-A-A-AAD judgement that they will sign it without hesitation. What stupidity! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Yesterday (With Spoken Word Intro / Live From Studio 50, New York City / 1965)

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread–6/4/2020

Posted by TomCat at 12:19 pm Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 042020

It’s a busy day here in the CatBox, as Store to Door will be delivering my groceries within the next 90 minutes. Sitting in my power chair is the single thing that most sets off the pain from my spinal cancer. I need t accept that, after about four hours, I need to rest in bed for a while. So this morning, I rose at 5:30, and returner to bed from 9:00 to 10:30. Other than running late, we’ll see how I do. They came, and did not bring half my order. ARGH!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 6:10 (average 10:02). To do it, click here. How did you co?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0604TrumpVirusMap

Mote the huge brown blob in the four corners area of the Southwest. That is the Navajo reservation. There, Republican pseudo-Christian missionaries were protesting over wearing masks and gloves. In the process, they murdered a bunch of Navajo people, as a favor to Republican Supply-side Jesus (the antithesis of the real Jesus).

Cases: 1,903,956
Deaths: 109,176
Recovered: 688,817

Short Takes:

From Crooks and Liars: The Frank Rizzo statue was removed from the Municipal Services Plaza overnight. You don’t have to be from Philadelphia to understand what this means to Philadelphians. Via the Daily Beast:

Rizzo, who served as police commissioner from 1967 to 1971 and mayor from 1972 to 1980, oversaw a legacy of police brutality in the city and of discrimination against minorities. In 1971, he publicly urged supporters to “Vote White.” NBC Philadelphia reports that a crew arrived just after midnight Wednesday to remove the statue from the steps of the city’s Municipal Services Building. Members of the National Guard reportedly surrounded the area as work began. Shortly before 2 a.m., a truck drove off with the statue. City mayor Jim Kenney posted a photo of the empty spot early Wednesday alongside the caption: “The statue represented bigotry, hatred, and oppression for too many people, for too long. It is finally gone.”

I remember Rizzo from the late 1960s, when I lived in New York and Atlantic City. I had family in Philly, so I was often there. On an asshole scale of one to ten, Rizzo was a real Republican! RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Donald Trump may not want to believe it, but the evidence is beginning to mount around the nation that white supremacists and assorted far-right “Boogaloo Bois” are working overtime to leverage protests around the United States against police brutality in the wake of the George Floyd killing—not to merely join the protests, but to both inflict violence and property damage, as well as to threaten other communities with it, all in order to heighten political tensions around the protests.

The tactics vary: Some are showing up disguised as anarchists or sympathizers, while some are arriving fully armed, in camo and body armor, with the Hawaiian shirts signifying the far-right “Boogaloo” civil-war movement. Others are simply spreading false information on the Internet by posing as antifa and telling smaller suburban and exurban communities that hordes of ravening anarchists are about to descend on their communities and break all their windows—sending those communities into fits of paranoid overreaction.

Trump has been insistent that the violence in the streets has primarily been the work of antifa, while denying the presence of far-right extremists: “I don’t see any indication that there were any white supremest groups mixing in. This is an ANTIFA Organization,” he tweeted on Monday.

In fact, there is abundant evidence that, as The New York Times’ Neil McFarquar observed, the mix at the protests has involved a broad range of actors. And so far, according to The Nation, the FBI has found no indication of organized antifascist involvement in the protest violence.

Some so-called protestors are peacefully exercising their right to dissent. They are almost all Democrats. They are the ones criminal Fuhrer Trump* and the Republican Reich assault. Some call themselves Antifa, but they are anarchists bent on creating chaos. Since chaos is a Republican tactic classifying these Republicans as Democrats is an error. Some are just looters. Republicans label them as Democrats too, but their primary motivation is greed, a Republican trait. Looters are Republicans too. And some are just MAGA Maniacs. They are obviously Republicans. Don’t be a Republican. Protest peacefully. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Elvis Presley – Can’t Help Falling In Love (Audio)

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread–5/25/2020

Posted by TomCat at 9:30 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 252020

It’s a busy day, here in the CatBox. Tomorrow, please expect no more than a very brief Personal Update, because I have to leave home at 7:30. WWWendy is taking me to the hospital for my next infusion and to discuss what we need to change to extend my life without killing me. I’ll try to let you know when I’m home safe.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:27 (average 5:12). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Yes I know the chimp is an ape, not a monkey.

Trump* Virus Update:

0525TrumpVirusMap

Cases: 1,688,709
Deaths: 99,348
Recovered: 451,745

Short Takes:

From Crooks and Liars: Almost certain to be an enduring meme, that Trump decided that going golfing was appropriate and more important than honouring Americans that have died due to COVID-19. That he did so doing Memorial Day weekend makes it even worse.

Source: Rolling Stone

President Trump, who has faced mounting criticism for his administration’s mishandling of the coronavirus crisis and his lack of empathy throughout, decided to leave the White House on Saturday to play golf.

According to several reports, today’s trip to the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, is likely his first outing to one of his private golf courses since early March. However, during the two “working weekends” the president spent at Camp David in May, it is unknown whether or not he played golf.

Trump going golfing is consistent with his reopen theme that he’s been pushing of late, but it still shows a tone-deafness and a lack of empathy. The U.S. pandemic death toll is approaching 100,000, and on top of that it’s Memorial Day weekend, a solemn occasion meant for tributes to Americans lost at war.

What Trump did today is much worse. He insulted fallen heroes by taking his ersatz bone spurs to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Sharply disagreeing with critics of Donald J. Trump’s weekend visit to the Trump National Golf Club, Dr. Anthony Fauci has urged Trump to remain on the golf course until the pandemic is over.

“The people who are giving you a hard time about your golf trip are just haters,” Fauci told Trump on Sunday. “It’s in the best interest of everyone in the country that you keep golfing, Mr. President.”

“Please,” he added.

Andy, I have to admit that Fauci’s point could not be more valid. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the Past): 500 miles – Peter, Paul and Mary [Original Audio]

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread–3/18/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:28 am Open Thread, Politics

Mar 182020

It’s a hectic day here in the CatBox, as I try to get my head around the notion that my cancer is stage IV and metastatic, and that I’m very likely to die, before a year is up. I see Evelyn (my Oncologist) again next Tuesday. If my cancer tests amenable to immunotherapy, I’ll go that route. Evelyn wonders whether I can handle chemo. It causes severe Republicosis, and if it hits after I’m in bed, the time it takes to get my leg on and get to the throne is likely to be too long to hold it. I’ll need to do a pain/problem/benefit analysis and decide if the time is worth the decreased quality of life. I will be getting radiation for my spine. She also gave me liquid Oxycodone. Tonight is a WWWendy night. She was very upset to learn of this. Happy Hump Day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:27 (average 4:59). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0318TrumpVirus

0318TrumpVirusTesting

Short Takes:

From Alternet: As nations around the world buckle down amid coronavirus outbreaks, approaches to isolation and social distancing are inconsistent, at best, in the United States. While some cities and states are implementing bans on restaurants and bars staying open and capping the number of people in a space, some groups are moving forward with, ahem, business as usual. One example from last Sunday morning? Pastor Guillermo Maldonado, of King Jesus International Ministry, a megachurch in Kendall, Florida, encouraged his congregation to keep coming to service, downplaying concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, as reported by the Miami Herald.

“Do you believe God would bring his people to his house to be contagious with the virus? Of course not,” Maldonado, a Trump supporter, said to his congregation, as reported by the outlet.

“This service is usually packed. So now they’re home in a cave afraid of the virus, that you want to transmit the virus,” Maldonado continued. The Herald noted the venue “appeared half empty…

…“If we die, we die for Christ,” Maldonado told parishioners. “If we live, we live for Christ, so what do you lose?”

The Jesus that I worship does not call us to be this stupid. I hate to say it, but this is an appropriate strategy for Republicans only! RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump has tested negative for empathy, the White House doctor confirmed on Monday.

In an official statement, Dr. Sean Conley said that Trump submitted to the empathy test even though, in the physician’s opinion, “it was not really necessary.”

“I expected him to test negative,” Conley said. “Empathy-wise, he has been entirely asymptomatic.”

The White House doctor attributed Trump’s empathy-free status to his established practice of social distancing from anyone showing even the faintest sign of compassion, kindness, or humanity.

Dang, Andy! I have zero trouble believing that! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Association – Windy (1967 Ravinia Festival – Highland Park IL )

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread–2/4/2019

Posted by TomCat at 10:20 am Open Thread, Plus, Politics

Feb 042020

Yesterday’s trip to the hospital was gruesome. TriMet Lift got me there an hour early, so I had to wait there for an hour. The tests, as I had told the doctors all along, was fine. Unlike my fart, my heart is completely healthy. They got done with me two hours early, so I called TriMet to see if I could get an earlier ride. No. In fact, they screwed up and did not pick me up for my 3:34 – 4:04 PM window until 6:10. That Lift Bus was crowded, so I did not get home until 7:25 PM, 25 minutes after my winter bedtime. Needless to say, I’m so pooped, I’m bleary eyed.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:49 (average 5:54). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

I’m on O₂ too. I’m not a Republican, so I’m not a moron.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): In What Amounts To GOP ‘Bluff-Calling,’ Joe Manchin Proposes Senate Censure Trump

I must be hallucinating from being over tired. I actually agree with DINO Joe! After the conviction vote fails, a foregone conclusion, I would support a censure vote, as a way to further embarrass Republicans, most of whom would goose-step with criminal Fuhrer Trump*. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Late Show Channel): GOP Senators Give Lame Excuses For Voting Against Witnesses In Trump Impeachment Trial

Lame excuses? Since when has the Fascist Republican Reich given any other kind? RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Mamas & The Papas – Monday Monday

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Slinging it for the Criminal

Posted by TomCat at 9:10 am Politics

Jan 282020

We’re now in the third and last day of stupidity, as displayed by the clown car of hypocrites representing impeached criminal, Donald “quid pro quo” Trump*. Apparently the release of information from John Bolton’s Book caught them off guard. Except for a weak attempt to deflect it near the end of their presentation, they ignored it. In the process, they made fools of themselves.

I am glad I am leaving this place on Tuesday and heading to Iowa, where some decent people are contending to head a government and a political system so corrupted and debased at this point that the ship of state most closely resembles that homeless wandering garbage barge from 1987. The last thing I saw was Republican Senators John Barrasso and Mike Braun, red-faced and hollering, because some reporters wanted to know precisely how much of the bullshit slung by the White House lawyers on Monday afternoon anyone should believe.

Make no mistake about it. From about 4 o’clock, the time former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi rose to speak, until about 6, when a longtime lawyer for El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago named Eric Herschmann wrapped up what amounted to some MAGA rally cosplay, a monstrously obvious fraud was perpetrated on the Senate, sitting as a court of impeachment. If any lawyer in any municipal court in the country had lied and misrepresented the facts of a case involving a speeding ticket as thoroughly as Bondi and Herschmann did here, that lawyer’s license would have been pulled by lunchtime. However, Chief Justice John Roberts, perhaps exhausted by the effort it took to extend the work of Breckinridge Long into the 21st century on Monday morning, sat there like one of the marble vice presidents in the niches of the visitor’s galleries above. A fraud was perpetrated on the court over which Roberts was presiding, and he had to know it.

I thought the defense case had scraped bottom when Ken Starr was brought out of cold storage to lecture the Senate on the dangers of a runaway impeachment process. But that turned out to be merely particularly odious concern-trolling. Irony died a long time ago and all Starr was doing was digging up the casket and setting it ablaze. However, it was the Bondi-Herschmann pas de deux ended up shredding the last possible rags of dignity that still clung to the truth in this farce. Bondi began by explaining how it was the House managers that forced her to get up and talk about the Bidens and Burisma. Of course, Bondi was the Florida attorney general who, in 2013, buried that state’s investigation into the fraudulent Trump University after a $25,000 check from the Trump Foundation landed in her campaign account. At the moment, she’s making $115-large as a lobbyist for the government of Qatar. So, naturally, she was the lawyer chosen to crank up the innuendo machine regarding the Bidens and Burisma, especially since the Republicans Have The Votes, so nothing else matters.

Reading her prepared argument like a seventh-grader delivering a history report, Bondi found herself inevitably stanning for the deeply corrupt former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin. In reality, Shokin was removed because the government of the United States, the World Bank, and virtually every official in the western world except Sir Paul McCartney knew he was for sale and wanted him gone. Biden, then vice president, had been tasked with delivering the warning from the United States to Ukraine. Shokin had opened an investigation into Burisma but he had then stuffed it. That was part of why everybody thought he was a crook. Bondi, however, asked us to sympathize with Viktor Shokin, the victim of Biden shenanigans, a theory that has been debunked from here to glory. I swear to god, if they’d put a menu from Denny’s in Bondi’s folder, she’d have blamed Hunter Biden for the Grand Slam breakfast. [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Esquire>

Here are three video clops that shed more light of this absurd defense.

Jake Tapper fact-checks President Trump’s defense team during Senate impeachment trial

Of course the Trump* defense team lied. If they weren’t lying, displaying hate and racism, or acting out predatory greed, we could not tell they’re Republicans.

What Trump’s defense team left out of their impeachment defense

The Republican Reich is desperate to keep the truth away from American Voters.

Joe: A Confederacy Of Dunces Defends President Donald Trump

Joe Scarborough was hilarious, but I think these folks were stating the obvious. If these lawyers were anything but a Confederation of Dunces, they would not be defending the criminal Fuhrer Trump*!

RESIST!!

Open Thread–1/24/2020

Posted by TomCat at 8:47 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 242020

It’s a tired day here in the CatBox. I didn’t sleep well last night, but I kept my food down all day yesterday and this morning. I’m going to do my best to force a week free of Medical Mayhem, before I let them perform more in their endless barrage of tests. Pardon my frustration, please. I’m just sick of sick. TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:52 (average 5:09). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From Crooks and Liars: George Conway and his new group called The Lincoln Project created a second negative political ad targeting the vulnerable Senator from Maine, Susan Collins.

In the ad, they highlight the supposed “independent” credentials negated by her actions. They demand that Collins do her job during the Senate impeachment trial.

Amen! RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Adam Schiff Ends Day With Powerful Argument For Trump’s Removal

I think Schiff was speaking more to the American people more than to the Senators, whose ears and minds are closed. The real trial is the one in November. The onus falls on voters to send criminal Resident Trump* and the entire Republican Reich the way of the Whig Party! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a change of pace): Patsy Cline – Sweet Dreams

I’m so old that even this brings memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

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