Open Thread–6/24/2020

Posted by TomCat at 11:09 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 242020

It’s a busy day here in the CatBox. I slept poorly last night, because it was so muggy. Today is the cool day this week, with a forecast high of only 80°. From your comments, some of you don’t understand my pain meds. Fentanyl is a narcotic opioid, just like Oxycodone. It shares the same dangers and side-effects. They have me on the lowest dose (12.5 mg patch) and do not intend it to replace Oxycodone. My medical team intend it to provide a continuous level of pain relief, but understand that I will need to supplement it with Oxycodone. Their hope is that my Oxycodone use will decrease from 40 – 50 mg/day to 5 – 20 mg/day. As much as I would prefer not to need pain management, spinal cancer is extremely painful, as is esophageal cancer. Without meds, I would be in too much pain to do the things that make staying alive worth it. WWWendy will be coming late this afternoon to de-stink the vile, rancid TomCat and make a lot of goop. I ate almost all the goop in the house. In a late change of plans, WWWendy is coming at Noon. Rush mode engaged! Happy Hump Day!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:37 (average 7:41). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0624TrumpVirusChart

The EU curve shows a proper response to Trump* virus. The US curve shows a Republican response.

Cases: 2,425,424
Deaths: 123,500

We don’t want criminal Fuhrer Trump* taking credit for the recoveries, which he makes less likely, NOT more likely.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): Robert Reich: America is Not Exceptional

Of course the Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right, and the Reich on the right, the Republican Reich, id the Fifth Reich, exceptional in their hate, greed, megalomania, and incompetence. RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): EU considers blocking US travelers due to coronavirus surge

Considering the difference in new cases charts of the EU and the US (see TVU above), it is clear that the US has become the world’s Typhoid Mary for the spread of COVID-19, aka Trump* virus. Therefore, if the EU fails to ban visitors from the US, they are insane! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Beach Boys – Good Vibrations

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread–6/10/2020

Posted by TomCat at 11:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 102020

It’s a tired day here in the CatBox. Yesterday I had my PET Scan, and the test went well. This time they bundled me very well with blankets, but I remembered the other thing I hate. I’m a very itchy person and to have to lay still for over a half hour, itching in a dozen places I could not scratch was pure torture. When we returned home, I ate lunch, took my shower, and got to bed for my nap quite late. So I had supper late too, and by the time I crawled into bed for the night, it was completely dark. I had a severe gas attack. Lo and behold, it was so radioactive that it glowed in the dark. The green cloud found a crack in the window frame, moved outside, and streamed off to the north. That Sasquatch had better turn on her Geiger counter! Happy Hump Day to all!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:18 (average 4:58). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0610TrumpVirusMap

Cases: 2,053,738
Deaths: 114,414
Recovered: 789,558

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Furious at Mitt Romney for participating in a Black Lives Matter march, Donald J. Trump declared on Monday that the Utah senator is “not welcome in my bunker.”

“Mitt Romney thinks he’s cute, first voting to impeach me and now marching,” Trump told reporters. “Well, I’ve got news for Mitt: his invitation to my bunker is hereby revoked.”

Trump said that, because of his disloyalty, Romney “will never experience all that the best bunker in the world has to offer.”

“There are luxury recliners, televisions as far as the eye can see, and a bottomless pit of snacks,” Trump boasted. “If Mitt could see what he’s missing, I’ll bet he’d rethink some of the cute things he’s done.”

Dang, Andy! If Little Lord Willard keeps this up, he may even get a blessing from Seamus in dawg heaven! RESIST!!

From Politico: But in a sign of how Trump’s reelection prospects have weakened across the country, even the heartland may be having second thoughts.

Since the start of the year, Democrats in Iowa have added about twice as many active voters to their rolls as Republicans, nudging ahead in total registration for the first time in years. The farm economy has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic. And though Trump still holds a small lead in the state, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average, he’s now airing TV advertisements there — a tacit acknowledgment that the campaign anticipates a contest.

When the Republican Reich has to spend money in places they considered a sure win, that has to help open other doors for Democrats! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Beatles – A Day In The Life

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread–5/12/2019

Posted by TomCat at 10:50 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 122020

I was so wiped out the rest of the day yesterday that, except for a small supper, I went back to bed all yesterday afternoon and evening. Then I overslept two hours this morning and still feel very tired. But I had a better appetite at breakfast. Have a Republican-free day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:09 (average 4:36). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0512TrumpVirusMap

Cases: 1,388,283
Deaths: 82,018 (over 18,000 in May)
Recovered: 262,328

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: One week after the United States Senate returned to session, Senator Susan Collins, of Maine, said that she would self-quarantine to avoid possible contact with decisions.

Collins said that she had hoped to safely distance herself from any decisions while at the Senate but feared that the risk of accidental exposure to a decision was too great.

“I was troubled and concerned by how many decisions there were,” she said. “It did not feel safe to me.”

Collins said that she would self-quarantine until she is confident that the danger of being in the vicinity of a decision had clearly passed.

Dang, Andy! Was there ever a time that Collins’ did not test negative for integrity, whenever she makes decisions? RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Obama Calls Trump Administration’s Virus Response ‘Chaotic Disaster’

This is a very big deal! For former President Obama to speak out against criminal Fuhrer Trump* is completely out of character for him. He should have done so sooner! RESIST!!

From YouTube ( a blast from the past): Buffy Sainte Marie-Circle Game

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!!

A Bright Spot Makes the Fuhrer Squirm

Posted by TomCat at 10:37 am Politics

May 062020

Do you remember the “anonymous whistleblower that helped expose the high crimes and misdemeanors for which criminal Fuhrer Trump* escaped responsibility? Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch and the Senate Republicans violated their oath. Well, it’s whistleblower time again. This one is not anonymous, and the high crimes and misdemeanors are even worse.

[H]e was pressured to invest in drugs and vaccines that lacked scientific merit, because the people selling them had friends in the Trump administration, up to and including the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. He was forced to transfer funds to acquire drugs for the Strategic National Stockpile, America’s most important reserve of lifesaving medications, based not on health needs but on “political connections and cronyism.” He was instructed to use his department’s budget to purchase flu medications of questionable efficacy. And when the COVID-19 crisis erupted, he was pressured to approve a plan that would “flood” cities with unproven and untested doses of chloroquine drugs, from uninspected manufacturing plants in Asia. When his efforts to work through the system failed, he decided he had a “moral obligation to the American public” to ring the alarm about the plan, “which he believed constituted a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety.” In retaliation, he was “smeared,” with officials unfairly accusing him of dropping the ball on vaccine development and PPE preparation.

These are just some of the allegations contained in a blistering, 63-page complaint that Dr. Rick Bright, former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), filed today with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. According to his lawyers, Bright will testify before Congress next week.

Vanity Fair has submitted requests for comment to the White House and the Food and Drug Administration, and will update this article with any responses. In a statement, Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Caitlin Oakley said: “Dr. Bright was transferred to NIH to work on diagnostics testing—critical to combatting COVID-19—where he has been entrusted to spend upwards of $1 billion to advance that effort. We are deeply disappointed that he has not shown up to work on behalf of the American people and lead on this critical endeavor.”

Bright has become the first high-level federal whistleblower to publicly allege that the Trump administration has responded to the COVID-19 crisis by unduly pressuring health officials, and putting politics and profit ahead of science. Bright, the government’s top coronavirus vaccine developer, had spent a decade at BARDA, a small but powerful agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), whose mandate is to partner with private companies to help accelerate the development of vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics. According to Bright’s complaint, BARDA manages almost $50 billion worth of contracts and acquisitions, on an annual budget of just over $1.5 billion. He was named director in 2016… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Vanity Fair>

I strongly encourage you to click the link in the second paragraph and read the shocking complaint in it’s entirety.

Here’s some coverage from CNN.

Ousted vaccine director says pandemic warnings were ignored

In the criminal Fuhrer’s White House, as in the entire Republican Reich, truth telling is a capital offense.

White House coronavirus task force to be ‘phased down’ around Memorial Day

There are few things that the Republican Reich, especially criminal Fuhrer Trump* hate more than oversight. They fear that the next whistle blower will publicly expose it, when Republicans murder more and more Americans to reopen the economy for Trump’s* political ends.

MSNBC did a better job covering the actual corruption.

Coronavirus Whistleblower Complaint Suggests Trump Admin. Putting Politics Above Science

How many thousands of Americans have died and will die, because criminal Fuhrer Trump* is diverting the resources desperately needed by sick families no serve his, his relatives’, and his Republican cronies’ greed?

The last time there was a whistleblower complaint, we impeached Criminal Fuhrer Trump*. Since these high crimes and misdemeanors are even worse, it’s time to give that dirty son of a bitch (apologies to all female dawgs) a second asterisk.

RESIST!!

Open Thread–4/30/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:49 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Apr 302020

It’s a crappy day here in the CatBox. I spent a lot of time on the throne this morning. The problem with eating goop is like the problem with computer programming. Goop in; goop out. I talked to Megan (my PCP) and Evelyn’s (my Oncologist) nurse this morning. We all agree that the best way to deal with Republicosis is Imodium AD. Thursday is send Republicosis to criminal Fuhrer Trump* Day!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:09 (average 5:00). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0430TrumpVirusMap

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Vice-President Mike Pence has started wearing a mask after Anthony Fauci told him that it will protect him from women, Fauci has confirmed.

After seeing video of a maskless Pence touring the Mayo Clinic, on Tuesday, Fauci said, “I knew I had to come up with something fast” to get through to Pence.

Fauci immediately got on the phone with the Vice-President and informed him that “clinical research” had demonstrated that a mask is “an effective female-repellent.”

I believe you, Andy. That brown-nose sycophant, Pence, would love ensure that the use of his butt is reserved exclusively for his beloved criminal Fuhrer Trump*. RESIST!!

From Alternet: Countless non-fundamentalist churches in the United States, from Catholic to Lutheran and Episcopalian, have embraced social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic and temporarily moved their activities online. But many Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals have been irresponsibly downplaying the dangers of COVID-19 and doing so with deadly results: journalist Alex Woodward, in the U.K.-based Independent, reports that the pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 30 pastors in the Bible Belt.

“Dozens of pastors across the Bible Belt have succumbed to coronavirus after churches and televangelists played down the pandemic and actively encouraged churchgoers to flout self-distancing guidelines,” Woodward reports.

What Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians (the polar opposite of authentic Christians) fail to realize is that their false god carries a pitchfork and has horns, cloven hooves, and a pointy tail. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): From Ukraine to Coronavirus: Trump’s Abuse of Power Continues, featuring Robert Reich

Of course the Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right. Criminal Fuhrer Trump* exactly reflects the values and policies of the Reich on the Right, the Republican Reich. Every Republican in office is one Republican too many. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast): If it be Your will – Leonard Cohen – Lyrics

I hadn’t heard this before, but given my current situation, it really hits home. RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Without One, He Insults the Eyes!

Posted by TomCat at 9:53 am Politics

Apr 292020

Deputy criminal Fuhrer, Vice Resident Mike Pence, insulted the eyes of the nation today by refusing to wear a mask in the Mayo Clinic, proving that the Republican Reich is the place where ugly and stupid meet.

As Americans continue to seek answers about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Stephen Colbert offered some advice Tuesday night: Maybe it’s time to stop listening to Vice President Pence.

Just hours earlier, Pence, who leads the White House’s coronavirus task force, prompted a collective outcry when he was spotted speaking to staff and patients at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., without a face mask. Many, including Colbert, noticed Pence seemed to be the only person at the medical center who wasn’t wearing some sort of face covering — an apparent violation of the clinic’s policy and a move that appears at odds with federal guidelines dictating best practices for stemming the spread of the novel virus.

“Hold on, I’ve got a mask for you right here,” Colbert said on his CBS show, staring defiantly into the camera while appearing to make a crude gesture with his hand, which was wrapped loosely in a surgical mask.

Colbert wasn’t the only person who objected to seeing the lower half of Pence’s face Tuesday. The late-night host was joined by fellow TV comics and medical professionals, all of whom roundly criticized Pence for failing to set the right example amid the pandemic by knowingly disregarding the hospital’s masking policy.

By early Wednesday, Pence’s name and “Mayo Clinic” were trending on Twitter as critics slammed the vice president for promoting “completely irresponsible public health messaging.”…

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Pence Blasted For Defying Mayo Clinic Face Mask Rule During Visit

On the other hand, Pence could be doing us a favor. First, having Pence serve jail time in a cremation urn than in a prison cell. Second, if we’re really lucky, Pence might spread Trump* virus to criminal Fuhrer Trump*. Of course, I’m employing satire, but it is a lovely thought!

RESIST!!

To Inject or Not to Inject?

Posted by TomCat at 10:20 am Politics

Apr 242020

Criminal Fuhrer Trump* and the Republican Reich never cease to amaze me. Every time I think they have exceeded bounds of human credulity, they take another asymptotic step toward infinity.

After a presentation Thursday that touched on the disinfectants that can kill the novel coronavirus on surfaces and in the air, President Trump pondered whether those chemicals could be used to fight the virus inside the human body.

“I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute,” Trump said during Thursday’s coronavirus press briefing. “And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets inside the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.”

The question, which Trump offered unprompted, immediately spurred doctors, lawmakers and the makers of Lysol to respond with incredulity and warnings against injecting or otherwise ingesting disinfectants, which are highly toxic.

“My concern is that people will die. People will think this is a good idea,” Craig Spencer, director of global health in emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, told The Washington Post. “This is not willy-nilly, off-the-cuff, maybe-this-will-work advice. This is dangerous.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Photo credit: @PuestoLoco

Lysol Manufacturer Warns Against Internal Use After Trump Comments

Actually, I trust that virtually no Democrats or sane Independents are stupid enough to go along with such a lame idea. Criminal Fuhrer Trump* and the MAGA Maniacs of the Republican Reich should try it themselves!

RESIST!!

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