Open Thread–6/27/2020

Posted by TomCat at 11:42 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 272020

It’s a very tired day, here in the CatBox. This building can be very difficult to find, and yesterday, the Providence Elder at Home doctor was 90 minutes late for our appointment. First, her GPS system kept sending her in circles that missed the turn to get to the building. When she finally found it and got to the street parking area on the other side of the building, she called me, and I came down to the lobby to let her into the building. However, the city’s street parking pay system was out of order. She had to download the mobile street parking app, register, and use it to pay for parking. I had to wait in the lobby for over half an hour, before she finally got to the door. Things went uphill from there. I gave her the records i keep on medications, pain management and blood sugar. I familiarized her with my condition. She checked me out, and we agreed that I’m doing pretty well for a guy with one foot in the grave. She will return monthly to check on my condition and help with any immediate needs. If I have a need sooner, I can call for an appointment. She told me that she will need to come more often as my condition progresses to help me with pain management. I’m feeling very worn out. Tomorrow, please expect no more than a Personal Update. It’s a WWWendy day, and we have lots to do. Have a fine weekend!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:11 (average 4:53). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Considering his replacement, his resignation was tragic.

Trump Virus* Update:

0627TrumpVirusMap

Except for CA, you can see where Republicans are strongest.

Cases: 2,554,470
Deaths: 127,673

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump on Friday threatened to ban a coronavirus vaccine if it turns out that it was invented by former President Barack Obama.

Trump’s threat took members of the White House press corps aback, since there are no reports to date of Obama attempting to invent a vaccine or any other pharmaceutical.

Trump acknowledged that he was not aware of any such activities on Obama’s part, but warned that, if the former President succeeded in inventing a coronavirus vaccine, “I’m not going to let that happen.”

“If Obama came up with a vaccine, it would only be to make me look bad,” he said. “Well, guess what? I’m not going to let him get away with something cute like that. We’re going to move quite powerfully on anything Obama does in terms of a vaccine.”…

Consider this, Andy. Criminal Fuhrer Trump* is just using Obama as a smoke screen. The Republican Reich wants to block any vaccine. Since the Trump* virus death rate for minorities is disproportionately high, and since most minority voters vote for Democrats, Republicans want to kill as many as they can before the 2020 election. RESIST!!

From NY Times: American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan — including targeting American troops — amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there, according to officials briefed on the matter.

The United States concluded months ago that the Russian unit, which has been linked to assassination attempts and other covert operations in Europe intended to destabilize the West or take revenge on turncoats, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year.

Islamist militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money, the officials said. Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, but it was not clear which killings were under suspicion.

The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March, the officials said. Officials developed a menu of potential options — starting with making a diplomatic complaint to Moscow and a demand that it stop, along with an escalating series of sanctions and other possible responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step, the officials said…

Actually, the Times is incorrect on one point. Trump* did respond to Russia paying for the murder of US troops. According to the BBC, he postponed the G7 Summit from June to September, because other nations rejected his plan to allow Russia to join the G7 (G8, if they did) and Putin [R-RU] to attend the summit. That’s how much the Republican Reich cares about the murder of US troops! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Bob Dylan – The Times They Are A-Changin’ (Audio)

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Republicans on Parade–6/14/2020

Posted by TomCat at 11:19 am Politics

Jun 142020

Here is the one hundred seventy-sixth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s winner is Garrett Rolfe, a Republican police officer in Atlanta. He is so honored for murdering yet another unarmed Black man, by shooting him in the back as he fled.

Less than 24 hours after a white police officer shot and killed an African-American man outside a fast-food restaurant, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta announced on Saturday that the city’s police chief had resigned.

Early on Sunday morning, Sgt. John Chafee, a spokesman for the Atlanta Police Department, said the officer who shot the man had been fired…

…The authorities said the man, Rayshard Brooks, 27, had run from the police on Friday night after failing a sobriety test and grabbing a Taser from an officer during a struggle with him. Ms. Bottoms said that security footage appeared to show that Mr. Brooks had fired the Taser toward the officer, who was chasing him before he was killed, but that she did not consider that a justification for the shooting…

Inserted from <NY Times>

Warning: the following video contains graphic footage of a Republican murder.

Body cam footage of Rayshard Brooks’ death shows calm, then chaos

To be fair, I have to say that Brooks’ conduct was far from acceptable. Police and Republicans are claiming that Rolfe was in fear for his life, because Brooks fired the TASER at him. However, police and “expert witnesses” have testified in court the use of TASERs by police is justified in crowd control, because it is a non lethal weapon. Therefore, Rolfe could not have feared for his life from a non-lethal weapon. Furthermore, once the TASER had been fired and missed, it could not be fired again and was no threat to Rolfe. For Rolfe to shoot an unarmed fleeing Brooks in the back is a racist Republican murder.

RESIST!!

Emails About George Floyd

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:44 pm Politics

May 312020

It being a slow newsday, I thought I’d share a couple of emails which I received, written and sent as responses to the death of George Floyd. Neither one is easy reading – too much truth. Both are moving.

First is this one from Mike Baillie at Avaaz. He didn’t write most of it, and I’m not sure who transcribed it. It is – well, you’ll see.

These are the last words of George Floyd, a 46-year-old man who died as a US police officer pinned him down, kneeling on his neck for seven minutes, until he suffocated:

“It’s my face man
I didn’t do nothing serious man
please
please
please I can’t breathe
please man
please somebody
please man
I can’t breathe
I can’t breathe
please
(inaudible)
man can’t breathe, my face
just get up
I can’t breathe
please (inaudible)
I can’t breathe sh*t
I will
I can’t move
mama
mama
I can’t
my knee
my nuts
I’m through
I’m through
I’m claustrophobic
my stomach hurt
my neck hurts
everything hurts
some water or something
please
please
I can’t breathe officer
don’t kill me
they gon’ kill me man
come on man
I cannot breathe
I cannot breathe
they gon’ kill me
they gon’ kill me
I can’t breathe
I can’t breathe
please sir
please
please
please I can’t breathe”

Then his eyes shut and the pleas stop. George Floyd was pronounced dead shortly after.

Some of you may be familiar with the name Heather Mizeur. She was a “delegate” (State Representative) in Maryland for about 8 years, could not run for both reelection and governor, so lost the seat when she lost the Democratic primary. Since the election of 45*, she has founded a nonprofit (Soul Force Politics) and has been making podcasts. She sent this heartfelt letter:

I spent all of last night writing to get this off my chest. Let’s get to work.

George Floyd. Amaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. Bothem Jean. Atatiana Jefferson. Elijah Al-Amin. Philandro Castro. Alton Sterling. Jordan Davis. Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Trayvon Martin. Tamir Rice. Sandra Bland. Freddie Gray.

These are only the names I can remember.

I can barely contain the rage at there being too many to name them all.
Innocent, unarmed, beautiful black people are being murdered by white people because they deign to run in our neighborhoods, wear hoodies, listen to rap music “too loud,” play with toy guns, or resist arrest from police they cannot trust to protect them.

Quick to see and easy to condemn, this illness of overt racism.

Meanwhile, its more invisible sibling, white supremacy, is fed, harbored, and allowed to metastasize all around us.

We must dismantle all of it.

It starts in the naming of uncomfortable truths.

White-bodied people must look racism in the eye and not avert our gaze when we see our own reflection in the shadows. Racists are not some “other” version of white people. It is all of us. We disarm it by owning it.

Our historic resistance to admitting to and healing from our nation’s original sin of slavery has left a core wound to fester. These incidences of violence against black people are not suddenly surging in the Trump era. We just finally have the technology in every hand to bear witness to it.

Black people cannot fix this. This is the work of white people. When we go there, the door to healing that we open is not just our own; it’s a collective consciousness that emerges renewed.

Walk through this door with me. Step out of whiteness. Commit to more than just posting your anger and regrets on social media at the next gruesome video.

Change. Your. Behavior.

Very few harbor intentional ill-will and active prejudices against people of color. However, most of us are untrained to see how racism seeps into every corner of our lives.
Let’s be clear that saying “I’m a racist” doesn’t mean what you think it does. You aren’t hosing people down with water and unleashing attack dogs, burning crosses in lawns, or administering choke holds. You are not denying someone a job or scholarship because you are prejudice against their color.

For a long time, the absence of those overt behaviors was evidence enough of innocence.
The truth knows a deeper subtlety. Racism is also a collection of unearned benefits white-bodied people have received but have not earned – merely for being perceived as white. Bank loans with favorable interest rates, better schools, nicer neighborhoods, jobs with upward mobility and the gift of constantly being given the benefit of the doubt and presumed innocence.

Some will say we have earned everything through hard work. But we have been competing within a system that has rigged all the rules in our favor.

In acknowledging this, we allow space to come forward that helps us see more clearly how people of color have had a boot in their face every time they try to climb the ladder of the “American Dream.”

This dream never included them from the beginning. But we can change this now. Through our desire to give up unearned privileges and taking on the hard work of discussing reparations, we can begin to truly dismantle the legacy of racism.

You ask, “But what if I am one of the ‘good ones’ who goes to trainings and reads the right books – you’re not including me in this, right?” Yes, my friend, I am. We call ourselves anti-racist racists.

All white people have a place deep within that is inviting each of us to be brave, face our fears of this difficult topic, and embrace an opportunity to heal what is broken in all of us.

My favorite anti-racism teacher, the Reverend angel Kyodo williams, reminds us that whites were seduced, induced, or reduced into participation with white supremacy systems. Some of our ancestors were seduced by the financial gains of enslaving black people. Others were immigrants eager to trade their status for the privilege of being seen as white. Some were induced through not-so-veiled threats that either you do this or it will be your family we come for – cleaving divisions of people, fighting among themselves for status and protection.

Most of us have no idea how the nets of seduction and induction entangled our ancestors. But we do know that we have all been reduced by this. Shame, guilt, and self-hatred is the white inheritance of complicity with this unspeakable history. Our collective lineage has passed on to us a hidden trauma of whiteness that continues to inflict so much injury.

We hate ourselves, so we take it out on you.

White fragility is a thing. And we have to get over ourselves.

The work of undoing racism is upon us. This is the calling of our generation.

Truth liberates us. And when we step into our power to shift the dynamic of racism in our lives, we heal in multiple directions – ourselves, our ancestors, and the children yet unborn.

See the ugly truth of white supremacy all around you — not just the obvious racists pulling guns on innocent black people — see the legal system that gives disproportionate sentencing based on skin color. See the mothers and babies that receive inadequate health care compared to their white peers. Notice the toll that the Coronavirus is taking on black and brown communities. Call out corporations that dump their toxic waste in black and brown neighborhoods and governments that refuse to provide clean drinking water in Flint, MI. Pay attention that you do not have to pay attention to anything when the police pull you over for a routine stop. See the weaponized fear that the “Karens” and “Beckys” use to their advantage to put black people back in their place. Condemn police brutality. Notice the not-so-subtle jabs and jokes whispered in hushed tones in the comfort of other white people.

And vow to disrupt it.

Agitate for law changes and vote in political representatives who will champion them.
In mixed spaces, shut your mouth and open your heart. Whiteness often has us speaking first, looking for applause. We do not always have to get it right. We do not have to possess the best, fastest, rightest answers. Performance does not prove who we are. We must unlearn the ways that we have been taught to take measure. Let other people shine.

Give up some of that power which has been unfairly bestowed upon you and share more of the resources that we have horded to protect our status.

Racism is embedded in our system of existence. Commit yourself to overturning it. Embody your awareness. Teach your children a different way. For these pervasive daily injustices are just as lethal as the life-ending ones.

Start speaking up against racism in white spaces. It gets easier with each step, with each word. Use your voice of privilege. Let your heart lead you.

Love is the pathway to liberation. Radical love is our partner in undoing racism.

With all my love,

Heather

Heather R. Mizeur, CEO + Founder | Soul Force Politics

And I – have no words.

Republicans on Parade–5/27/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:19 am Politics

May 272020

Here is the one hundred seventy-fourth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s winners are four unnamed Minneapolis police officers. They are so honored for murdering yet another unarmed black man, who begged for mercy as one killed him and the rest watched.

ANOTHER DAY in the United States, another unarmed black man dead following unwarranted, insupportable, outrageous police violence. When will it end?

In Minneapolis on Monday evening, a white officer bore down with his knee on the neck of a handcuffed black man who lay sprawled on the street, rasping, “I cannot breathe” and “Don’t kill me.” The man died a short time after.

The suspect, George Floyd, was in his 40s. He was arrested when officers responded to what they called a suspected “forgery in progress.” They said the man appeared to be intoxicated and that he resisted arrest, though no evidence has been presented for either assertion.

There is plain evidence of what came next, however, from a video recorded by someone in a group of witnesses who stood a few feet away. In it, the white officer appears impassive, almost bored, as the suspect gasps for breath. He is unmoved as witnesses curse and plead with him to get off the suspect’s neck, as they warn that the man’s nose is bleeding, that he can’t breathe, that he isn’t resisting. Nor does the officer relent when an ambulance medic arrives and checks the man’s neck for a pulse… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Here are two video clips reporting on the incident.

4 cops fired after video shows one kneeling on neck of black man who later died

Minneapolis Officers Fired After Fatal Arrest Of Unarmed Black Man

Now, you might ask, how do I know they are Republicans? If they act like Republicans, hate like Republicans, and kill like Republicans, they are Republicans, no matter the party to which they belong. I’d worry that criminal Fuhrer Trump would pardon them, but it will never come to that. Guess who is in charge of the investigation? It’s Barrf! Should their names and addresses should be posted online? Sadly, that’s too Republican to do.

RESIST!!

Open Thread–5/27/2020

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

May 272020

It’s a hot time, here in the CatBox, with the next three days forecast in the 80°s. That’s not too bad in itself, but it’s a little strange for May. Yesterday my Oncologist and I agreed that since my treatment had almost killed me from septic shock, we needed a new plan, and she had one ready. First, I’m going to have another PET Scan to verify the progress of my disease, and see if there is a tumor in my liver that they can biopsy. If there is, Evelyn will get me into a clinical trial, sponsored by the American Cancer Society. They analyze the DNA of my cancer and design an individual drug that specifically targets my cancer, without targeting me. I’ll keep you posted. Tomorrow, I’ll probably have no more than an Open Thread or a Personal Update. WWWendy will be gone this weekend. She’s driving to Wyoming for a family reunion first thing Friday morning. She will return Monday night. Please pray for her safety. As a result, my next two WWWendy days are tomorrow and Tuesday. Will I be stinky by Tuesday, or what? Happy Hump day to all!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:04 (average 4:33). To do it, click here.

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

Cases: 1,729,022
Deaths: 100,686
Recovered: 480,273

Short Takes:

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Trump threatens to shut down social media platform

This is much too little, much too late. Twitter is almost as bad as Fakebook. It’s time to put Twitter in the shitter! RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): As U.S. Deaths Reach 100,000, Trump Praises His Handling Of Virus

Congratulations to criminal Fuhrer Trump for murdering 100,000 in the Republican war against America for greed and power. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Ghost Riders in the Sky – Johnny Cash – Full Song

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Experts Contradict Trump* on His Virus

Posted by TomCat at 9:56 am Politics

May 132020

Yesterday a panel of experts testified about COVID-19, aka Trump* virus in the Senate. They demonstrated that criminal Fuhrer Trump and the Republican Reich have been lying. They are so full of Trump* shit that their eyes have turned orange.

Two of the federal government’s top health officials painted a grim picture of the months ahead on Tuesday, warning a Senate panel that the coronavirus pandemic was far from contained, just a day after President Trump declared that “we have met the moment and we have prevailed.”

The officials — Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, and Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — predicted dire consequences if the nation reopened its economy too soon, noting that the United States still lacked critical testing capacity and the ability to trace the contacts of those infected.

“If we do not respond in an adequate way when the fall comes, given that it is without a doubt that there will be infections that will be in the community, then we run the risk of having a resurgence,” said Dr. Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who is at the forefront of efforts to find a coronavirus vaccine.

If states reopen their economies too soon, he warned, “there is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control,” which could result not only in “some suffering and death that could be avoided, but could even set you back on the road to trying to get economic recovery.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

Here’s some coverage of the Senate and more.

Fauci Clashes In Tense Moment At Senate Hearing

Criminal Fuhrer Trump* fears that keeping the economy shuttered will cost him any possibility to steal the White House again. How many people will he murder in the process? How many will be children?

Robert Reich has Republican motives down cold.

Robert Reich: The Real Reason Trump Wants to Reopen the Economy

The Reich on the left Robert Reich is right. The Reich on the right, the Republican Reich cares for money and power. They consider killing YOU part of their plan!

RESIST!!

Open Thread–5/8/2020

Posted by TomCat at 8:51 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

May 082020

It’s a very busy day, here in the CatBox. First, a high of 84° is forecast, so I may be cooked before my dinner is. I’m getting ready to go to the hospital to get ZAPPED. I expect to glow in the dark tonight. Depending on how bad I feel, I’ll try to put up an I’m OK reply, when I return. TGIF to all!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:33 (average 4:59). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump Virus* Update:

0508TrumpVirusMap

Cases: 1,295,058
Deaths: 77,058
Recovered: 217,292

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Despite an increasingly grim employment picture, an unskilled American man remains gainfully employed, labor experts confirmed.

With millions applying for unemployment benefits each week, experts expressed bafflement and outright astonishment that a man with no identifiable skills, talents, or competence appears to be secure in his job.

“This unskilled individual’s continued employment defies any kind of economic logic,” Davis Logsdon, who studies employment trends at the University of Minnesota, said. “Of the 33.5 million Americans who have applied for unemployment benefits over the past seven weeks, approximately 33.5 million are more qualified than he is.”

Even more perplexing, experts said, is the unskilled man’s persistent employment after failing at a series of other jobs during the past three years.

Andy, that certainly is a wonder. There is nobody more unskilled than Jared Kushner, except perhaps, criminal Fuhrer Trump, himself! RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Trump Sidelines CDC Reopening Advice In Favor Of Vague Happy Talk

I think there is a method to the madness of criminal Fuhrer Trump* and the Republican Reich. Because they are reopening too soon to serve their own political ends, they know they will kill thousands of people in the process. If states /businesses have no guidelines to follow, the Fuhrer and the Reich can blame the state/local level reopening failures and their lethal effects on the state and local officials. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Teach Your Children

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread 5/7/2020

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

May 072020

It’s a busy day, here in the CatBox. Store to Door is delivering groceries this afternoon, and I have to put them away. Tomorrow please expect no more than an Open Thread or Personal Update. It’s my day to get zapped with Radiation. WWWendy is taking me. When I return, I plan to have some chili con goop, so the green cloud I send north to Squatch will be radioactive.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:11 (average 5:48). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0507TrumpVirusMap

Cases: 1,266,785
Deaths: 74,962
Recovered: 213,138

Short Takes:

From Alternet: A new report from Vanity Fair’s Diana Falzone published Wednesday recounts a series of stories in which the federal government has allegedly seized personal protective equipment — desperately needed during the coronavirus crisis — from private hands.

One businessman who owns a medical equipment supply firm said the FBI contacted him on the suspicion he was price-gouging, which he said his profit margins disproved. But his future shipments of N95 masks, which he planned to sell to “fire departments, nursing homes, and EMT departments,” were seized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he said. Vanity fair reported that the document officials used to seize his orders cited President Donald Trump’s executive order claiming authority to determine the allocation of COVID-19 resources.

In the Republican Reich, every billionaire that wants PPE can get it. That’s why Republicans steal PPE supplies from heroes. RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Parallels Between Gun Rights Debate And Virus Debate

The NRA and Republican billionaires have one thing in common. Both don’t give a damn how many Americans their policies murder, as long as their money and power increase! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Brian Hyland – Sealed with a Kiss with Lyrics

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

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