Open Thread April 30, 2024

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:06 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Apr 302024

Yesterday, I ran across a video on ice cream from which I learned that Joe is far from the first President to have a thing for ice cream. Washington did, and so did Jefferson, and Dplley Madison hostessed America’s first ice cream social ever, in the White House. I won’t embed it here because it’s over 20 minutes longbut I will provide a link in case anyone wants to check it out. The earliest ice creams, incidentaally, were made with eggs, and should therefore really be called frozen custard rather than ice cream. Among the many books I had as a little girl, there was one which mentioned frozen custard, and I wondered what it was – I was well into adulthood before I learned the distinction. Now I know, and now you know.

This from LAWdork (at Substack) was referred by the Talking Points Memo newsletter. The facts of the case itself are all too common. But the sight of conservative lawlessness being too much for even a proven, dyed-in-the-wool conservative is not quite so common. I wish AG Drommond and Mr. Glossup both complete success here.

There are multiple reason why this story from Antiques Roadshow is astonishing, touching, and mindboggling. And pertinent to America and Americans today. Christian Nationalism has in common with slavery the concept that some people are more equal than others.

Video Thread 9/8/2023

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:00 pm Open Thread, Politics

Sep 082023

This might have been a good opportunity to use the word “penultimate” – or even “antepenultimate” to allow for people like Giuliani and Eastman filling the “penultimate” positions.

Glenn Kirschner – Proud Boys Tarrio sentence to 22 years, but Trump – not Tarrio – is the “leader” of the insurrection

MSNBC – ‘Voters in Fulton County, Georgia elected her to’ take on big cases like 2020 election interference

Thom Hartmann – Why Term Limits Won’t Save America From Oligarchs Like Mitch McConnell

Liberal Redneck – Freeze, Mitch! (And the Scourge of Ancient Evil)

Momma Dog Has Her Babies In A Tiny Hole In The Ground

Beau – Let’s talk about a new government website….

Open Thread–6/25/2020

Posted by TomCat at 11:54 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 252020

It’s a busy day, here in the CatBox. Store to Door will be delivering groceries, and I have to put them away. Tomorrow, please expect no more than a Personal Update or an Open Thread. I have a doctor coming from Providence Medical Group at Home. What I can publish depends on how long she is here. How many Republicans does it take to screw in a light bulb? The answer is ∞. Republicans want to keep you (and their idiot Sheeple) in the dark.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:09 (average 4:44). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0625TrumpVirusMap

Cases: 2,463,923
Deaths: 124,308

Short Takes:

From NY Times: The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Cory T. Wilson of Mississippi to a New Orleans-based circuit court over united Democratic opposition, handing President Trump the 200th federal judicial confirmation of his tenure and achieving a Republican goal of filling every appeals court opening by the end of the year.

In winning Senate approval, Judge Wilson, a conservative state court judge and former Mississippi legislator, became the 53rd federal appeals court judge installed by Mr. Trump and cemented a milestone in a judicial legacy that has reshaped the federal courts during his administration, including putting in place two Supreme Court justices. Republicans lauded the achievement. The vote was 52-48.

This is a sad day for America. There are now 200 more reasons that justice here will be undermined for many decades. RESIST!!

From Crooks and Liars: Lighthouse Pentecostal Church in Union County, Oregon is tied to 236 cases of COVID-19 in the area — in a county with 258 cases.

And of course, the church in eastern Oregon cited Donald Trump’s demand that states allow churches to open as the reason they restarted services, against the law which didn’t allow religious groups to convene in large gatherings.

These Republican pseudo-Christians (the opposite of real authentic Christians) love to infect their neighbors with Trump* virus for their beloved criminal Fuhrer Trump*! RESIST!!

From YouTube (Adam Schiff Channel): Rep. Schiff on CNN: Barr is the Second Most Dangerous Man in America

Since Barrf is the third most dangerous man in the country (You forgot Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch), impeach him! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Neil Diamond – Sweet Caroline High Quality

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Bought Bitch Mitch Fails to Pass Bailout Scam

Posted by TomCat at 11:09 am Politics

Mar 232020

It looked like Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Democratic leaders were well on the way to working out a more extensive relief bill to provide much needed benefits for the American people, when Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch stepped in to convert the Bipartisan Relief Bill to a Republican Bailout Scam. Acting in the interests of the American people, Senate Democrats shot it down yesterday.

Senate Republicans late Sunday failed to force through a $1.8 trillion coronavirus stimulus package that Democratic lawmakers, union leaders, and progressive advocacy groups condemned as a massive bailout for corporate America that would have done little to address the urgent economic and medical needs of ordinary people.

A procedural motion to advance the Republican bill, formally known as the CARES Act, received just 47 votes Sunday, well short of the 60 needed for passage. Every Senate Democrat present voted no.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) scheduled another procedural vote on the legislation for Monday morning at 9:45 am ET as talks over the bill continued through the evening Sunday.

One of the most contentious sticking points in rapidly moving negotiations over the Republican measure was its call for the creation of a $500 billion business relief program that would be controlled by the Trump Treasury Department, headed by former Goldman Sachs banker Steve Mnuchin. The fund would set aside around $58 billion for the airline industry and $17 billion for “sectors considered critical to national security,” Roll Call reported.

Democrats and progressive critics condemned the program as a corporate “slush fund” and demanded that any bailout money for businesses come with strict oversight and conditions, such as strong worker protections against layoffs and a permanent ban on stock buybacks.

“In the midst of an unprecedented national crisis, Republicans can’t seriously expect us to tell people in our communities who are suffering that we shortchanged hospitals, students, workers, and small businesses but gave big corporations hundreds of billions of dollars in a secretive slush fund,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a statement announcing her opposition to the GOP legislation.

Progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are also demanding $2,000 in monthly cash payments to every person in the United States instead of the means-tested, one-time payments proposed by the Republican legislation.

“The job of Congress right now is to do everything we possibly can to protect Americans’ lives and wellbeing—not hand out welfare checks to huge corporations,” Sanders tweeted.

During a press conference Sunday, President Donald Trump refused to vow that none of the bailout money in the Republican stimulus package would go to his own properties… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Alternet>

Here’s a video report from NBC News.

Senate Fails To Advance Coronavirus Stimulus Package, Devastating For Businesses

Personally, I found the reporter quite biased, but the reporter from Bloomberg, who interviewed Liz Warren earlier in the day, wasn’t just biased. He was patronizing and dismissive!

Elizabeth Warren explains what Democrats want in virus relief bill

This is what Democrats are fighting for. But criminal Fuhrer Trump* and Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch want to give all the money to corporate criminals with no strings attached, including a giant bail-outs for Mar-a-Lago and Trump* Towers.

The Republican Plan would give criminal Fuhrer Trump* and his apostles of greed complete control of almost $1 trillion dollars in relief funds. The Republican Reich would have no obligation to even tell Congress, the press, or the American people who got money, how much they got, or how they used it.

This was a perfect example of Republican bipartisanship.

RESIST!!

Open Thread–3/4/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:29 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Mar 042020

It’s a queasy day here in the CatBox. I’m keeping it down, but just barely. By rotating food items to different meals, I’ve determined that I can eat items I thought I couldn’t eat at lunch, when I have no pills to take. I’ll have my mortar and pestle today, my big jar of applesauce tomorrow, and box of 50 2 oz. plastic cups with lids to store powdered meds and applesauce on Sunday. WWWendy is coming this evening to de-stink the Tomcat and help with chores.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s non-food item took me 4:02 (average 5:13). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Take damn his undeserved medal away too!

Short Takes:

From Alternet: A mother and son from Sarasota Military Academy in Florida are being quarantined for COVID-19, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. On the Academy’s Facebook page [Fakebook delinked], the school posted on Monday that the “mother’s contact with a patient at Sarasota Doctors Hospital in her professional role,” had led to both her and her son to be quarantined as a “precautionary measure.” The two reportedly showed no symptoms of the virus.

On Friday, Feb. 28, Trump’s top coronavirus point man and non-believer in science, Mike Pence, held a fundraiser in Sarasota at the home of Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan. At the event, Pence talked about “possible changes in travel status to the United States,” while shaking hands with dozens of supporters and 44 cadets from Sarasota Military Academy. Ruh-roh.

While I would not wish Trump* virus on anyone, spending some quarantine time might teach that hate-spewing pseudo-Christian sycophant a little compassion for his and his criminal Fuhrer’s other Trump* virus victims. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): Mitch McConnell’s Do Nothing Republicans

Of course the Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right. The Reich on the right, the evil Republican Reich, has two perfect (for them) shepherds: criminal Fuhrer Trump* and Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch. Flush both in November, and flush all their cronies. Every Republican in office is one Republican too many! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): THIS MAGIC MOMENT-JAY AND THE AMERICANS

Ah… the memories. RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Open Thread–2/16/2020

Posted by TomCat at 7:52 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 162020

It’s a busy day here in the CatBox. WWWendy if coming to de-stink the rancid TomCat and help with chores, including the preparation of what I need for my day trip to the hospital on Tuesday. I hope your day is fully Republican-free. If not, flush!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:09 (average 5:05). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Moscow Mitch McConnell went on Fox News to chortle and gloat over the 395 bills the Democratic House has passed in the last year that he’s refusing to consider.

“It is true,” the Senate majority leader said. “They’ve been on full left-wing parade over there, trotting out all of their left-wing solutions that are going to be issues in the fall campaign. They’re right. We’re not going to pass those.” Like making sure state and local governments have enough funding to secure the 2020 election and legislation ensuring that people’s health care is protected. You know, crazy “full left-wing parade,” unlike his Senate that’s cranking out extremist, unqualified judges and voting on forced-birther bills that can’t even pass in the Senate.

At the same time Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch’s beloved criminal Fuhrer Trump* is whining about how the House of Representatives get nothing done, because they spend all their time persecuting him. The only solution is to dump every Republican dawg catcher, the Nazi Republican Fuhrer, and every Republican in between. Every Republican in office is one Republican too many! RESIST!!

From Raw Story: Appearing in MSNBC’s “AM Joy” former lead prosecutor Glenn Kirschner hammered Attorney General Bill Barr of a pattern of deceit and perjury that began with his Senate confirmation hearings and continues to this day.

Speaking with host Joy Reid about Barr’s ABC interview admission that he is unhappy with Donald Trump’s tweets and that he doesn’t let them influence him, the prosecutor called him out.

“Bill Barr is not to be believed,” Kirschner explained. “You know, from day one, Joy, at his confirmation hearing he lied — he committed perjury. [Sen.] Kamala Harris asked him, did anybody at the White House including the president ask you to open an investigation or suggest you should open an investigation? What did he say? ‘You know, I’m grappling with the word suggest.’”

First, Barrf should be impeached. Then, Barrf should be disbarrfed! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Marcels – Blue Moon

This was the first 45 RPM record I ever owned. Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Enter the Kangaroos!

Posted by TomCat at 10:27 am Politics

Jan 212020

Having received his goose-stepping orders from criminal Resident Donald Trump, aka Fuhrer of the Republican Reich, Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch has released the Impeachment Rule he received from his Fuhrer’s lawyers. Thus, he issues the proclamation: “Enter the kangaroos!”

During the impeachment of Bill Clinton, Ken Starr, now one of the major new additions to Donald Trump’s legal team, argued that a president under investigation for criminal conduct must not be permitted to use governmental authority to embargo witnesses or hide the evidence against him. Starr’s arguments before Congress as a prosecutor decades ago apply directly to the upcoming Senate trial of Donald Trump, and the assiduous efforts of Mitch McConnell and his fellow GOP Senators to engineer a sham trial.

Start with McConnell, who for weeks has insisted that the Senate will “exactly” follow the procedures employed during the trial of Bill Clinton. Under those rules, the Senate formally admitted into evidence the entirety of the extremely comprehensive record assembled by Starr’s team, and then decided whether to call additional witnesses after the parties presented their opening arguments and answered questions from the legislators.

Given that Trump has schemed to withhold potentially key witnesses and evidence, leaving the record far from complete, following the “Clinton Rules” in the Trump case makes little sense. Furthermore, on the eve of the trial Monday, McConnell laid out his proposed rules, which do not follow a key provision of the Clinton procedures. Instead of automatically admitting the House’s materials into evidence, McConnell proposes that the Senate vote on which portions, if any, of the documents and testimony assembled by the House to admit. Under the McConnell Rules, which a Republican majority is near certain to pass, the Senate will literally be able to reach a verdict without admitting any of the materials incriminating the president into evidence. [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Daily Beast>

This has me so upset, that I made a typo in the graphic. Here are three video clips to shed more light on this travesty.

Schumer calls on 4 GOP members to ‘resist McConnell’s cover-up’

Bernstein: ‘Midnight Mitch’ and Senate embracing coverup

McConnell’s Impeachment Rules Designed To Hide The Facts: Katyal

This may be the most important article I have published. Here’s the bottom line. The differences between this sham and the Clinton trial are as follows: The Clinton Trial admitted the entire House record at the outset. The Trump* travesty lets Republicans decide whether or not to admit the House record. In the Clinton Trial, Senators debated by the light of day. In the Trump* travesty, Senators will debate in the wee hours so voters don’t see what they are doing. Unlike the Clinton trial, the Trump* travesty is designed to prevent the prosecutors from presenting witnesses and documents. Unlike in the Clinton trial, the Trump* travesty gives Republicans the prerogative to vote for dismissal at any time.

On February 4, the criminal Resident Trump* is scheduled to give the State of the Union address. He is desperate for the opportunity to lie that he was “proven innocent”, which he is not, and will never be. Therefore Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch is in extreme cover-up mode.

This will put the onus on us to try to expose everything Republicans cover up. I’ll do my best to do my share. Please join me!

RESIST!!

Bought Bitch Moscow Mitch Has Votes for Show Trial

Posted by TomCat at 7:41 am Politics

Jan 082020

Since virtually all the news today seems focused on War Criminal Trump’s* Iran fiasco, I thought I’d switch back to the Senate’s most evil Republican, Bought Bitch Moscow Mitch. He has corralled the swing-state Republicans, who we hoped might demand witnesses, to goose-step behind Fuhrer Trump’s* impeachment kangaroo court to be conducted without witnesses or evidence.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he has the votes to set the ground rules of the impeachment trial for President Donald Trump — without Democrats’ support.

McConnell first made the remarks during a closed-door lunch with his fellow Republican senators on Capitol Hill, an official in the room told CNN, before McConnell made the announcement publicly during a news conference following the lunch. McConnell made clear he had no plans to move forward on a trial until the two articles of impeachment are sent to the Senate, as he has said publicly.

“We have the votes once the impeachment trial has begun to pass a resolution essentially the same, very similar to the 100-to-nothing vote in the Clinton trial, which sets up what’s best described as a phase one,” McConnell said Tuesday.

All McConnell needs is 51 senators — or a simple majority of the 100-member chamber — to vote to approve those ground rules. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah have said they back the leader’s approach… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <CNN>

McConnell Rolls Out Trump Trial Plan Without Witnesses, Democrats Say It’s A ‘Cover-Up’

Bought Bitch Moscow Mitch is comparing apples to road apples. In the Clinton impeachment trial, the testimony of all the major witnesses was already public. In the Trump* kangaroo court, The Republican Reich has blocked most major witnesses from testifying. In the Clinton impeachment trial, we had a Republican Senate trying a Democratic President. They were biased against Clinton. In the Trump* kangaroo court, a Republican Senate is trying their own beloved Fuhrer and are desperate to protect him from the consequences of his crimes at all cost. So any attempt by Bought Bitch Moscow Mitch to claim that the two trials are equivalent is pure bullshit.

Maine, Alaska, and Utah need to be plastered with ads about their Senators’ hypocrisy!

RESIST!!

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