I wish She Had Won

 Posted by at 9:38 am  Politics
Mar 062020
 

I’m still in a state of mourning over the loss of the Elizabeth Warren candidacy.  She was my choice for the Democratic nomination, and I shall dearly miss her campaign.

0306LizQuits

Senator Elizabeth Warren entered the 2020 race with expansive plans to use the federal government to remake American society, pressing to strip power and wealth from a moneyed class that she saw as fundamentally corrupting the country’s economic and political order.

She exited on Thursday after her avalanche of progressive policy proposals, which briefly elevated her to front-runner status last fall, failed to attract a broader political coalition in a Democratic Party increasingly, if not singularly, focused on defeating President Trump.

Her departure means that a Democratic field that began as the most diverse in American history — and included six women — is now essentially down to two white men: former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders.

Ms. Warren said that from the start, she had been told there were only two true lanes in the 2020 contest: a liberal one dominated by Mr. Sanders, 78, and a moderate one led by Mr. Biden, 77.

“I thought that wasn’t right,” Ms. Warren said in front of her house in Cambridge as she suspended her campaign, “But evidently I was wrong.”…

Inserted from <NY Times>

Rachel Maddow interviewed Liz in depth last night.  Here are five excerpts from that interview.

In The Selfie Line: Americans Needing A Government On Their Side

Liz was the most compassionate candidate in the race.

Warren: Just A Little Longer Before We Have A Woman In The White House


When I was a 1960s new-left protestor, I used to say that I would live so see a woman President, and a black President. I may not have more than three years left. May God grant that I live to be more than just half right.

Elizabeth Warren Takes Credit For Tanking Bloomberg On Purpose 


Thank you for that, Liz!

Trump Coronavirus Incompetence ‘Like Its Own Natural Disaster’: Warren


Sorry, but calling it coronavirus is an error. COVID-19 is Trump Virus. It is merely speeding up the way Republicans will tank the economy.

Warren: Time To Think More Creatively About ‘Organized Nastiness’ Online


I experienced plenty of organized online nastiness from Bernie Bros in 2016, because I changed my support from Bernie to Hillary, after Bernie asked his supporters to support Hillary, as she had clinched the nomination. The Bernie Bros were waging a write in campaign that had no chance to succeed. This problem is not new and it is clearly getting worse. As a Bernie supporter, I beg him to disavow these bullies, who are acting like Republicans, and remove them from his staff.

We all owe Liz Warren a debt of gratitude.  I grieve that US voters are too stupid to see that she was the best choice we had.

RESIST!!

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The Trump Virus

 Posted by at 10:32 am  Politics
Feb 292020
 

Criminal Fuhrer Donald “Blame the Dems” Trump* and criminal Vice Fuhrer Mike “The HIV Guy” Pence have so badly mismanaged the federal response to the rapidly growing epidemic of COVID-19, it’s time to change its name.  It is now the Trump Virus.

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On Thursday, a whistleblower revealed that the U.S. personnel who greeted potentially infected arrivals from Wuhan, China, were not given either the protective gear or the training necessary for the situation. Despite being exposed to these evacuees—some of whom have since proven to be carrying the SARS-CoV-2 virus—the workers have still not been tested for COVID-19.

That might seem like a bullet that was dodged, except that just two days ago the CDC confirmed that a U.S. patient who had not traveled outside the country or associated with someone known to be infected was infected with the COVID-19 virus. It was the first case of “community spread” COVID-19 in the nation. And that patient lived in the same county as the location of the incident the whistleblower described.

It’s clear now that the very first time this White House was forced to confront this threat, it fumbled the response. One time may be all it took… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

The health workers who treated arrivals from Wuhan and did not take precautions when testing and treating them should have been quarantined.  They were not, because “the workers did not exhibit symptoms”.  Of course they didn’t, as it was before the incubation period could finish.  Now they are loose in the population.

Because of Trump* and the Republican Reich, the disease has now spread to California, Washington, and Oregon.

Window Of Opportunity For Containing Coronavirus Rapidly Closing

To sum this up, all the information were getting from criminal Fuhrer Trump* and the Republican Reich 100% pure unadulterated bullshit. All they care about is protecting the economic improvements Obama built and Trump* pretends to own.

Michael Moore: Trump Calling Coronavirus ‘Hoax’ Is ‘Dangerous’

Last night I learned that it is now in the Portland area. Given my stage III cancer, I’ll probably be spending a lot of time at the hospital getting chemo and radiation therapy. This puts me at at much higher risk for infection than most. If it kills me, please send the bill for my funeral to the asshole in the White House responsible for Trump Virus!

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Dec 202019
 

The week has caught up with me, so I hope to catch some extra nap time.  Pardon my brevity.  TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:36 (average 5:12).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Expect Trump To Seek Revenge For Impeachment: Fmr. Trump Employee

 

She should know. There’s a word for Republicans that don’t jump ship now: FOOL!  RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Elizabeth Warren attacks Pete Buttigieg for ‘wine cave’ donors

 

As a Liz supporter, I hate to admit it, but he was ready for her. Nevertheless, I think Mayor Pete more qualified for the post of VP.  RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): While My Guitar Gently Weeps- George Harrison – The Beatles

 

Ah… the memories!  RESIST!!

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Hold On!

 Posted by at 9:38 am  Politics
Dec 192019
 

Yesterday’s impeachment hearings were an exercise in boredom, until the votes that made the Fuhrer of the Republican Reich the Impeached Resident.  Now what?  Bought Bitch Moscow Mitch has made it abundantly clear that he considers his job is not to run an impartial trial, but to protect Trump.  This morning I heard him call the Articles passed in the House “constitutionally incoherent”.  He said he does not consider them worthy of consideration.  Way back during the Mueller Report days, when Nancy Pelosi still opposed impeachment, I said several times that Democrats, and honest Republicans, if there were any, should impeach Trump to present the case to the American people.  Then, they could hold the Articles of Impeachment to deny Trump his demanded acquittal in Bought Bitch Mitch’s kangaroo court.  In retrospect, it was a good idea.  If we can’t get a fair trial, hold on!

1219Hold

Moments after a historic vote to impeach President Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House could at least temporarily withhold the articles from the Senate — a decision, she suggested, that could depend on how the other chamber chooses to conduct its trial on Trump’s removal.

“We cannot name managers until we see what the process is on the Senate side,” she said, referring to the House “managers” who present the case for removal to the Senate. “So far we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us. So hopefully it will be fair. And when we see what that is, we’ll send our managers.”

The comments came as a group of House Democrats pushed Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other leaders to withhold the articles — a notion that has gained traction among some on the political left as a way of potentially forcing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to conduct a trial on more favorable terms for Democrats. And if no agreement is reached, some have argued, the trial could be delayed indefinitely, denying Trump an expected acquittal.

Pelosi would not answer questions about whether she was entertaining an indefinite hold on the articles — one that could prevent a trial from taking place before the next presidential election…  [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell have more.

Pelosi Wants To See ‘Fair’ Process Before House Sends Impeachment Articles

I found it particularly interesting that the man taking the lead on this idea is my own Representative, Earl Blumenauer [D-OR].

1219Blumenauer-Pride

…Representative Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon, said he had spoken to at least 40 Democrats who were concerned that Mr. McConnell would not conduct a fair trial, and who wanted Ms. Pelosi to delay sending the articles to the Senate until she learned more about how the proceedings would move forward.

“What is gained by accelerating this process?” he asked. He said Democrats should “let the speaker work her magic” to “get some sort of assurance, if it’s possible, that there will be a level playing field.”

In addition, some Democrats — including some of the chamber’s most progressive lawmakers — have advocated simply never sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate, to deny Mr. Trump an almost certain acquittal in the Republican-controlled chamber, where a two-thirds vote — 67 senators — are needed to convict. Ms. Pelosi has not ruled that out, but House leaders are not seriously contemplating that course, the Democratic officials said… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

Oregon leads the way!

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Dec 102019
 

It’s a busy day here in the CatBox.  I had to complete and send my week’s grocery order to Store to Door.  I had to schedule my ride to the Hospital next Tuesday with TriMet Lift.  I prepared the Fantasy Football Alert.  I made a BIG pot of chili to use against that Sdang sasquatch as revenge.  I’m kind of pooped!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:54 (average 5:51).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

 

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest from our own fantasy football league.

Scores:

14Scores

Congrats to the Sasquatch, Patty Monster and WWWendy for winning their games.  Kudos to Squatch for the week’s high score.

Standings:

14Standings

Kudos to WWWendy, our regular season Champion, to Vivian, our regular season scoring champion, and to Squatch for finishing two places ahead of me. Crying face

Playoffs Bracket:

14Playoffs

WWWendy and Vivian have a bye week this weekend.  See the left column for the other pairings.  Good luck to all!

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Trump Campaign Was Not Spied On: DOJ IG; Barr Reverts To Deceit

Barrf Bag Alert!!

 

Barrf has his head so far up his beloved Fuhrer’s ass that he can have meetings with Pence up there.  RESIST!!

From Vox: The United Kingdom will vote on December 12, and the country’s unfinalized divorce with the European Union looms over it all.

These are the Brexit elections. Even if many wish they weren’t.

Whoever wins the election will ultimately determine whether the United Kingdom leaves the European Union early next year — and, if it does, they’ll likely be determining what that future relationship might look like.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party have vowed that if they reclaim their majority in Parliament, they will “get Brexit done” by quickly passing the prime minister’s Brexit deal and moving to negotiate a free-trade agreement with the EU by the end of 2020.

Labour, the opposition party led by Jeremy Corbyn, is instead proposing to renegotiate the Brexit deal, and then put it back to the British people for a final vote on whether they want to leave the EU on those terms — or just remain in the EU after all…

From what I understand Corbyn and Labour have almost as good a chance as there is for Trump to last a day without lying. Nevertheless, I hope they win, so the UK no longer challenges the US world record for electoral idiocy. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Thunderclap Newman – Something In The Air

 

Ah… the memories!  RESIST!!

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House Intel Committee Report

 Posted by at 9:08 am  Politics
Dec 042019
 

Yesterday the House Intelligence Committee completed their their report outlining some of the high crimes and misdemeanors committed by Resident Donald Trump.  I have read the summary and skimmed the document, and it is truly magnificent.  It is a shame that Trump will have Bought Bitch Moscow Mitch protecting him in the Senate.  Nevertheless you should understand the report, so you can teach others, especially those who are not paying attention, with 2020 in mind.

1204report

House Democrats on Tuesday asserted that President Trump abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to help him in the 2020 presidential election, releasing an impeachment report that found the president “placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States.”

The report by the House Intelligence Committee was a sweeping indictment of the president’s behavior, concluding that he sought to undermine American democracy and endangered national security, then worked to conceal his actions from Congress. Democrats left it to another committee to decide whether to recommend Mr. Trump’s impeachment, but their report presented what are all but certain to be the grounds on which the House votes to formally charge him.

“The founding fathers prescribed a remedy for a chief executive who places his personal interests above those of the country: impeachment,” it said.

The intelligence panel adopted it, strictly along partisan lines, hours after its release…

Inserted from <NY Times>

Click here to read the entire impeachment report.

Rachel Maddow has two short segments that explain it well.

Numerous Potential Articles Of Impeachment Sketched Out In Report

 

The Fastest, Easiest Way To Understand The Impeachment Report

 

Instead of 78 words, I can sum it up in 12 letters.  The first six are GUILTY!  The second six are…

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Protecting Roe

 Posted by at 9:52 am  Politics
Nov 302019
 

So, what’s my opinion about abortion?  Well, I’ll tell you what.  It doesn’t matter.  First, I have no intention to do any more reproduction.  Second, as romantically involved as I’d love to become, I’m afraid I’ve forgotten how.  And most important, the only people, whose opinions do matter, are pregnant women, and then, only insofar as their own bodies are concerned.  However, I will share the opinion that a woman’s right to choose is under assault by the Republican Party like never before.

1130Roe

Abortion is still technically legal in America, but more than 19 million U.S. women live in areas with less than one health center or provider for every 1,000 women in need. This is largely because clinics have been hindered by Targeted restrictions on abortion providers (TRAP), which limit abortion access by forcing clinics to comply with absurd rules that are cumbersome and medically unnecessary. This obvious targeting of abortion providers, which has undoubtedly contributed to 275 abortion clinics closing since 2013, begs the question: If the constitution really does protect a woman’s right to choose, how can lawmakers get away with these blatant attacks on choice?  

The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which affirmed a woman’s right to choose, is often referred to as “the law of the land.” However, it’s actually a Supreme Court decision, not a law, and that distinction is incredibly important. As Trump politicizes the court with his promise to appoint anti-Roe justices, the ruling is vulnerable. As writer Megan McArdle put it, “what the Supreme Court gives, the Supreme Court can take away.” To make matters worse, Roe is already built on shaky ground. The 1965 case Griswold v. Connecticut, which provided the precedent for Roe, concluded that bans on using contraception are unconstitutional because of a right to privacy, as implied by an amalgamation of constitutional amendments. For Roe v. Wade, the justices decided that if the right to privacy supports the right to contraception, it should apply to abortion as well. As journalist Adam Liptak describes on The Daily, Roe’s lawyers believed it was too soon to argue for reproductive rights on the basis of equality, forcing their argument to rest, instead, on a right that isn’t explicitly stated in the Constitution. Ironically, the argument that won Roe v. Wade also made the decision especially precarious.

Roe came under further attack in the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, which allowed states to regulate abortion before viability with one stipulation: these regulations can’t place “undue burden” on the woman. Unfortunately, the decision fails to define what “undue burden” means, allowing legal wiggle room for the TRAP laws of today. Anti-choice activists have capitalized on this vulnerability by using the loopholes created in Casey to pass legislation that has limited clinics or forced them to close by imposing ridiculous requirements on them. Take, for example, the last abortion clinic in Missouri, which is currently hanging on by a thread because the state government refuses to renew its licensing. The intention of these laws is ultimately to have them challenged in the courts until a case reaches the Supreme Court, presenting the justices with a clear opportunity to overturn Roe.  

If the U.S. wants to truly solidify the right to an abortion, therefore, we have to codify Roe as the actual law of the land. This would protect the right to choose from the shifting politics of the Supreme Court and severely limit a state’s ability to restrict abortion. It would also move repealing Roe into the hands of Congress and an electorate where 77% of people oppose overturning Roe…

Inserted from <Women’s Media Center>

Please click through for the rest of this fine article.

Rachel Maddow covered this issue in three segments.  In the first, she covers the history of Republican hate and violence against abortion.

Violence, Threats Have Marked Anti-Abortion Protest Since Day One

 

In the second, she covers the TRAP laws Republicans are currently using in their war on women.

Abortion Clinics Face Down Myriad Pressures To Remain Open

 

She closes with a dire warning!

Trump/McConnell Supreme Court Poses New Threat To Roe V. Wade

 

The Republican Reich must be stopped before THIS happens AGAIN!

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Nov 262019
 

It’s a very busy day here in the CatBox.  Safeway.com should be here with my groceries within 90 minutes.  Speaking of the devil, they came a half hour ago,and I just got everything stowed.  That’s the first time in five years they weren’t late.  On the down side, they were out of lamb, WWWendy is coming to the rescue, so we have a main course for Thanksgiving dinner.  My HTML editor stores the blog format and tags, but the tags had become unmanageable.  There were over 2,000 tags, and every time I try to clean them up, I make less progress than the time before.  Therefor, I decided it was time to start over, so I deleted them all in a bulk operation.  Editors and Managers, please only add new tags that we are likely to use frequently.  I’m running way late, so I’m in a rush.  This is my only article today.  Hectic Hugs to all.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:10 (average 5:30).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the news from our own fantasy football league.

Scores:

12Scores

Congrats to Vivian, Patty Monster and me for winning our games.  Kudos to Vivian for the high score for the week.

Standings:

12Standings

Congrats to Vivian for leading the league.

Players be sure to get your lineup set.  There are three games on Thursday.

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: In a startling break with Thanksgiving tradition, Donald J. Trump refused to pardon the White House turkey after claiming that it was working as a secret operative of the billionaire George Soros.

A group of fourth graders from Bethesda, Maryland, who had gathered on the White House lawn for the annual turkey-pardoning ceremony appeared unprepared for the anti-Soros outburst that Trump unleashed on the Thanksgiving bird.

“That turkey was sent by Soros to spy on me,” Trump said, angrily turning on the fowl. “A lot of people are saying this.”

While the oblivious turkey pecked desultorily at the ground, an increasingly enraged Trump spewed a stream of conspiracy theories linking the feathered animal to global élites, election fraud in Florida, and Jim Acosta.

Andy, couldn’t Bought Bitch Moscow Mitch be the turkey? Then we could all refuse to pardon him!  RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Ousted Navy Secretary Sounds Off After Trump Jumps Into SEAL Controversy

 

Good order and discipline is the last thing Trump and the Republican Reich want. They want blind murderous hatred that they can order used against political rivals.  RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Who – I Can See For Miles

 

I first heard this in Tompkins Square Park with cactus. I could see that far. Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

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