Open Thread–7/16/2020

Posted by TomCat at 11:02 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jul 162020

It’s a busy muggy day here in the CatBox. My back is painful today. Store to Door should come with my groceries between 11 AM and 1 PM. By now WWWendy is on a plane. Her plans changed, and she’s going to CO instead of CA. JD, you ought to give her a call. She’ll land around 1 PM your time. Everyone, please keep her in your thoughts and and prayers. If you find yourself in an elevator with a Republican, please fart.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:51 (average 4:37). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0716TrumpVirusMap

Map Reference: click through for interactive map

US Cases: 3,618,739
US Deaths: 140,185

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Trying out a new line of attack against the former Vice-President, Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Joe Biden could never have a pandemic as big as his.

“Biden was Vice-President for eight years and had all the time in the world to have a pandemic,” Trump said. “Where was his pandemic?”

By contrast, Trump asserted, “In just a few months, I’ve built the biggest pandemic this country has seen in a hundred years.”

“People are going to be talking about my pandemic for generations to come,” Trump said. “What did Biden ever have? Swine flu? What a joke.”

Dang, Andy! Don’t do that! Portraying criminal Fuhrer Trump* telling the truth about the severity of his plague is enough to make someone throw up! RESIST!!

From Alternet: …In the context of what we’ve been hearing from the Trump administration—or rather what we’ve not been hearing—I have to think that Donald Trump and his billionaire sycophant, Betsy DeVos, our current Secretary of Education, have absolutely no clue about what is metastasizing in the fevered swamps of American parents of school-age children right now in this country, or its potential to explode in a wave of electoral anger that could dwarf what occurred to the Republican Party in 2018.

I’m talking about a thermonuclear, cataclysmic, event of raw, unbridled voter fury. I’m talking about an existential, political wipe-out of Biblical proportions. A tsunami, if you will.

The most generous characterization of the Trump administration’s approach towards the situation facing our public schools in less than two months—six weeks or less, in fact, for many schools, including ones in Texas– is one of willful blindness, suggestive of an astonishing degree of deliberate, magical thinking– that imagines an idyllic sequence of cause and effect, where these schools will miraculously reopen, filled with rows of smiling teens, pre-teens, elementary schoolers and their teachers, happy to share and mingle in their wondrous educational experience in the face of this horrific and unprecedented health crisis…

I wish Trump* and DeVos would back down for the sake of the families they are about to murder, but they won’t back down. Let that tsunami wipe the Republican Party out of existence! RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from Labor): Union Maid

Except for police unions, support labor! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread–6/29/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:57 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 292020

Yesterday was a busy day, here in the CatBox. WWWendy and I did lots of gooping and chores. As a result, I missed a lot of nap time and feel quite tired. Oh God, it’s Monday!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:15 (average 5:34). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0629TrumpVirusMap

US Cases: 2,637,892
Deaths: 128,45

Short Takes:

From Crooks and Liars: Every member of the Scrap Yard Fast Pitch softball team resigned after GM Connie May used them a photo of them standing for the anthem to tweet an anti-BLM message to Trump.

The Texas-based team is predominantly white, with only two Black players, but they have had run-ins with their GM before over her racist “All Lives Matter” BS. This move, wherein they say they felt used by her as political props to send a message they explicitly reject, was the final straw. They conferred for an hour, confronted May, and left their jerseys on the locker room floor.

Kudos to the Scrap Yard Fast Pitch softball team. They should reorganize under a Democratic GM! RESIST!!

From YouTube (The Conversation Channel): A field guide to Trump’s dangerous rhetoric

Jennifer seems to have an excellent handle on how criminal Fuhrer Trump* uses his PhD (piled higher and deeper) in Bullshitology! Some of the Ad… fallacies are also called criminal thinking errors. RESIST!!

From YouTube ( a blast from the past): Del Shannon – Runaway

This is one of the first songs I learned to sing and play on the guitar. Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

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!!

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!!

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–6/23/2020

Posted by TomCat at 11:06 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jun 232020

It’s a steamy day here in the CatBox with 90° forecast and high humidity. Yesterday’s doctor visit never happened. The office called right when she was supposed to arrive and told me she could not come because she was ill. We rescheduled for Friday morning. I’m still doing very well on the Fentanyl. Have you flushed a Republican today?

Jig Zone Puzzle: Today’s took me 3:02 (average 4:42). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

Cases: 2,389,785
Deaths: 122,659
Recovered: 1,003,320

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump on Monday called his successful drinking of a glass of water at his Tulsa rally his proudest achievement as President.

“I brought that glass of water up to my mouth and drank from it without spilling a drop on my tie,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “You can look at the tape. There was not a single drop of spillage.”

Trump added that, while drinking a glass of water was an impressive achievement in itself, executing it so well in front of such a large crowd made it even more extraordinary.

Dang, Andy! What large crowd? Do you think the idiot* added Clorox? RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): COVID-19 Crisis Has Arizona Reeling; Trump, Heedless, Plans Visit

Criminal Fuhrer Trump* does not care about how many people he murders by spreading his virus to Sheeple, stupid enough to attend his events and to all the people they infect with Trump* virus. Criminal Fuhrer Trump* cares only about hos greed and extending rule of the Fifth Reich. I bet that those pseudo-Christian pastors will soon be selling those bogus ionization units. Any takers? RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Bad Moon Rising – Creedence Clearwater Revival (HQ – 5.1 Studio )

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread–6/15/2020

Posted by TomCat at 10:54 am Open Thread, Politics

Jun 152020

It’s a crazy day here in the CatBox. My main nurse from Providence Home Health just called and will be here momentarily. She just left, so I missed my morning nap. Tomorrow is my big appointment with my oncologist and that team, so please expect no more than a very brief Personal Update, as I leave at 7:30 AM. Oh God, it’s Monday, AGAIN!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:03 (average 5:46). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Remember what Bloody Bullseye Barbie (Sarah Palin) and the Republican Reich did to Gabby Giffords!

Trump* Virus Update:

0615TrumpVirusMap

Cases: 2,162,896
Deaths: 117,865
Recovered: 870,077

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Representative Denver Riggleman, a freshman Republican from Virginia, lost a bitterly contested primary race decided in an unusual drive-through state convention, weighed down by outrage among party activists that he officiated at a same-sex wedding.

In a result announced early Sunday, Bob Good, a former athletics official at Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Liberty University who describes himself as a “biblical conservative,” ousted Mr. Riggleman, a distillery owner and former Air Force intelligence officer with a libertarian streak. Mr. Good captured 58 percent of the vote in a convention held Saturday that was decided by roughly 2,400 party delegates, according to party officials.

Mr. Riggleman, as well as outside observers, denounced the setup — enabled by state laws that allow local party officials to choose congressional nominees by conventions instead of traditional primary elections — which has tended to benefit hard-line candidates.

This is why every Republican must go. Any time individual Republicans do something decent and proper, they get kicked out of the Reich. RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Autopsy Reveals Rayshard Brooks Death Ruled A Homicide

Of course shooting a Black man in the back by a racist Republican pig was a murder. To the Republican Reich, Black Lives don’t matter. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Gerry & The Pacemakers – You’ll Never Walk Alone [Official Video]

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

Open Thread–6/5/2020

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

Jun 052020

It’s another hectic day here in the CatBox. I had to lay down 90 minutes to alleviate back pain. Tomorrow, please expect no more than a Personal Update, as it’s a WWWendy day and we have lots of chores to do. JD, will you cover Bill Maher? TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:44 (average 5:52). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Trump* Virus Update:

0605TrumpVirusMap

Cases: 1,925,267
Deaths: 110,218
Recovered: 712,436

Short Takes:

From ProPublica: Police culture can be insular and tough to penetrate. But I’ve been surprised by how often it’s possible, though time consuming, to expose important issues by requesting and examining records and data from police departments and other government agencies and engaging citizens and key leaders. So here are five techniques concerned citizens, journalists and policymakers can use to examine police conduct in their communities.

1. Understand the policies and laws that govern police conduct.

If you’re alarmed by what you saw in Minneapolis, or other recent incidents of apparent police misconduct, the first step is to find out if the agency in question has a written policy on the use of force. Does the policy dictate when officers should or shouldn’t use force? What tactics are they allowed to use? Is there any rule against choking a suspect?

It’s important to know if the officers involved were following the policies and procedures that are supposed to guide their behavior. Police actions that strike an onlooker as inappropriate may actually be within a department’s rules. It’s possible the rules themselves are inconsistent with best practices elsewhere.

Ask the department for its policies on the practices that concern you, like restraining suspects or the use of pepper spray or Tasers. You may also need to request rules set by a county or state authority. Ask for written copies. You may be required to file a formal public records request, which I will describe below. And if there is no existing written policy, that might be something worth questioning itself.

If you’re having trouble understanding a policy, try running it by an attorney, academic, elected official or a journalist in your community.

How I did it: I did a deep dive into policies about drug testing after a police captain was killed in a car crash in 2016, and I exposed that he was drunk and on drugs at the time. I spoke to his chief and learned their department didn’t have a policy for random drug testing. I wondered why that was the case and looked to the state attorney general’s office, which sets many police rules. The rules allowed departments to choose whether they wanted to do random testing, and my reporting identified more than 100 that did not. After our story, the state attorney general mandated random drug testing for cops across the state.

I included one of five ways YOU can help hold police accountable for criminal Republican behavior. Please click through for the other four. It’s worth the read, and you need to know it. RESIST!!

From Alternet: New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on Friday warned that it’s wrong to compare President Donald Trump to President Richard Nixon, on the grounds that Trump is far worse and more dangerous.

Krugman acknowledges that there are some similarities between Trump and Nixon, such as their willingness to use racial grievance to gain power and their cavalier attitude toward obeying the law.

But Krugman thinks that the biggest difference between Trump and Nixon is that the Republican Party of 2020 is not the same as the Republican Party that pushed Nixon out in 1974…

…“The point is that today’s Republican Party wouldn’t object to a Trumpian power grab, even if it amounted to a military coup,” he writes. “On the contrary, the party would cheer it on.”

The Republican Reich, aka the Fifth Reich, has elections with predetermined results. They exist for show only. If a military coup is needed to bring it about, Republicans are fine with that. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Beatles – Come Together

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue No Matter Who Top to Bottom!!

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