Lone Rethug Again Stops Disaster Aid Bill

Last week it was right-wing dead-ender Rethuglican Rep. Chip "Cow Chip" Roy (Loon-TX) who stopped a unanimous consent vote in the House, blocking a $19.1 billion aid package to states affected by hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes, including funding for Puerto Rico's recovery from Hurricane Maria in 2017. This week it was another right-wing dead-ender Rethuglican Rep. Thomas "Assie" Massie (Loon-KY) who blocked the measure. With the House in recess until June 4, passage of any bill during this period has to be by unanimous consent, rather than a recorded vote.

Massie, a member of the far-right "libertarian" Liberty Caucus, has a reputation for voting no on many bills, apparently believing that no Government is good Government.  He also likes to think he's a man of acid wit, especially in his knowledge of "pseudo- science." Here, his vote screwed millions of Americans out of the relief they need to recover from natural disasters. In a just world, he should find himself on the other side, needing disaster assistance for his district or home and having some numbnut jerk blocking it.

(photo: Massie dreaming of his Dungeons and Dragons days)

Pray For Godly Trump!

This is from Jesus grifter and toxic pharisee Franklin Graham, who runs the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (billygraham.org), a shakedown outfit whose 501(c)(3) non- profit, tax exempt status should be revoked for Graham's political activities, along with countless other "Christian"/ right- wing Republican fronts (click on image to enlarge):



Graham and his fellow Elmer Gantrys are Republican political operatives and about as far away from anything that could be called a religion as could be.  They need to be stripped of their non- profit status as soon as Democrats get their hands back on the levers of power.

Today's Cartoons

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(Monte Wolverton, caglecartoons.com)


(Rob Rogers, robrogers.com)


(Ken Catalino, gocomics.com)


(Jeff Danziger, The Rutland Herald, VT)


(Jen Sorensen, gocomics.com)

Trump Lies About Veterans' Care

As his lies climb on an hourly basis, demagogue and pathological liar Donald "Rump" Trump couldn't resist telling a whopper on the solemn occasion of Memorial Day. Bragging that he passed the "Veterans Choice" bill after "45 years" of other Administrations failing, the truth is that President Obama's choice program allowing veterans to see doctors outside the VA system at Government expense was passed in 2014.

Trump's Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie has also caught Trump's lying virus, claiming credit for bringing down wait times at veterans hospitals, when in fact the wait times have been declining since 2014 during the Obama Administration.

On a related topic, Trump should thank President Obama  every day for handing him a robust economy after rescuing it in 2009 from years of Rethuglican mismanagement. Not gonna happen, of course.

Damn The Catapults, Full Speed Reverse

Extremely Stable Genius Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump's knowledge apparently extends to naval architecture and systems. For years, the Navy has used steam-powered catapults to launch aircraft off of carriers, but has decided that for the new Gerald Ford class carriers, the electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) will replace the steam-powered system. Enter naval engineer Trump. In a speech to soldiers and sailors stationed in Japan, Trump took issue with EMALS, complaining about cost overruns, and announced that future carriers would use steam-powered launch systems. Cost overruns -- sunk costs -- aside (what Pentagon system doesn't have them?), EMALS has some advantages:

"Its main advantage is that it accelerates aircraft more smoothly, putting less stress on their airframes. Compared to steam catapults, the EMALS also weighs less, is expected to cost less and require less maintenance, and can launch both heavier and lighter aircraft than a steam piston-driven system. It also reduces the carrier's requirement of fresh water, thus reducing the demand for energy-intensive desalination.

China is reportedly developing a similar system." (our emphasis)

So the Extremely Stable Genius has waved away the studies of competent Naval experts and decided that the old way will do. It's a good bet that he heard that EMALS was signed off on by President Obama, thus it needs to be erased.

(photo: Extremely Stable Genius at work)

Today's Tomorrow Cartoon

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(Tom Tomorrow, via Daily Kos)

Trump's Ego Tour Of Japan

As we celebrate Memorial Day with our troops still in harms way abroad, we noted that while cowardly buffoon Donald "Cadet Bone Spurs" Trump is getting his ego stroked by the Japanese, there are things to be attended to:

1) Trump wishes to ignore the recent missile tests by North Korea that his own administration has called out. Saying that he "trusts" North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un, Trump alarmed both his Japanese hosts and even members of his own rotted-out party with his desire to distract from the fact that he's been badly played by Kim. He also sided with his friend Kim's attack on Joe Biden. Now that Kim's attacked crazy John "Yosemite Sam" Bolton, will he side with Kim again?

2) Trump's loyal bootlicker Sen. Lindsey "Huckleberry" Graham said that the U.S. should consider invading Venezuela, just like St. Ronnie of Hollywood invaded Grenada in 1983, except that Venezuela's not Grenada. Only if you lead the assault, Huckleberry.

3) Severe flooding in the Midwest, coupled with Trump's disastrous trade wars, is crippling our agricultural sector and promising to drive consumer prices ever higher. Trump's not made one trip to the devastated areas (in red states at that) to assess the damage (and offer hollow "thoughts and prayers"). He dragged his feet on broad disaster relief because he didn't understand the aid going to Puerto Rico wasn't what he thought.

Next month, he travels to England for another ego stroking from the British royal family. Ah, the percs of office.

Memorial Day 2019

As has become a tradition with us, we're recognizing Memorial Day with "Beneath the Southern Cross," part of the original Richard Rodgers' soundtrack for the NBC "Victory at Sea" World War II documentary series from the early 1950s.  The title refers to the constellation Crux (or Southern Cross) easily visible in the South Pacific.  The RCA Victor Orchestra led by Robert Russell Bennett performs the song, also familiarly known as "No Other Love Have I."

Memorial Day in America is a day we remember those service men and women in all wars who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. We gratefully honor your service.

Across The Universe, Cont. -- Stairway To Heaven?

(click on image to enlarge)



From NASA/ESA, May 20, 2019:  This Picture of the Week stars Messier 90, a beautiful spiral galaxy located roughly 60 million light-years from the Milky Way in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin). The galaxy is part of the Virgo Cluster, a gathering of galaxies that is over 1200 strong.

This image combines infrared, ultraviolet, and visible light gathered by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This camera was operational between 1994 and 2010, producing images with an unusual staircase-like shape as seen here. This is because the camera was made up of four light detectors with overlapping fields of view, one of which gave a higher magnification than the other three. When the four images are combined together in one picture, the high magnification image needs to be reduced in size in order for the image to align properly. This produces an image with a layout that looks like three steps.

Messier 90 is remarkable; it is one of the few galaxies seen to be travelling toward the Milky Way, not away from it. The galaxy’s light reveals this incoming motion in that it is blueshifted. In simple terms, the galaxy is compressing the wavelength of its light as it moves towards us, like a slinky being squashed when you push on one end. This increases the frequency of the light and shifts it towards the blue end of the spectrum. As our Universe is expanding, almost all of the galaxies we see in the Universe are moving away from us, and we therefore see their light as redshifted, but Messier 90 appears to be a rare exception.

Astronomers think that this blueshift is likely caused by the cluster’s colossal mass accelerating its members to high velocities on bizarre and peculiar orbits, sending them whirling around on odd paths that take them both towards and away from us over time. While the cluster itself is moving away from us, some of its constituent galaxies, such as Messier 90, are moving faster than the cluster as a whole, making it so that from Earth we see the galaxy heading towards us. However, some are also moving in the opposite direction within the cluster, and thus seem to be streaking away from us at very high velocity.

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Sargent et al.

Disaster Relief Blocked By Lone Rethug

Last Thursday, the Senate passed a $19.1 billion disaster relief bill by a margin of 85 -8. The bill provides needed help for Puerto Rico and victims of other natural disasters, including wildfires and floods. It was expected to clear the House on by a wide margin, especially after sociopath and bigot Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump reluctantly agreed to sign it, after balking at the amount of funds for Puerto Rico given his bias. That was before Texas Congressman and shitheel Chip "Cow Chip" Roy blocked a unanimous consent vote on the House floor as members were leaving for Memorial Day recess.

Roy risibly claimed that his objection was over "fiscal responsibility." This, from a clown who voted for the massive tax giveaway to the wealthiest Americans and for Trump's vanity border wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for. Not surprisingly, Roy is a member of the so-called "Freedom Caucus" of extreme right-wing Rethugs in the House. His campaign slogan when he ran in 2018 ironically was "Stand For Life," i.e. of the fetus, not postpartum.

Roy can't stop the vote on the bill when the House reconvenes on June 4, when it's expect to pass by an overwhelming majority. But he manages to soil the House with his cruel presence.

Today's Cartoons

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(Jeff Darcy, Cleveland Plain Dealer)


(Tom Toles, Washington Post)


(Matt Davies, Newsday)


(John Cole, Scranton Times-Tribune)


(Ann Telnaes, Washington Post)

Sorry About The Tornadoes And Flooding. Now Watch This Drive

While Trump country suffered a week of record breaking flooding and a rash of deadly tornadoes, blimp- who- lives- to- play- golf Donald "Rump" Trump is in Japan tooling around with despicable bootlick Shinzo Abe at the Mobara Country Club in Chiba Prefecture.  (Reminds us of that infamous George Bush moment when his golf game was temporarily interrupted by news of a terrorist attack.)



He sure cares about "his people," amirite?  But it was important for Extremely Stable Genius Trump to be in Japan to conduct the affairs of state, of which he is singularly ignorant.

Making good use of his time, when he wasn't golfing, Trump was watching a sumo tournament (insert Trump as sumo jokes here), presenting a trophy modestly named after himself:

 
Do you see two asses in the picture? So do we.

This after he wasted no time slapping his kowtowing hosts on arrival, criticizing Japan for a "substantial edge" in trade.

Americans will remember the nations and the leaders who flattered and enabled our puerile monster, starting with Japan's Abe, who doubtless was responsible for this very mini- demonstration:



"Japan Loves Trump"?  "Japan Stands With Trump"?  Looks like the size of the crowd at Trump's inaugural.

(Photos:  Top - POOL/VIA KYODO;  Middle - Jonathan Ernst/Reuters;  Bottom - Erin Schaff, New York Times)

Twit Tweet, Thwap: Sundowning Rudy Edition

Twit tweet:

Check out this Yelp review for Mama Lisa Restaurant!

— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) May 25, 2019

Review? What review?

Thwap:

pic.twitter.com/TQqAcWii1w

— Andrew Wortman (@AmoneyResists) May 25, 2019

There is no link. I’m not even sure if there’s a restaurant

— Devin Nunes’ cow 🐮 (@DevinCow) May 25, 2019

Rudy should put the phone down after cocktails at midnight

— SELAL63 (@SELAL63) May 25, 2019

Most expensive free lawyer ever

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) May 25, 2019

Hey can I ask your cousin out on a date or are you still banging her

— Comment Etiquette (@commentiquette) May 25, 2019

pic.twitter.com/1x2EiyKeH8

— Elizabeth (@lizsmi77) May 25, 2019

Remember when they were going to make Rudy cybersecurity czar?

— Alt. U.S. Press Sec. (@AltUSPressSec) May 25, 2019

Me: Thanks for the tip, Rudy.

Rudy: Dementia it!

— Jay D'Lugin (@jaydlugin) May 25, 2019

pic.twitter.com/5YHdjMraE5

— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) May 25, 2019

Ah, here's the missing review:

😂 pic.twitter.com/ZS80DE9Fjw

— Cow ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ (@CowGenocide) May 25, 2019

Queuing Up At 29,000 Feet

(click on image to enlarge)

Really? The volume of people climbing Mt. Everest has reached the point that there's a line to get to the summit, as this disturbing picture illustrates.  And that's a problem:

Traffic jams create dangerous situations for climbers, who are often already exhausted and carrying heavy loads while battling altitude sickness, which can make people dizzy and nauseated.

Gordon Janow, director of programs at Alpine Ascents International, has been organizing treks to Everest for about 30 years. He said overcrowding often occurs, but “every year seems to be worse and worse.”

When a line starts to back up, “you’re changing your natural pace so you’re spending more time in this high altitude zone than might be necessary if you were climbing 10 to 15 years ago,” he said.

Human pollution also takes another form.  Earlier this month, three metric tons of garbage generated by climbers was taken off Mt. Everest in just 2 weeks.  Officials hope to recover a total of 10 metric tons before the cleanup project is completed sometime next month.  Here's some of what they are dealing with:



Such are the selfish, ego- driven impulses that lead us to despoil our only home.  The land, the waters, the air.  It's hard to imagine we deserve this blue jewel that we're doing so much to destroy.

BONUS:  All Earth needs is something like this to rid it of its plundereers.

(Photos:  Top - Climbers line up to stand at the summit of Mt. Everest in this May 22 photo, released by climber Nirmal Purja's Project Possible expedition. (AFP/Getty Images) (Project Possible/AFP photo). Bottom - Mount Everest Biogas Project)

Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)


(Jimmy Margulies, jimmymargulies.com)


(Jeff Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)


(Clay Jones, claytoonz.com)


(Kevin Kallaugher, Baltimore Sun)


(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

 
(David Horsey, Seattle Times)


(John Cole, The Scranton Times-Tribune)


(Ann Telnaes, Washington Post)