It’s a temperate day here at the CatBox, but it’s so humid that I’m sticky and the grass pollen count is still very high.  It took me a long time to find my material today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:05 (average 4:53).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Compromise With GOP Becomes Point Of Contention Among Democrats

Biden is delusional. To compromise with Republicans, bend over, grab your ankles, and pray. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Jesse Dollemore Channel): Trump AGAIN Teased the Idea That His Supporters Will DEMAND That He Stay Longer Than 2 Terms!

The Fuhrer would like nothing better than to make the 5th Reich permanent. RESIST!!

From Common Dreams: As the Trump administration prepares to deploy 1,000 additional troops to the Middle East in a move critics warned will heighten the possibility of all-out war with Iran, United Nations officials reportedly believe the U.S. is also planning a major “aerial bombardment” of an Iranian nuclear facility.

United Nations officials are “assessing the United States’ plans to carry out a tactical assault on Iran,” the Jerusalem Post reported Monday, citing anonymous diplomatic sources at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

“According to the officials, since Friday, the White House has been holding incessant discussions involving senior military commanders, Pentagon representatives, and advisers to President Donald Trump,” the Post reported. “The military action under consideration would be an aerial bombardment of an Iranian facility linked to its nuclear program.”

One “Western diplomat” told the Post that the bombing campaign would be “massive” but “limited to a specific target.”

Does anyone else think that bombing Iran is insane? RESIST!!

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Oh God, it’s Monday!  It’s another muggy day and the super-high pollen count is still messing with my eyes and COPD.  Nevertheless, I should be in the saddle every day this week, except Thursday, when I have a lunch date with a friend to discuss prison volunteer work.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:31 (average 5:11).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Jesse Dollemore Channel): U.S. Military & Intelligence Officials Keeping Ops Hidden From Donald Trump For Fear He’ll Talk!

Amen Jesse. A big problem with the Fuhrer and the Republican Reich is this: no matter how vile their traitorous actions against America are today, they will do far worse tomorrow. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: A leading candidate to replace the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was disqualified after telling the truth repeatedly on his job application, the White House has confirmed.

According to the White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, the candidate got high marks in his job interview by demonstrating “utter disregard and contempt for press freedoms.”

“We then had him do a practice press briefing in which he was relentlessly abusive, obnoxious, and insulting,” Mulvaney said. “We were all, like, ‘This is our guy.’ ”

But after a thorough examination of the candidate’s job application, “a troubling series of truthhoods emerged,” Mulvaney said.

That’s straight news, Andy. Anyone, who has ever told the truth, even once, need not apply. RESIST!!

From Alternet: [I]n 2016 all the corporate news media outlets, NPR included, predicted that Trump would lose. They just did not recognize the discontent in America’s rust belt because the economic dislocation that had, and continues to define life there, was just not part of their personal frame of reference.They thought the country was several years into a recovery and the national aggregate unemployment data they had commissioned confirmed it. But nobody lives or votes in the aggregate. And it wasn’t until Trump flipped the 200 counties that Obama had carried twice, that the corporate news media started paying some attention.

And yet, based on the latest handicapping on the 2020 Democratic Primary they appear to be setting themselves up for another big miss that they will, of course, universally declare nobody saw coming — the huge left-wing surge that’s making democratic socialism mainstream and will likely be more seismic than the 2018 mid-terms.

Just look to the West Coast and the latest Los Angeles Times poll that has Joe Biden at 22 percent, Elizabeth Warren at 18 percent, Bernie Sanders at 17, and favorite daughter Kamala Harris at 13 percent. So, just what percentage of that fired up 48 percent that believe in Warren, Sanders, or Harris is Uncle Joe going to peel off with his retro-incrementalism?

It is most likely already over for Uncle Joe. His wing of the Democratic Party got rich sticking up for the credit card companies while they insured the 40 million Americans who owe $1.5 trillion in student loan debt can never be free of it even if they declare bankruptcy.

It seems clear to me that the likely Democratic voters have jumped away from centrist corporatism and toward social democracy. I only hope there are no shenanigans from the DNC to prop up Uncle Joe’s campaign beyond its natural life expectancy. The days that people will blindly get behind the leadership are gone. The leadership must learn to get behind the people. RESIST!!

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I’m amazed that France has not demanded it’s return.

It’s a WWWendy day, so I’m in a big hurry.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Todays took me 3:39 (average 5:46).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (A blast from the past): Bob Dylan The Times They Are A Changin’ 1964

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

From Politico: President Donald Trump said he’d been briefed on Navy pilots reporting increased sightings of unidentified flying objects, adding that he doesn’t particularly believe in UFOs.

Trump’s disbelief is the strongest evidence we’ve ever had that UFOs actually exist. RESIST!!

From Crooks and Liars: Alex Jones is a terribly unhappy person, as his former wife acknowledges. Who wouldn’t be unhappy living in a world of gay frogs, government-created “weather weapons” and rampant crisis actors staging mass shootings left and right? What a miserably fevered-brain place to live.

And now, Jones has another thing about which to be very, very unhappy: Child porn found on his computer by the FBI.

It could not have happened to a more Republican pervert. RESIST!!

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We need it back!

It’s a confortable day here in the CatBox.  Yesterday, Maintenance fixed my A/C installation, so I an not losing cool air on hot days, and can open my window for fresh air on cool mornings.  That will make it more comfortable here.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:34 (average 8:57).  To do it, click here.  How did you do.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): The DNC Announces Official Matchups For First 2020 Debates

Liz vs. Amy vs. Beto vs. Cory promises to be an interesting matchup. Night 2 should be a polite dog pile on Joe. If Joe can avoid a serious gaff, I’ll be surprised. The real debate on night 2 will be Kamala vs. Bernie vs. Pete. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Washington Post Channel): Opinion | Trump’s impeachment would be a constitutional, not a political, question

AMEN! Well said! RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: On Thursday, two oil tankers suffered explosions and damage in the Gulf of Oman. These evident results of attacks followed a series of similar damaging incidents in May. Overnight, the United States Navy released a video that reportedly shows a small Iranian vessel next to the tanker Kokuka Courageous, carrying people who appeared to be removing a device that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo identified as an unexploded mine. Pompeo stated that the analysis of U.S. experts indicated that Iran carried out the attack using mines. However, there is at least one person who disagrees with this analysis—the owner of the tanker involved. Not only does he not think that Iran was behind the attack, but he doesn’t believe his ship was damaged by a mine.

The  Kokuka Courageous is operated by Japanese company Kokuka Sangyo. The owner of the ship, Yutaka Katada, says that, according to the reports that have been made by the crew of the ship, the U.S. is wrong on just about every aspect of the attack. According to the Daily Beast, Katada contradicted the report by Pompeo and said that, rather than a mine, his ship was hit by “a flying object.” Katada claims this information came from those on board the ship at the time of the incident. He also states that the damage to his tanker was located “well above the waterline,” which would most likely exclude any sort of torpedo or submerged mine.

An MQ-1C Gray Eagle drone can fire an Joint Air to Ground Missile, the most modern in the arsenal. Given crew description that is a far more likely an explanation than the Republican deep-fake video that shows nothing definitive. RESIST!!

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