I’m afraid I’m having a pretty rough day.  I’m very tired.  I had to spend 45 min. this morning explaining to a Netflix rep, whose command of English was questionable at best, to give me a grace period to update to a new credit card later this week.  I had to pull out some hair, but I succeeded.  I’ve also spent over 90 minutes on the porcelain throne, due to Republicosis. Oh God It’s Monday!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

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

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): DOUBLING DOWN IN GEORGIA – Parody

Wow! Kudos to Don and Stacey! RESIST!!

From Huffington Post: The race to count Florida’s votes got even messier on Sunday as Gov. Rick Scott’s campaign filed a handful of lawsuits seeking to give law enforcement custody of election equipment and prevent certain ballots from being included in official results

A recount began Saturday in the U.S. Senate race between Scott, a Republican, and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. Scott narrowly leads Nelson by about 0.15 percentage points, well within the state’s 0.25 percent threshold for a manual recount…

…In a separate suit against Snipes, Scott’s campaign asked a judge to block Broward County from counting any of the ballots it didn’t include in the unofficial results it submitted to the Florida Department of State by noon Saturday, a deadline set by state law. That request, if granted, could mean some valid ballots would not be counted. Florida accepts vote-by-mail ballots until 7 p.m. on Election Day and the county may not have them all counted by Saturday’s deadline.

The populous and heavily Democratic Broward County is a key area for Nelson if he is to overcome Scott’s lead. In a Sunday statement, Nelson’s campaign accused Scott of trying to stop valid votes from being counted.

Isn’t the prevention of valid votes what Republicans always do? RESIST!!

From NY Times: Top congressional Democrats demanded on Sunday that President Trump’s acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, recuse himself from overseeing the special counsel investigation, and vowed to use their newfound powers as the incoming House majority to block him from interfering with it.

The incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, vowed to make Mr. Whitaker the panel’s first witness when the new Congress convenes in January — and subpoena him if necessary. The incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, said Democrats would investigate Mr. Whitaker, a Trump loyalist who has repeatedly and explicitly criticized the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race.

“The questions we will ask him will be about his expressed hostility to the investigation, and how he can possibly supervise it when he’s expressed, when he’s come out and said the investigation is invalid,” Mr. Nadler said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

I like this. However, they should also investigate him to document some of the crimes for which state Attorneys General can prosecute him. RESIST!!

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It’s a very cold day with a high wind warning.  I slept poorly due to stress.  It’s a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos are bi this week so may the Orb shine it’s Blessed light on your team.  It’s also a Wendy day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:04 (average 6:11).  To do it, click here.  How did you so?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (SNL Channel): Jeff Sessions Farewell Cold Open

KKK Beauregard must be thinking those exact things. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): Robert Reich: How Blue States Help Red States

The Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right, but the real unjust welfare is the welfare we pay to billionaires. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: \Tremendous news! Late on Saturday night, after the latest batch of votes to be counted extended his lead, the Associated Press called the race in California’s 48th Congressional District for Democrat Harley Rouda. With this win, Rouda has defeated none other than Dana Rohrabacher, the Republican best known as “Putin’s favorite congressman,” thanks to an embarrassing affinity for Russian autocracy matched only by Donald Trump’s.

Rouda’s victory gives Democrats their 35th flip (and 33rd net gain) of the 2018 midterms, and with seven races still uncalled, more pickups are looming. Rohrabacher’s loss also cements a profound shift in Orange County, which for the better part of a century had been the blood-red citadel of California conservatism. But like many other affluent and well-educated suburban areas around the country, it reacted with great hostility to Trump, and now voters there are punishing his abettors in the Republican Party. May this trend continue to spread.

Amen! RESIST!!

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I fell asleep during my morning nap, overslept, because I was so tired, and woke up to a big mess.  The person who stole my ID when I used my number on a public network when hospitalized in 2015 attempted to steal my credit card last night.  All the proper bells and whistles went off, but my credit card needs to be replaced.  I have to go without a credit card until Thursday.  When the new one comes in, I have to make the rounds of sites, where I regularly use it and change the numbers.  ARGH!!  This is the last thing I needed right now.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:46 (average 4:23).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): President Donald Trump Likely Faced Indictment But For Presidency

Whitaker is as representative of the Republican Party as Trump is. Now, how do we get rid of him? RESIST!!

From Washington Post: An audio recording tracking the dying moments of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul has been shared with Saudi Arabia, Britain, France and Germany in addition to the United States, the Turkish president said Saturday.

“We gave it to Saudi Arabia,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke at Ankara airport before departing for Paris for commemorations to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. “We gave it to America. To the Germans, French, English, we gave it to all of them.”

The tape is a critical piece of evidence that Turkey says backs up its assertion that Khashoggi, a contributor to The Washington Post World Opinions section, was killed by a Saudi hit team after he entered the consulate on Oct. 2.

If we have a copy, the Republican Reich is covering-up and hiding it from the American people. RESIST!!

From Crooks and Liars: I cannot wait for Michelle Obama’s book to land on my doorstep next week. From the previews I’ve seen, she puts it all out there on the page like the amazing woman she is.

But this part really made Trumpy mad, and I always like it when Michelle Obama makes Trumpy mad. He ranted about her and President Obama after someone asked her about this passage in her book:

“The whole birther thing was crazy and mean-spirited, ” she wrote. “Underlying bigotry and xenophobia deliberately to stir up the wingnuts and kooks. What if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls?”

“Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendoes, was putting our family’s safety at risk and for this, I’d never forgive him,” she vowed.

Who can blame her? Other people’s children have already died because crazy Republican terrorists have done exactly what she described. RESIST!!

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Please pardon my brevity.  It’s one of those days.  I’m as busy as a hooker at a Republican pseudo-Christian convention.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:44 (average 5:53).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Donald Trump Hand-Picked Acting-AG Raises New Obstruction Questions (20 min.)

I hope someone is filing a legal action to prevent Whitaker from keeping the office. RESIST!!

From NY Times: What now seems an eternity ago, the conservative law professor Steven Calabresi published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal in May arguing that Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional. His article got a lot of attention, and it wasn’t long before President Trump picked up the argument, tweeting that “the Appointment of the Special Counsel is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL!”

Professor Calabresi’s article was based on the Appointments Clause of the Constitution, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2. Under that provision, so-called principal officers of the United States must be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate under its “Advice and Consent” powers.

He argued that Mr. Mueller was a principal officer because he is exercising significant law enforcement authority and that since he has not been confirmed by the Senate, his appointment was unconstitutional. As one of us argued at the time, he was wrong. What makes an officer a principal officer is that he or she reports only to the president. No one else in government is that person’s boss. But Mr. Mueller reports to Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general. So, Mr. Mueller is what is known as an inferior officer, not a principal one, and his appointment without Senate approval was valid.

But Professor Calabresi and Mr. Trump were right about the core principle. A principal officer must be confirmed by the Senate. And that has a very significant consequence today.

It means that Mr. Trump’s installation of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general of the United States after forcing the resignation of Jeff Sessions is unconstitutional. It’s illegal. And it means that anything Mr. Whitaker does, or tries to do, in that position is invalid.

Click through for much more.  If it was legal, Republicans would not do it. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump warned on Wednesday that a caravan of Democratic women was heading toward Washington, D.C., with the explicit goal of invading the nation’s capital.

Speaking at a press conference at the White House, Trump acknowledged that he had failed in his bid to stop the caravan, which is on schedule to arrive in Washington on January 3, 2019.

“The Democrats are responsible for sending this caravan, and, frankly, it’s a disgrace,” he said. “They are sending some dangerous women.”

Elaborating on the threat posed by the caravan, Trump said, “Some of these women have fought in wars. They have fired guns. One of them is a mixed-martial-arts specialist. These are women who will kick your ass without hesitating.”

Amen Andy! May the caravan keep growing! RESIST!!

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