It’s a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos are entertaining the Raiders.  Sadly, it won’t be televised here.  May the blessed Orb shine its holy light on your team, unless they wear an eye patch.  I play Pam in fantasy football.  She’s already kicking my ass.  WWWendy is due in less than an hour.  We have lots of chores.

WWWendy was 40 min’ late today, so I’m running late and am extra pooped.  She says Hi to all.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:00 (average 4:38).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube: Final Straw R.E.M. – Trump Protest Song

This was over 18 months ago, when we knew nothing about the outrages he and the Republican Reich have committed since. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From TPM: The relationship between President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary James Mattis has deteriorated to the point where Trump is worried that Mattis is secretly a Democrat, according to a Saturday New York Times story.

While Trump still publicly stands by his defense secretary, the Times paints a picture of a president who is increasingly resentful of Mattis’ apolitical stance and the perception that Mattis is the only adult in the room.

For his part, Mattis is reportedly getting tired of having to be that adult. He clashed with Trump over NATO and war games with South Korea, and the hiring of national security advisor deputy Mira Ricardel has further strained his relationship with the White House.

In truth, I do not like Mad Dog. That said, if Orange Adolf fires him, there will be no adults in the room. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Huffington Post: Former President George W. Bush is headlining fundraisers for GOP candidates facing tough challenges ahead of the midterm elections. He won’t, however, be appearing on behalf of Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from his home state of Texas, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Crawford Caligula is the most stupid Republican Resident to complete at least one four year term. But even the man that could not understand My Pet Goat isn’t stupid enough to campaign for Cruz! Go, Beto! Go! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

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I have no idea why, but I could not fall asleep last night, and I dozed for a couple hours at most, so don’t be surprised, if I typo.  In theory, the AC should stay off all day, but the sun just came out, so I’ll have to see if it stays.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:31 (average 5:33).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Robert Mueller Secures Full Cooperation, Guilty Plea From Paul Manafort (19 min.)

Would anyone be surprised that Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten, aka the Tweeting Traitor, is about to smell a big stinky Manafart? RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From CNN: Anita Hill called on the federal government to implement a "fair and neutral" way to investigate sexual misconduct complaints after allegations surfaced against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh this week.

Hill, who accused Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of workplace sexual harassment during his confirmation hearing back in 1991, said she has seen "firsthand what happens when such a process is weaponized against an accuser and no one should have to endure that again."

Then a law professor at the University of Oklahoma, Hill testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that she had been sexually harassed by Thomas when she worked with him at the Education Department and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Thomas denied the allegations and he was confirmed to the bench.

At the time there were three more women, who wanted to testify against Thomas. They were denied, and Republicans pushed through the confirmation instead. We need to stop Pervert Kava-Nazi first! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump placed “a large number” of phone calls to his former campaign manager Paul Manafort on Friday morning, and all of them went straight to voice mail, White House sources have confirmed.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the number of voice-mail messages that Trump left for Manafort was somewhere in the range of twelve to three hundred.

Trump reportedly continued to leave messages for Manafort until his mailbox was full, after which Trump hurled his phone across the room, narrowly missing Mike Pence’s head.

Dang Andy! What a crime! Did he really have to miss Pence?!!? RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

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It was so muggy last night that I had trouble sleeping, so I am feeling quite tired.  I’ll probably have to turn on the A/C by mid-afternoon.  If you are near Florence, please take care.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:47 (average 4:40).  To do it, click here. How did you do?  (Maybe we can tag-team a dawg or two).

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Experts warn that climate change is making extreme weather worse

Even the Republican Reich know this is true, but they lie about it, as long as the polluters keep them in power, and they think the poor and minorities suffer most of the bad effects. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Alternet: Some of Willie Nelson’s conservative fans are angry that the country legend is throwing his support behind Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke.

Nelson posted an announcement on his Facebook page that he’ll join his sons, Lukas and Micah Nelson, and musicians Joe Ely, Carrie Rodriguez and Tameca Jones to perform at a rally for O’Rourke, a Texas congressman challenging Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, reported KTRK-TV.

That outraged some of his fans, who lashed out against the 85-year-old Nelson on social media.

Beto joined Willy on the 4th of July.  He comes in near the end.

I am now a bigger Willie Nelson Fan! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From NY Times: Since his appointment 16 months ago as special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III has granted no interviews and held no news conferences. The spokesman for his office is known around Washington as “Mr. No-Comment.” Even public sightings are rare: A photograph of Mr. Mueller at an airport gate, with Donald Trump Jr. in the background, went viral.

Silence as a public relations strategy is risky, especially for someone who is impugned almost daily by Fox News pundits, Trump allies like Rudolph W. Giuliani and tweets from the president himself. Supporters fear that the fusillade is eroding public confidence in the special counsel’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election before Mr. Mueller has a chance to present his findings.

“The risk you always assume is, if your critics and your opponents are the only ones doing the talking, then they get to write the headlines,” said Kevin Madden, a communications strategist who served as a spokesman for the Justice Department under President George W. Bush.

Yet veterans of similar investigations say that keeping quiet may be Mr. Mueller’s only viable option, given the limited set of strategies available for federal prosecutors to communicate with the public. By law, special counsels must follow Justice Department guidelines that restrict them from sharing details about pending investigations, making leaks a potential criminal matter.

I agree that it’s his best bet, but from my perspective as a commentator/satirist that gets very frustrating! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

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It’s cool so far here in the CatBox, but it should be sunny in a bit, so I’ll need to crank up the AC.  News may be slow for the next few days, as MSNBC is reporting Florence, almost to the exclusion of everything else.  It’s a holy night in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  The Bengals and Ravens are meditating, and I expect the birds will eat the cats.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:47 (average 4:57).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): Robert Reich: How to Build Progressive Power

Of course the Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right. In order to accomplish his worthy goals, we need to flush the Reich on the Right, the Republican Reich at all levels of government, federal, state, and local. Every Republican dawg catcher is one Republican dawg catcher too many! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Lawrence: GOP Midterm ‘Shipwreck’ Could Be Worse

I’ll be surprised, if we take the Senate, but let this go from Lawrence’s mouth to God’s ear. However, we will win nothing, unless YOU… RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From CNN: Nearly 3,000 people died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. President Donald Trump denied this reality as a hurricane barrels toward the Carolinas.

"3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000," he said in a tweet Thursday morning [Twit tweet delinked] as Carolinians prepared to be pummeled by Hurricane Florence.

Earlier this month, the island’s governor formally raised the death toll from Hurricane Maria to an estimated 2,975 from 64 following a study conducted by researchers at The George Washington University. CNN’s own reporting reflects similar numbers. The university study accounted for Puerto Ricans who succumbed to the stifling heat and other aftereffects of the storm and had not been previously counted in official figures. Much of the US territory was without power for weeks.

Para el cerdo anaranjado: mierda de toro!  RESIST!!  VOTE BLUE!!

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