Here at the CatBox the heat wave goes on.  It will only be low 90°s today, but the building is so super-heated that I can feel heat from the hallway through the door, and the outside wall is a radiator all day and night.  Tomorrow will be high 70°s, but the heat will be right back, before the building has time to cool.  ARGH!!  TGIF!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:44 (average 4:48).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show is a toxic cesspool

Barf Bag Alert!!

Whether Laura is wearing her swastika or her sheet and hood, she exemplifies Republican family values. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): Robert Reich: Trump and the Art of the No Deal

The Reich in the left, Robert Reich, is right. The next time the Reich on the right, the Republican Reich, offers candidates, say "No Deal!" RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From The New Yorker: In a development that could dramatically change the composition of the federal penitentiary system, Republicans are projected to pick up as many as seventy seats in prison, a leading incarceration expert said on Thursday.

“Prognostication is an inexact science,” Davis Logsdon, who studies conviction rates of corrupt politicians for the University of Minnesota’s Guilt Project, said. “Having said that, if current indictment trends hold up, the Republicans could be flipping at least seventy key prison seats.”

Logsdon broke down criminal cases against Republicans into likely convictions, likely acquittals, and toss-ups, and found that the G.O.P.’s path to the magic number of seventy new prison cells was “very doable.”

According to his projections, Republicans are running for prison “especially well” in districts where the G.O.P. member of Congress was an early supporter of Donald J. Trump.

Andy, you’re breaking my heart! Only 70?!!? RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Betsy DeVos is so proud!

The heat here at the CatBox is horrid.  Last night at bedtime (8:30) it was still 92° with 49% humidity.  I slept poorly and feel very tired.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:52 (average 5:46).  To di it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Nunes On Secret Tape: Brett Kavanaugh Vote, Then Rod Rosenstein Impeachment – 20 min.

Could it be that in Washington DC, Nunes has to keep his head so far up his Fuhrer’s butt that his neck is brown. The only way I know to defeat this Republican criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice is to flip the House. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): Robert Reich: Why Right-to-Work is Wrong

The Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right. The Reich on the right, the Republican Reich, is trying to create a right for rich employers to make workers bend over and grab their ankles. Support labor! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From The New Yorker: With Tuesday’s special election in Ohio still too close to call, Republican officials in the state acknowledged that they outspent Democrats to the tune of a hundred million rubles.

Harland Dorrinson, a spokesman for the Ohio Republican Party, told reporters on Wednesday that if the G.O.P. ekes out a win, it will have been worth all of the Russian currency the Party threw at the race.

“You can talk ground game all you want, but, at the end of the day, you can’t buy TV and radio ads without rubles,” he said.

Dorrinson credited the Republican congressional-campaign committee for what he called a “highly successful ruble-raising effort.”

Andy, that’s great investigative journalism! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

It’s murderously hot today.  Store to Door delivered groceries.  I worked up a sweat putting them away, because I was not close enough to the AC.  WWWendy comes tonight, and I really need my shower, but I’ll need another by morning.  ARGH!  Happy Hump Day!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:46 (average 7:12).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Alex Jones repeatedly threatens people with violence

Barf Bag Alert!!

Bust this Republican for conspiracy to commit hate crimes!! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Politico: The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration over its decision to remove asylum protections for victims of domestic and gang violence.

The ACLU is arguing against “expedited removal” policies, put forth by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, that it says “generally” deny claims of violence of that nature.

“This is a naked attempt by the Trump administration to eviscerate our country’s asylum protections,” Jennifer Chang Newell, managing attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement. “It’s clear the administration’s goal is to deny and deport as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.”

The lawsuit, Grace v. Sessions, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in conjunction with the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

In June, the attorney general overturned asylum protections for certain victims of violence, effectively reversing a push by the Obama administration to provide refuge to women with credible claims of domestic violence.

Kudos to the ACLU. Beauregard’s only quality is his recusal. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From The New Yorker: Californians were baffled on Monday by a series of tweets by Donald J. Trump in which he utterly failed to blame the state’s current wildfires on Hillary Clinton.

In interviews with residents up and down the Golden State, Californians agreed with the assessment of Harland Dorrinson, a Modesto native, that Trump’s failure to pin the fires on Clinton was “nothing short of bizarre.”

“When he said that there wasn’t enough water to put out the fires, I naturally assumed he was going to accuse Hillary Clinton of sneaking into California and somehow stealing all of our water,” Dorrinson said. “It was so confusing when he didn’t.”

“I thought that the wildfires would be a perfect opportunity for Trump to accuse Hillary of being anti-water and pro-fire, but he didn’t even mention her,” Tracy Klugian, who lives in San Jose, said. “Maybe he’s really distracted by all this Russia stuff and he’s off his game.”

Dang Andy! I hope he’s too busy pacing in his cell to be distracted soon. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Portland is under another excessive heat warning.  I expect highs of or near 100° for the next three days with high humidity too.  I overslept this morning because I had trouble sleeping last night.  I had to don George, because another resident hogged the only handicapped restroom I can use without wearing George for over an hour.  It was almost puddle and mop time.  I’ve burned most of my morning rest time, so I’ll just work through.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:45 (average 5:48).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): The right-wing obsession with the “deep state” conspiracy theory

Barf Bag Alert!!

The only deep state is the Republican Reich. It is the deep state because of the depth of the bullshit that is piled above the heads of Republican sheeple. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (Late Show Channel): Chris Hayes Unpacks Rick Gates’ Testimony

Chris has developed into a journalist on par with Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell.  It’s interesting to see he more relaxed and laughing in the role of interviewee.  Manafart is toast.  RESIST!!  VOTE BLUE!!

From Washington Post: Since the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star has seen just about everything. It was smashed into pieces — twice. It was vandalized with a swastika, enclosed with a miniature border wall, defaced with profanity and graced with the presence of a gold-painted toilet telling passersby to “TAKE A  TRUMP.”

Trump supporters have fought back, defending the star. Late last month, hours after a man destroyed the star with a pickax, a fierce brawl ensued, leaving one person kicked in the head and another bleeding from the face.

The site has become a symbol not only of the nation’s celebrity president but of the polarization surrounding him. And a nearby city council has had enough of it.

On Monday night, the West Hollywood City Council voted unanimously in favor of a resolution to ask for the removal of Trump’s star because of the president’s “disturbing treatment of women and other actions that do not meet the shared values of the City of West Hollywood, the region, state, and country.” It cited Trump’s lewd comments on the “Access Hollywood” tape, his policy of separating families at the border and his denial of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Kudos to West Hollywood!! Take a TRUMP?!!? ROTF!! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

This may be too generous, but I made it in 2011.