It’s another crazy day here at the CatBox.  I’m hurrying to get done before I need to leave for a Fair Market Residents’ meeting for the remodeling relocation.  Because I have been proactive, I’d be willing to bet that I will learn absolutely nothing that I do not already know, but I need to put in an appearance to keep them focused on my needs.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:03 (average 4:18).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): President Trump May Rue Selection Of Bolton For National Security Adviser

Based on what Rachel said, Bolton will soon be the subject of major national security and campaign finance criminal investigations, if he is not already.  This will compromise his ability to keep his security clearance. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Vox Channel): US voting machines are failing. Here’s why.

All voting machines must have a paper trail to minimize Republican election theft. RESIST!!

From Bloomberg: If John Dowd discussed the possibility of a presidential pardon with lawyers for Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort while Dowd was serving as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, it’s a big deal — definitely for Dowd, and conceivably for Trump.

The president has the inherent power to pardon anyone he wants. But doing so with a corrupt reason — such as saving the president’s skin — would be obstruction of justice.

Drip… Drip… Drip… RESIST!!

Cartoon:

The Injustice may be sizzling, but the Republican judicial procedure remains the same.

WWWendy should be here in about 75 minutes (9:15), and Store to Door should be here in two to two and one half hours.  The plan is to get me showered before Store to Door gets here.  Let’s hope the day isn’t too hectic.  Whether this is today’s only article, or I can publish another is up in the air.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:06 (average 4:59).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Late Show Channel): Samantha Bee Has Committed Grand Theft Auto

It’s fascinating to see Sam on the other side of the mic. On the cars, who would have thunk it!   RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): States blast immigration question for 2020 census

The Republican plan is to undercount Latinos. If a household of six has one undocumented family member the other five will be lost, if they fail to report for fear their relative will be deported. This will suppress the Latino vote. RESIST!!

From NY Times: The whistle-blower Christopher Wylie held a roomful of British lawmakers rapt for three and a half hours on Tuesday, like a pink-haired, nose-ringed oracle sent from the future to explain data.

In testimony to the House of Commons’ select committee on culture, Mr. Wylie, a 28-year-old Canadian, described the inner workings of SCL, a political consultancy that gave its clients access to a vast collection of personal information harvested from Facebook.

In one of the longest sessions in recent memory, Mr. Wylie made a number of jaw-dropping assertions, most significantly that the company’s exploitation of personal data had swung the results of Britain’s 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union. He also suggested that his predecessor at Cambridge Analytica was murdered.

But mostly, Mr. Wylie tried to explain data-mining. He looked like a cerebral skate-rat, which might in other circumstances have undermined his credibility, but in this case it seemed to help. He was polite. He resembled, as one journalist put it, “a patient grandson trying to set up a Skype call with his gran.”

The only way to win with Facebook is not to play. UNPLUG!! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

It’s another muggy day here at the CatBox.  Tomorrow I may have no more than a Personal Update or an Open Thread.  It’s a grocery delivery day, and WWWendy has a baby shower, so she’s coming to de-stink the sticky TomCat in the morning, instead of tomorrow evening.  That will thoroughly flummox my writing schedule, and I’ll need to see how it goes, before I know what I can do.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:25 (average 6:15).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): WHAT DOES THE GUN SAY (parody of) What Does the Fox Say

Apologies for letting this slip by a few days ago. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Full Frontal Channel): Full Frontal At The March For Our Lives

Sam feels it’s important to publicize her support. So should we. RESIST!!

From NY Times: President Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian officials on Monday, joining a coordinated campaign by two dozen countries to retaliate for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain in a Cold War-style escalation that again highlighted the disparity between the president’s words and actions.

The mass expulsion of Russian personnel stationed in the United States was the largest ever, eclipsing even the darkest days of the global showdown with the Soviet Union. But Mr. Trump avoided any public condemnation of Russia’s role in the attack just days after phoning President Vladimir V. Putin to congratulate him on a re-election widely considered a sham.

In approving the expulsions and ordering the closure of the Russian Consulate in Seattle, Mr. Trump followed the lead of Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain, who rallied a multinational coalition to respond to the poisoning. With London pressing for action, Mr. Trump called foreign counterparts to see if they would join, too. Aides said he encouraged them to take part, but he also knew that failure to go along would have left the United States isolated.

In addition to the United States, at least 22 other nations backed Britain by expelling about 57 more Russian diplomats and intelligence officers as of Monday evening, including France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Poland and Canada. Mrs. May originally expelled 23 Russians shortly after British authorities determined that Moscow was likely responsible for the nerve agent that left Sergei V. Skripal, the former Russian spy, and his daughter in a coma.

I’m surprised Trump did this. He should have done far more. Why did he do it? Maybe he and Putin are putting on a show to try to hide their partnership. Or maybe Stormy threatened to pank Donnie Piddle on his widdle Twump wump. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

It’s another muggy day here at the CatBox and I feel tired, because I slept poorly last night.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:51 (average 4:17).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Polls: Facebook Favorability Takes Big Plunge

The only way to win with Facebook is not to play. UNPLUG!! RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Tim Kaine: Trump ‘lying’ or ‘delusional’ on DACA

Kaine is spot-on. To protect Dreamers we need Democratic control. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: As Stephanie Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, told the story to Anderson Cooper on “60 Minutes” on Sunday night, she was heading into a fitness class in Las Vegas one day in 2011, with her infant daughter in tow—“taking, you know, the seats facing backwards in the back seat, diaper bag, you know, getting all the stuff out”—when a man she didn’t know walked up to her. Clifford said that she remembered the man saying, “Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.” The “story” was one that she had told a few weeks before the day of the fitness class to a writer for Bauer magazines, which owns In Touch and Life & Style, in which she described a sexual encounter that she said had taken place with Donald Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006. Life & Style had offered her fifteen thousand dollars for the story; it then called Trump for comment and, in response, two former employees of the magazine told “60 Minutes,” Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen threatened the publication with a lawsuit. The magazine held the story and didn’t pay Clifford. But that, according to Clifford’s account, did not count as going far enough; hence the guy in the Las Vegas parking lot.

“And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That’s a beautiful little girl,’ ” Clifford continued. “ ‘It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.’ And then he was gone.”

This is SOP for Donald Trump, aka Putin’s Pervert, and the Republican Reich! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

A National Shame