It’s another sticky, muggy day here:  54° and 92%.  Yuck!  Tonight’s low is 8° warmer than the average high for this date.  I hope it doesn’t keep me awake.  Aside from the weather, I continue to improve and am more mended than not.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:48 (average 4:13).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?  If I win, who wants a bird Bankster?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): Nuclear War is not Inevitable

North Korea is "the most dangerous crisis since the Cuban missile crisis." But it hasn’t always been that way. Physicist and nuclear policy expert Zia Mian explains:

The problem here is that, even worse than the Republican Bush Reich that caused the problem, the Republican Fuhrer today makes Kim Jong Un appear relatively sane. RESIST!!

From Politico: Democratic leaders are facing a potential revolt within their ranks as they edge toward a deal with Republicans that would protect Dreamers from deportation but also include concessions to conservatives that many Democratic lawmakers say are unacceptable.

Senate negotiators say they’re inching toward a bipartisan deal that broadly mirrors the parameters laid out during a meeting this week between lawmakers and President Donald Trump at the White House. They include ensuring legal status for Dreamers, strengthening border security and making changes to both family-based migration and the diversity lottery.

But many Democrats, particularly in the House, are horrified that their leaders would even agree to discuss issues beyond legal status for Dreamers and limited measures to curb illegal immigration. The concerns span multiple factions of the Democratic conference, and, combined with opposition from Republican immigration hard-liners, they could put passage of a DACA deal at risk.

I’ll reserve judgment, until I can count the beans in the can, but I’m inclined to say that it’s no time to cave-in to negotiation in bad-faith, when we have the Republicans by the short hairs. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Representative Darrell Issa, whose hard-edge partisan attacks on President Barack Obama began softening as his district trended toward the Democrats, said on Wednesday that he would not seek re-election — the latest and one of the most prominent Republican retirements in the face of a potential Democratic wave.

Mr. Issa, 64, who has represented an idyllic stretch of Southern California coast since 2001, won re-election in 2016 by just 1,600 votes out or more than 300,000 cast, while Hillary Clinton carried it by more than seven percentage points.

Good riddance to Darrell, who Issa asshole, because he Issa Republican. Woooo Hoooo!! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

It’s another busy, sticky day here in the CatBox.  I finally got over that awful Republicosis early yesterday evening and slept well last night.  I’m not completely over my upper respiratory bug and malaise, but I continue to improve.  Store to Door delivered my groceries on time, and I have put them away.  Wendy comes this evening to de-stink the sticky TomCat and help with chores.  I got her a gift of two lbs. of fresh cherries.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:47 (average 6:57).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Full Frontal Channel): Announcing Full Frontal’s Apology Race

I bet Squatch favors Allana! RESIST!!

From Washington Post: In a highly anticipated report due to be released on Wednesday, congressional Democrats are expected to raise renewed concerns over mounting evidence of Russian interference in at least 19 European nations, according to the Associated Press, which obtained an advance copy.

The 200-plus pages report, commissioned by Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, directly targets President Trump for failing to respond to the threat, even as other nations in Europe have taken much stronger measures to counter Russian efforts in the region. “Never before has a U.S. president so clearly ignored such a grave and growing threat to U.S. national security,” the report warns, according to AP.

Were the Fuhrer to acknowledge Russian interference in any election anywhere, he would be risking not only that it would draw attention to his own criminal conspiracy, but also, that it would piss off Putin enough to put the Pee-Pee Tape on RT.  RESIST!!

From NY Times: A panel of federal judges struck down North Carolina’s congressional map on Tuesday, condemning it as unconstitutional because Republicans had drawn the map seeking a political advantage.

The ruling was the first time that a federal court had blocked a congressional map because of a partisan gerrymander, and it instantly endangered Republican seats in the coming elections.

Judge James A. Wynn Jr., in a biting 191-page opinion, said that Republicans in North Carolina’s Legislature had been “motivated by invidious partisan intent” as they carried out their obligation in 2016 to divide the state into 13 congressional districts, 10 of which are held by Republicans. The result, Judge Wynn wrote, violated the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection.

Woooo Hoooo!! Kudos to the judge, who is obviously not a Trump appointee. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I was planning to publish a normal load today, but you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice, men and cats.  I normally get up at 4:30 AM on Sunday.  That gives me time to dress, cook breakfast, eat, clean up, collect and lay out my shower supplies, collect and lay out my change of clothes, spend some time on the porcelain throne to unload a few Republicans, do my research for the day, and get a head start on writing, before Wendy arrives at 8:30.  I overslept this morning and awakened at 6:15.  I must need more sleep, as I dozed on the throne in mid-Republican.  I had virtually no time for research, so this is my only article today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:07 (average 4:56).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Take:

From Huffington Post: The size of oxygen-starved ocean “dead zones,” where plants and animals struggle to survive, has increased fourfold around the world, according to a new scientific analysis.

The growth of the zones is yet another consequence of global warming — including increasing ocean temperatures — triggered by greenhouse gases and, closer to the coasts, contamination by agricultural runoff and sewage.

“Rising nutrient loads coupled with climate change — each resulting from human activities — are changing ocean biogeochemistry and increasing oxygen consumption,” says the study published in the journal Science. Ultimately, such changes are “unsustainable and may result in ecosystem collapses, which ultimately will cause societal and economic harm.”

I think they should be called Republican zones.  RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Would someone PLEASE give Putin’s Pervert a blow job?