Let me apologize in advance if I’m short or make typos today.  Between going out yesterday, trying to keep track of the news, and watching last night’s religious tragedy, I’m feeling very wiped out, but there’s work here that needs to be done.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:07 (average 9:21).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Agony:

Worthless stinking Orb!

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest from our own fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends.

Scores:

Woooo Hoooo!!

Standings:

Congrats to Seth, Vivian and I, the leaders among active players.  Condolences to Jack, who is buried in Sasquatch toe jams.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): We Have Indictments! Has Christmas Come Early?

When I wrote yesterday’s lead, I said that it would be outdated, before I published it. Woooo Hoooo!! RESIST!!

From YouTube (Trae Crowder Channel):

Dayyum!! RESIST!!

From NY Times: A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked a White House policy barring military service by transgender troops, ruling that it was based on “disapproval of transgender people generally.”

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia found the administration’s justification for the ban, which was set to take effect in March 2018, to be suspect and likely unconstitutional. She ruled that the military’s current policy should remain in place.

“There is absolutely no support for the claim that the ongoing service of transgender people would have any negative effective on the military at all,” the judge wrote in a strongly worded, 76-page ruling. “In fact, there is considerable evidence that it is the discharge and banning of such individuals that would have such effects.”

Kudos to the judge!  RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Every year it gets harder to clean the coal dust from my white patches

I’m in a big hurry to get my writing done before I leave.  May the Holy Ellipsoid Orb bless my Broncos tonight.  Back!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:52 (average 6:08).  To do it, click here.  How did you do.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Jeff Merkley Channel): Senator Merkley Slams GOP Efforts to Kneecap Consumer Rights

Note that both Jeff Flake and Bob Corker voted FOR the legislation that Jeff is speaking against. Oregon leads the way. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Senator Jeff Flake’s decision to abandon his 2018 re-election campaign in Arizona has thrown open the Senate race there, exposing deep fissures not only on the Republican side where a nationalist insurgency is gunning for the party establishment but also among Democrats contending with a rising left.

Establishment Democrats have high hopes for Representative Kyrsten Sinema, a centrist who recently dined in the Blue Room of the White House with President Trump, teaches a bipartisan spin class in the House gym and has broken ranks with her own party on key votes. She was one of only seven House Democrats, for example, who voted to create a select committee to investigate the 2012 attack on the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

But those impulses toward bipartisanship have soured Arizona progressives against the candidacy of a woman who rose to prominence on a biography that included time as a homeless child and an identity that includes being the first open bisexual in Congress.

“There are issues, murmurs within grass-roots groups and the progressive community, the environmental community and others, including immigration advocates,” said Representative Raúl M. Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona and a co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who is withholding his endorsement of her.

Establishment Republicans, meanwhile, are scrambling to find a candidate to replace Mr. Flake and wage a primary challenge against Kelli Ward, a former state senator who aligns herself with Mr. Trump. Ms. Ward, derided by critics as a fringe candidate and a conspiracy theorist, was beaten badly by the senior senator from Arizona, John McCain, in a 2016 primary, and party leaders fear she would lose to Ms. Sinema in the general election.

I certainly prefer a more progressive alternative to Sinema, but a DINO is better than a Republican, especially Kelli Ward. RESIST!!

From NBC News: Given all of the focus on President Trump’s political base — and how he’s still holding on to it – our new NBC/WSJ poll sheds light on a less-discussed development: Trump is losing ground with the middle of the country.

Just 34 percent of independents approve of Trump’s job performance, while 57 percent disapprove (-23). That’s a decline from September, when 41 percent of independents approved and 48 percent disapproved (-7). As for self-described moderates, only 27 percent approve of Trump’s job, versus 68 percent who disapprove (-41). The president’s overall job-approval rating stands at 38 percent — his lowest yet in the NBC/WSJ poll.

What’s more, independents prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress over a Republican-controlled one in next year’s midterm elections by 6 points, 39 percent to 33 percent, while moderates want a Dem-controlled Congress by 32 points, 60 percent to 28 percent.

That might be barely enough to flip the House. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Wendy is due in about an hour, and when she arrives, I shall stop writing and finish when she leaves.  Tomorrow I’m meeting an old friend, with whom I do volunteer work, for lunch.  Depending on how long I’m gone, I may have no more than a Personal Update.  May the holy Ellipsoid Orb shine its blessed light on your team.  My Broncos play the Chiefs in the Monday night game.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:08 (average 5:55).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (RWW Channel): RWW News: Matt Barber Cites Hoax News Story To Link LGBTQ Activists To Pedophilia

Barf Bag Alert!!

Contrary to the this Republican liar’s claims, there is no link, between homosexuality and pedophilia, but 93% of all pedophiles describe themselves as ‘religious’. RESIST!!

From Newsweek: Donald Trump’s motorcade departing from the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia had an extra add-on Saturday, after the president spent the 96th day of his presidency visiting one of his own properties. That addition came in the form of a female cyclist, who had one goal in mind: to flip off the president of the United States.

Pool reporters first noticed the cyclist trailing the motorcade before she managed to snake her way next to the president’s car just outside of the Trump National Golf Club. "A female bicyclist along the motorcade route, just outside the golf course, traveling in the right lane repeatedly extended her middle left finger towards POTUS," the pool stated.

Whoever she is, I’m sure glad that she had her cortisone shot, if she needed one!    RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: A crowd estimated in the hundreds of thousands has gathered outside the office of Robert Mueller in eager anticipation of the special counsel’s first arrest in the Russia probe.

Minutes after news was leaked that charges had been filed, Americans from across the country descended on Mueller’s office to witness firsthand what many called the beginning of the end of the nightmare.

“I can’t believe this day has finally come,” Carol Foyler, who drove from North Carolina, said. “My husband is having surgery today, but I didn’t want to miss this.”

Andy, millions of us wait with high anticipation. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I did have to turn on my AC briefly yesterday afternoon, and may have to do so again today.  It’s amazing how the radiator effect of the sun hitting the wall heats the room 10° – 25° warmer than the outside temperature.  Tomorrow is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, but my Broncos visit to the division leading Chiefs is not until Monday evening.  I slept well, but still feel tired.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:54 (average 4:59).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): How Trump Manipulates America With Twitter

Keith has a point. Trump even effects honest media this way. How many times have media focused on what the Twat Twit tweeted instead of matters that needed attention? RESIST!!

From YouTube (Jeff Merkley Channel): Climate Disruption Quiz Episode 6

I got four of five. I picked A for #2. How about you? Kudos to Jeff! Oregon leads the way! RESIST!!

From The Rachel Maddow Show: First charges filed in Mueller’s Trump Russia probe: report

Barbara McQuade, former U.S. attorney talks with Rachel Maddow about new CNN reporting that a federal grand jury has "approved the first charges" in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump Russia investigation.

On whom is the axe falling? Tick… tick… tick… Chick through. She has lots more. RESIST!!

Cartoon: