It’s Monday.  I’m not taking a nap this morning, because I had a lot of paperwork to so, and now that it’s done, I’ll just write earlier than usual and publish right after lunch.  That’s probably a good thing, because I’m battling a mild case of Republicosis again.  I seem to have that more often since my gall bladder was removed, so I think I’m going to cut out stool softeners, except for when I have Republicitis.  In the other hand, that might not be it.  Since there has been an asshole in the White House, mine has decided to RESIST!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:34 (average 5:04).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Media Matters: Buzzfeed News has obtained and published “an explosive cache of documents” confirming Breitbart as the mouthpiece for neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the racist right-wing movement known as the alt-right. Buzzfeed’s entire report on Breitbart management’s courting of neo-Nazis and white supremacists can be found here.

Breitbart actively courted and solicited neo-Nazis and white supremacist leaders for stories, even allowing them to contribute ideas and kill stories [emphasis original]

Click through. This is too horrid to ignore. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: San Francisco 49ers Safety Eric Reid had something to say after his team lost to the Indy Colts in overtime — 26-23 — the game which Vice-Resident Mike Pence staged a planned publicity stunt walk out on to whine-protest players exercising the first amendment rights to protest the extra judicial executions of young black men by bad police officers.

Talking to reporters in the locker room Reid said:

"My honest reaction: … Does anybody know the last time he’s (Pence) been to a football game? With that being said, he tweeted out a three-year-old photo of him at a Colts game, so with the information I have, the last time he was at a Colts game was three years ago. So this looks like a PR stunt to me. He knew our team has had the most players protest. He knew that we were probably going to do it again. This is what systemic oppression looks like. A man with power comes to the game, tweets a couple of things out and leaves the game with an attempt to thwart our efforts. Based on the information I have, that’s the assumption I’ve made."

I’d say that’s a safe assumption Eric, and well stated.

I’d say it’s a safe assumption too, since Trump has admitted telling Pence to leave.  WE paid for one damn pricey photo-op!  RESIST!!

From NY Times: The White House on Sunday delivered to Congress a long list of hard-line immigration measures that President Trump is demanding in exchange for any deal to protect the young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers, imperiling a fledgling bipartisan push to reach a legislative solution.

Before agreeing to provide legal status for 800,000 young immigrants brought here illegally as children, Mr. Trump will insist on the construction of a wall across the southern border, the hiring of 10,000 immigration agents, tougher laws for those seeking asylum and denial of federal grants to “sanctuary cities,” officials said.

As much as I want to protect the dreamers, Trump is charging too high a price in his Republican oppression of other undocumented Latinos and their families.  RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Portland OR celebrates Indigenous Peoples Day!

Today is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos are bye, so may the Orb shine its blessed light on your team, except for the players that start on the Squatch’s fantasy team.  Wendy is due in half an hour to destink the smelly TomCat and help with housework.  When she arrives, I’ll break from writing and finish when she leaves.

I feel much cleaner now!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:34 (average 5:29).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Sacramento Bee: Amid debate among California campaign officials over whether it would hinder their accountability work, Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed a measure aimed at providing voters with more information about deep-pocketed groups that pay for political advertisements.

The California Clean Money Campaign sponsored Assembly Bill 249, calling it one of the most important disclosure bills in the nation. The measure, a multiyear effort supported by government transparency advocates throughout the state, will require political advertisements to include a list of the top three financial contributors to the committee paying for the ad.

“No more fine print,” Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, the South San Francisco Democrat who authored the bill, said in a statement. “California voters will now be able to make informed decisions, based on honest information about who the true funders are of campaign ads. This transparency is critical to our democracy and I am proud that California has taken this historic first step to shine the light on ‘dark money.’ Hopefully this will encourage others to follow suit.”

I fully agree with this. Kudos to California Democrats, and thanks to JL A for the tip. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Knowing what we know about Trump and what psychiatrists know about aggression, impulse control, and predictive behavior, we are all in mortal danger. He is the man with his finger on the nuclear button. Contributors to “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” ask whether this creates a “duty to warn.” But the real question is, Should democracy allow a plurality of citizens to place the lives of an entire country in the hands of a madman? Crazy as this idea is, it’s not a question psychiatrists can answer.  [emphasis added]

Click through to see how a group of 27 leading psychiatrists and mental health experts reached this conclusion. RESIST!!

From NY Times: FOR years, Republicans have effectively outsourced their thought leadership to the loudmouths at the end of the bar. But perhaps the most extreme example of that trend has been the issue of guns, where the party has ceded control to a gun lobby that has built its brand on absolutism.

And now, again, we are about to see the consequences of that abdication. Congress did nothing in the wake of the mass murder of children at Sandy Hook, and except for a largely symbolic ban on bump stocks, it’s likely that nothing meaningful will happen in the aftermath of the shootings in Las Vegas. Instead, Republicans will round up all the usual clichés and excuses for inaction.

We’ve seen this before, and it is a script written by the National Rifle Association. The N.R.A.’s blessing of restrictions on bump stocks — devices that make semiautomatic weapons fire faster — is designed to pre-empt anything more serious by giving the illusion of action. It substitutes accessory control for actual gun control.

I agree. Furthermore, most bump stocks are manufactured by a small company in Texas. The gun manufacturers that the NRA represents do not profit from their sale, so they are quick to agree to the ban. When it comes before the Senate, Democrats should propose many amendments. Republicans will defeat them all, but it’s important that they be forced to do so, as America grieves. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

It’s another busy day.  It’s cool, but very humid.  Tomorrow is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, and my Broncos are bye.  So may the blessed Orb shine its holy light on your team.  Tomorrow is also a Wendy day, so I’ll be rushing and brief.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:46 (average 6:05).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): The Roots of Trump’s Prejudice

Like Keith, I heard it about both Blacks and Puerto Ricans in NYC in the 1960s, but by then I had already rejected my father’s racism and was a civil rights activist. Since Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten is only two years older than me, he has no excuse. Republicans are racist by choice. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos offered a spirited defense of her boss’s intelligence on Friday, bluntly asking reporters, “Would a moron hire me?”

“My intelligence can be very intimidating,” DeVos said. “And if Donald Trump was a moron, he would not want to be around people who are intelligenter than him.”

As evidence that Trump does not feel inferior around highly intelligent people, DeVos singled out other members of Trump’s Cabinet. "Leave me out of it for a second,” she said. “If Donald Trump was such a blithering idiot, why would he have hired Rick Perry?”

Would a moron hire her? In a word, Andy, YES!  One did!  RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): How America Overlooked The Russia Election Hack In One Crazy Day

This was a date that shall live in infamy! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I’m feeling much better today, but I hope the Immodium does not convert the Republicosis to Republicitis.  I never made it to NFL yesterday, so I never learned that one of my best fantasy players, Gronkowski, was IA last night, so that may cause me to be foot-flattened.  Wendy says thank you for your condolences.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:54 (average 5:00).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): Senator Elizabeth Warren calls for a clean Dream Act

Like Liz, we stand with our Dreamers. RESIST!!

From YouTube (RWW Channel): GOP Candidate Michael Snyder Says Vegas Shooting Was Probably An Antifa Attack On Trump Supporters

Barf Bag Alert!!

What a load of Nazi BS! Older, white, Ammosexual, multi-millionaire… Is that the profile of an anti-fascist protestor? We don’t know the killer’s political views yet, but if I had to guess, I’d say that’s the profile of a Republican. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker Twice: Calling the move an “urgent response to recent unfortunate events,” Puerto Rico has issued a sweeping travel ban on malignant narcissists, effective immediately.

Starting on Wednesday, Customs and Border Protection officials at Puerto Rico’s ports of entry will be equipped with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–V) issued by the American Psychiatric Association, and will be instructed to look for symptoms of malignant narcissism in those attempting to enter.

“If port officials encounter a visitor who has a pompous and arrogant demeanor, needs the constant admiration of others, and is unwilling to empathize with others’ feelings, wishes, or needs, that visitor will be denied entry,” a Puerto Rican government statement read.

and

Attempting to pour cold water on reports of a rift between him and Donald Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters on Wednesday that he remains “fully committed to this moron’s agenda.”

“There will always be people in Washington eager to stir controversy when there is none,” Tillerson said, at a hastily called press conference at the State Department. “I am standing here today to tell you that I am on the same page as this idiot.”

Elaborating on that point, the former oil-company C.E.O. stressed that he and Trump were in agreement on a broad range of issues. “From North Korea to Iran to China, there is no daylight between me and this imbecile,” he said.

In the first, Andy must be reporting straight news.  In the second, if Andy is accurate, both morons and imbeciles will be suing Tillerson for defamation of character.  RESIST!!

Cartoon: