We have move our Board of Directors meeting to the Cat Box, because a mild case of Republicosis has made travel inadvisable.  I’m expecting everyone to arrive in about an hour.  I trust that Imodium will make tomorrow’s doctor appointment doable.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:27 (average 5:19).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Take:

From The Rachel Maddow Show: How Putin will try to manipulate Trump at their G20 meeting

Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, talks with Rachel Maddow about how Vladimir Putin will likely tell Donald Trump things he wants to hear to manipulate Trump into serving Russia’s interests.

I have no doubt that Trump’s cronies have already promised that the sanctions will be lifted as quid pro quo for Russia’s part in the election theft. The Fuhrer is working diligently to prepare for his meeting with Putin. He is applying Vaseline to his nether regions.  RESIST!!

Cartoon:

It’s hot enough to melt a brass monkey, and my little AC is going full speed, trying to keep it tolerable in the room.  When Wendy gets here for my shower, it will be 93° outside, so it will be at least that hot or hotter in the shower room.  It will be a dry off twice day, once when I finish the shower, and once when I’m back in my room.  Tomorrow I have an annual board meeting with my prison volunteer group, and Friday I have a follow up appointment with my gall bladder surgeon, so please expect no more than a Personal Update on both days.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:25 (average 6:28).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Newsweek: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken a pop at the political direction of the U.S. and the U.K. in a conversation with Ireland’s new Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

During his official visit to Ireland, Trudeau said in a joint press conference with Varadkar that Canada and Ireland had major allies who were going in a “different direction” from them, underlining his souring relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.

"There are tremendous opportunities for countries like Canada and Ireland, at a time where perhaps our significant allies and trading partners in the case of both the U.S. and the U.K. are turning inward or at least turning into a different direction,” Trudeau said in comments carried by AFP.

Kudos to Trudeau. We all know what country the Fuhrer wants to insert into Canada’s favored position. RESIST!!

From NY Times: …Republican senators have had to decide whether public appearances would be fruitful or the crowds hostile. Many lawmakers seem to have given up on town hall-style meetings and parades…

In short, most Republicans are avoiding the rich political opportunities for grandstanding the 4th offers, so they can to stay in hiding from their constituents. What anti-American cowards they are! RESIST!!

From Alternet: Did you hear about the Civil War Part II over the weekend? Somehow, word got around among Confederate “patriot” groups that AntiFa (anti-facists) were planning to desecrate Confederate memorials like Gettysburg. Never mind there are no Confederate memorials at Gettysburg.

For their part, the Central Pennsylvania AntiFa organization made it clear they had no plans to show up and emphatically denied they ever had any intention of going to Gettysburg.

Nevertheless, the rally cry had already gone out, the Confederate bugle sounded, and so-called “patriots” heeded the call and made their way to Gettysburg to defend their great, great, great, great grandpappy’s honor. Among the “patriots” was Ben Hornberger, a Trump supporter, who accidentally shot himself while resting his flag pole on his gun at the rally of Gettysburg:

A "patriot" who brought a revolver to Gettysburg National Military Park Saturday amid rumors of desecration of memorials accidentally shot himself in the leg Saturday.

Benjamin Hornberger, 23, of Shippensburg, accidentally triggered the revolver, which was inside a leg holster, when he temporarily rested the bottom of his flag pole against the holster, according to witnesses.

Park police were nearby when the shooting occurred and officers quickly applied a tourniquet that may have saved the man’s life, said Sgt. Anna Rose, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Park Police.

After police took the gun, it went off again as they were trying to unload it. Humiliation aside, Hornberger is expected to recover.

As long as the fool was shooting himself, it’s a shame this Nazi Republican Ammosexual didn’t shoot himself in a place that would have prevented him from polluting the gene pool. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

The heat wave is back with highs forecast of 86° today, 93° tomorrow, and 91° Thursday.  A pipe broke in the only handicapped bathroom that is safe and easy for me to transfer, when I’m not wearing George.  It’s now out of order.  I hope they fix it before the weekend.  It’s a  major pain.  I want to try to get some sleep this afternoon, as fireworks will keep me up tonight.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 6:14 (average 6:11).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Alternet: Don’t Call It the Trump Administration—This Is a Regime

Trump has no desire or intention to govern. He wants to rule and make his word our command.

I disagree. The Trump Administration is not a regime. It’s a Reich. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: In Arizona—where Confederate monuments continue to be on public display despite pleas from residents to have them removed—a trial over whether state Republicans intentionally discriminated against Latino students by ending a Mexican-American studies program in public schools started last week. Commemorating history is fine so long as it’s white history, apparently:

The Arizona trial strikes at the issue of how to teach students about race and social injustice in public schools that often exemplify the country’s inequality. After Arizona conservatives moved to eliminate the classes, Hispanic educators and activists have come to Tucson to champion the battle over ethnic studies as one of the country’s most pressing and under-the-radar civil rights issues.

“This was an innovative program, your honor,” Jim Quinn, a lawyer representing Tucson students, told Judge Tashmina. “It was snuffed out for all the wrong reasons.”

The program’s proponents have argued that the course was instrumental in boosting both grades and self-worth of Latino students, with research showing “the program’s students graduated at higher rates and performed better on state tests.” But Republican state legislators, seeking a safe space from brown people, were having none of that, in 2010 “passing a law prohibiting classes that encouraged the overthrow of the U.S. government; encouraged racial resentment; treated students as members of a group rather than individuals; or were aimed at a specific ethnicity.”

I can understand why Alaska does not offer Mexican-American studies, but around 30% of Arizona’s population is Latino. Banning it there is just an act of Republican Racism. RESIST!!

From Politico: The American War of Independence was fought from April 19, 1775 (Lexington and Concord) to September 3, 1783 (the Peace of Paris), and although Massachusetts and some other states observe the first of those dates as Patriots’ Day, neither has become a national holiday. It’s July 4, of course, that reigns as our undisputed Independence Day—the occasion for picnics and parades, festivities and fireworks, and star-spangled, red-white-and-blue kitsch. That was when the representatives at the Second Continental Congress, the 13 colonies’ newly formed governing body, signed the Declaration of Independence, our nation’s founding document, which is still often read aloud, 241 years later, at July 4 celebrations across the land.

Since 1776, the Declaration of Independence has assumed a near-biblical status in America’s national mythology—its opening paragraphs memorized by schoolchildren, its formulation of liberal principles of equality and self-government venerated by citizens of all political stripes. It still provides a trump card for its chief author, Thomas Jefferson, who in recent years has been increasingly scorned for the libertarian elements of his thought and for his slaveholding.

But in truth the Declaration wasn’t quite the singular achievement we remember it to be. As it turns out, nearly 100 other “declarations of independence” had already been issued in the months leading up to July 4th, 1776, by states, towns, counties, and assorted other bodies. The Declaration of Independence endorsed at the Continental Congress that July wasn’t a bolt out of the blue: It was more like a final draft in a loose, many-centered, wide-ranging process, authored not by one man but by a chorus of voices in a fledgling nation whose people had caught independence fever and were suddenly proclaiming it with contagious enthusiasm.

I didn’t know that. I declare independence from Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Sometime during the next hour and a half, Safeway.com will be delivering groceries.  Unlike Store to Door, closed for the 4th, Safeway does not unpack my groceries for me or help me put them away, so I’ll have to break to do that myself.  I hope you are having a better holiday weekend than the US.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:02 (average 5:39).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: …As pr*sident, Donald Trump’s narcissistic tendencies first expressed themselves from the White House briefing podium when Press Secretary Sean Spicer argued against all evidence that the attendance at Trump’s inauguration exceeded that at President Obama’s. It seems almost quaint now—partly because the clear pictorial evidence made it so laughable—but that was an inaugural glimpse of where we were headed, pardon the pun.

It’s no secret by now that Trump is out of his depth, unable to comprehend the vast federal bureaucracy he’s supposed to command, incapable of absorbing the knowledge necessary to inform critical decisions about commanding it, and frankly, uninterested in anything that isn’t directly related to whichever immediate concern has hijacked his limited attention span at any given hour of the day.

But now we are seeing how that psyche is choking off the entire White House from the world, not just so Trump can maintain control over the government, but so no inconvenient truths can infiltrate his fortress and encroach on his reality…

Click through for the entire article. It’s worth it. I agree with the author, that it’s only a matter of time before the Fuhrer screws the pooch. RESIST!!

From NY Times: …Some policy subjects, on the other hand, really are complicated. One of these subjects is international trade. And the great danger here isn’t simply that Trump doesn’t understand the issues. Worse, he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.

According to the news site Axios, Trump, supported by his inner circle of America Firsters, is “hell-bent” on imposing punitive tariffs on imports of steel and possibly other products, despite opposition from most of his cabinet. After all, claims that other countries are taking advantage of America were a central theme of his campaign.

And Axios reports that the White House believes that Trump’s base “likes the idea” of a trade war, and “will love the fight.”…

Click through for the rest of Paul Krugman’s fine editorial. For one thing a tariff on imported steel, will price all the goods made by US workers with that more costly steel out of competition with foreign products. Bye Bye jobs!  How do you spell stupid? R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N! RESIST!!

From Raw Story: A man has been charged with plotting to assassinate President Emmanuel Macron at France’s Bastille Day military parade which the French leader is set to attend with US President Donald Trump, a judicial source said Monday.

The 23-year-old is a suspected far-right extremist who told investigators he wanted to kill Macron at the July 14 national day parade in Paris, a source close to the investigation said.

He said he also wanted to attack “Muslims, Jews, blacks, homosexuals,” the source added.

Police arrested the man at his home on Wednesday in the northwest Paris suburb of Argenteuil after being alerted by users of an internet chatroom where the suspect allegedly said he wanted to buy a firearm.

No doubt Trump is in mourning over the capture of a French Republican terrorist, who was plotting to give Trump a reason to cheer at the parade. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

No wonder Republicans hate the French!