Yesterday the temperature reached 87°, 5° cooler than Saturday, but still a new record high for the date.  Today will be another 5° cooler, still way above average.  Tomorrow we should return to temperate weather for this time of year.  I look forward to it.  This morning, the porcelain throne huffed, puffed, strained, and sent the 10% of my body weight that was Republican swirling down to join Scalia and Ailes.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:01 (average 5:10).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos (classic 9/2012): 

As a public service to those who find themselves inextricably cornered by aggressively ill-informed Republicans at work, on the train or at family gatherings, presented here are ten indisputably true facts that will seriously challenge a Republican’s worldview and probably blow a brain cell or two. At the very least, any one of these GOP-busters should stun and confuse them long enough for you to slip quietly away from a pointless debate and allow you to get on about your business.

1. The United States is not a Christian nation, and the Bible is not the cornerstone of our law.

Don’t take my word for it. Let these Founding Fathers speak for themselves:

John Adams: “The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” (Treaty of Tripoli, 1797)

Thomas Jefferson: “Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law.” (Letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814)

James Madison: “The civil government … functions with complete success … by the total separation of the Church from the State.” (Writings, 8:432, 1819)George Washington: “If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.” (Letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia, May 1789)

You can find a multitude of similar quotes from these men and most others who signed the Declaration of Independence and/or formulated the United States Constitution. These are hardly the words of men who believed that America should be a Christian nation governed by the Bible, as a disturbingly growing number of Republicans like to claim.

2. The Pledge of Allegiance was written by a socialist.

The Pledge was written in 1892 for public school celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas. Its author was Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister, Christian socialist and cousin of socialist utopian novelist Edward Bellamy. Christian socialism maintains, among other ideas, that capitalism is idolatrous and rooted in greed, and the underlying cause of much of the world’s social inequity. Definitely more “Occupy Wall Street” than “Grand Old Party” by anyone’s standard.

3. The first president to propose national health insurance was a Republican.

He was also a trust-busting, pro-labor, Nobel Peace Prize-winning environmentalist. Is there any wonder why Theodore Roosevelt, who first proposed a system of national health insurance during his unsuccessful Progressive Party campaign to retake the White House from William Howard Taft in 1912, gets scarce mention at Republican National Conventions these days?

I shared three. Click through for the other seven. All ten still apply. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump on Saturday accused the media of exaggerating his relationship with Jared Kushner, asserting that “I don’t know him very well.”

“He’s someone I would see around the office and who, I guess, was working for me,” Trump told reporters on the last leg of his foreign trip. “Beyond that, I couldn’t tell you much about him.”

Trump acknowledged that he had spoken to Kushner at times during the 2016 campaign. “I’d pass him in the hall and say hello,” he said. “He seemed like an O.K. person. I never got much of a sense of the guy.”

Dang Andy! With Kushner on his way under the bus, will Russia’s Red Rat pimp Ivanka to someone else? RESIST!!

From The Village Green: About half the students in a group of South Orange Middle School 8th graders touring the Capitol in D.C. this past week refused a photo with House Speaker Paul Ryan, according to students on the field trip.

Elissa Malespina, a school librarian who is also the parent of a SOMS eighth grader, reported that her son was among the students who declined to pose with Ryan for a photo.

“I am so proud of my son and 1/2 the 8th grade at South Orange Middle School,” Malespina wrote on Facebook. “They went to D.C. on a field trip and toured the Capitol building. The kids had a chance to have their picture taken with Paul Ryan and over half the class choose not to, including my son! What a powerful statement.”

The kids gave reasoned opinions for their choice — and said they were not fueled by partisanship.

“I think that taking the picture represents that you agree with the same political views and I don’t agree with his political views so I chose not to be in it,” said Wendy Weeks, an 8th grade SOMS student.

“I can’t take a picture with someone who supports a budget that would destroy public education and would leave 23 million people without healthcare,” said 8th grade SOMS student Matthew Malespina.

“I didn’t want to be in [the picture] because he believes in most of what Trump believes in,” said another SOMS 8th grader, Louisa Maynard-Parisi.

Huge Kudos to the students. I hope someone rubbed Lyin’ Ryan’s long, long nose in this. RESIST!!

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I told you it was hot.  Yesterday, Portland reached 92°, tying the record high for the date.  Today will be a a few degrees cooler, but not much.  Wendy will arrive in a few minutes to remove several layers of stink from the TomCat and help with cooking.  If I start typing ‘Seig Heil’ as I write, please bear with me until the Dulcolax kicks in.  I have Republicitis.

Wendy just left.  Never has a cat needed so much scrubbing!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:15 (average 4:33).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (TYT Channel): Kids Will Now Take "Anti-Science" Classes

Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians invented Supply-side Jesus, who, unlike the real Jesus, believes in hate, greed, and lies, but not in science. Cenk is wrong in part. Authentic Christians do not force beliefs on others. We honor their beliefs, as long as those who hold them also respect others’ beliefs. RESIST!!

From Washington Post: President Trump failed to commit to remaining within the Paris climate agreement during a two-day meeting with world leaders that ended here Saturday, but he tweeted that he was still considering it and would announce a final decision “next week.”

In a final communique, the Group of Seven industrialized countries said that the United States “is not in a position to join the consensus.” The other six members reaffirmed their commitment to swiftly implement the 2015 accord to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

The G-7 summit marked the last stop of Trump’s first overseas trip as president.

That is tragic, and his failure to support the climate agreement is almost as bad as the tragedy. Isn’t there a way we could have stopped him at the border? RESIST!!

From LA Times:

A 35-year-old white supremacist with a criminal record has been arrested in connection with the stabbing deaths Friday of two men on a light-rail train in Portland, Ore., who intervened when he began to hurl anti-Muslim epithets at two women, one who was wearing a head scarf, police said.

Jeremy Joseph Christian of North Portland was jailed early Saturday on charges of aggravated murder, attempted murder, intimidation in the second degree and felony possession of a restricted weapon. He is being held without bail, and could face additional charges, police said.

The incident occurred on the Metropolitan Area Express light-rail line — known as MAX —during rush hour Friday. The two men who were killed appear to have stepped in to protect the women from racial slurs. One of the men was identified in a Facebook post by his mother as Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, a recent graduate of Reed College.

Condolences to the families.  Sadly, there are Republicans even in Portland, OR. Al Orange is a greater terrorist threat than the Daesh. RESIST!!

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It has been Fitzwalkerstan, in thrall to Fartfuhrer Walker, far too long!

Yesterday, I was so tired that I actually thought it was Saturday.  I finally realized my error after lunch.  It's a good thing I did, or I would not have scheduled my follow up with Amanda (Prosthetist).  The too hot for May weather has returned.  I expect a high of 90°.  The Portland Rose Festival just began, waking me up last night with a fireworks display.  Historically, the Weather always turns to crap for the Rose Festival, but not this year.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today's took me 3:00 (average 4:49).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: This humorous bit takes only several seconds to watch, but the laughter/smile will most likely linger much longer. On Thursday, Jordan (@JordanUhl) posted a hilarious GIF clip on Twitter, adding:

I don't care if this is fake I'm pretending it's real

Trump considers the Pope to be a soft liberal pussy. In the absence of absolute proof that it's fake, we have to conclude this is a real Trump attempt to grab a pussy. RESIST!!

From NY Times: The Democratic defeat in a hard-fought special House election in Montana on Thursday highlighted the practical limitations on liberal opposition to President Trump and exposed a deepening rift between cautious party leaders, who want to pick their shots in battling for control of Congress in 2018, and more militant grass-roots activists who want to fight the Republicans everywhere.

Rob Quist, the Democratic nominee in Montana, staked his campaign on the Republican health care bill, but he still lost by six percentage points, even after his Republican opponent for the state’s lone House seat, Greg Gianforte, was charged with assaulting a reporter on the eve of the election.

The margin in this race was relatively small in a state that Mr. Trump carried by more than 20 percentage points last year. But Mr. Quist’s defeat disappointed grass-roots Democrats who financed nearly his entire campaign while the national party declined to spend heavily on what it considered, from the outset, an all-but-lost cause in daunting political territory.

The DNC is dead wrong. Failure to fight Republicans anywhere gives moderate voters everywhere the impression that the Democratic Party does not care about them. On the other hand, we may have lost the Montana war, but we won enough of the battles to make it worthwhile. We made the Republican Party spend millions more than grass-roots Democrats did to defend a supposedly "absolutely safe" seat. Furthermore, the Gianforte body slam audio will be hung around the neck of Republican candidates everywhere, because that act actually increased Gianforte's support among Montana Republicans, who sent him $100,000 within 24 hours. RESIST!!

From Raw Story:

But Media Matters and others have been debunking Hannity’s fake news for years. Here are 5 of his more baseless theories:

1. CIA framed Russia for hacking the DNCFox News reported on Russia’s hacking the DNC as well as the January 6 Intel report. [Faux Noise delinked] Yet, less than 48 hours after a Wikileaks dump of the Vault 7 documents (March 7), Hannity began citing Breitbart’s reporting of the scoop: “WikiLeaks: CIA Uses ‘Stolen’ Malware To ‘Attribute’ Cyberattacks To Nations Like Russia.”

The Fox News host was joined on his show by retired 9/11-truther [Fascist delinked] and torture proponent Army Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Schaffer.

“Sean, we did it. Not me, but our guys, former members of NSA, retired intelligence officers used these tools to break in there and get the information out. That’s what the Democrats don’t want to talk about because it doesn’t fit their narrative,” Shaffer said.

“You’re telling me this whole Russian story that the media has been running with for months and months and months — that it was our people that did it, and they put the fingerprints of the Russians on it?” Hannity asked.

“That’s right,” Shaffer said, although he then admitted on-air he had no proof.

Barf Bag Alert!!

What hogwash! I shared one. Click through for the other four.  RESIST!!

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