I slept better last night, but I still feel quite tires from my exertions earlier this week. I have a few slow days, before medical mayhem returns next month, and I’m going to take advantage of them.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 5:51 (average 7:00);. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump’s personal war with Mexico escalated further on Friday after Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto cancelled his meeting with Trump and scheduled one with Meryl Streep instead.
“The American people are a great people, and no one personifies that greatness better than Meryl Streep,” Peña Nieto said in an official statement.
The summit with Streep was widely seen as a prelude to Mexico establishing full diplomatic relations with the Academy Award-winning actress.
At the White House, Trump’s advisers were reportedly considering a host of retaliatory measures, including Steve Bannon’s proposal that the President of Mexico be told to “shut up.”
Dang, Andy!! Will Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten declare war? RESIST!!
From Exposed by CMD: Public education advocates are demanding another hearing on Trump nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, after her dismal performance in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee (HELP) January 17th and after the late release of her ethics report on January 20th.
The report, available here, details some 102 companies that might pose a conflict of interest for DeVos and sheds new light on the nominee’s investments and ethics.
While most Secretaries of Education have an extensive resume as school administrators or as educators, DeVos has neither. DeVos is married to the billionaire heir to the Amway fortune, Dick DeVos. Together they have spent millions advancing a radical school privatization agenda, including taxpayer vouchers for private and religious schools, and electing politicians across the nation willing to advance that agenda. DeVos was asked about her experience for the job by Democratic senators who were only allowed 5 minutes each.
What a horrible choice! Remember, Democrats cannot block her nomination without three Republican votes. The most they can do is delay it for one week. RESIST!!
From Daily Kos:
According to the New York Times, at least six journalists were charged with rioting after they were detained while covering some of the more “violent protests”* taking place near Trump’s inauguration parade.
The journalists were among 230 people detained in the anti-Trump demonstrations, during which protesters smashed the glass of commercial buildings and lit a limousine on fire.
The charges against the journalists — Evan Engel, Alexander Rubinstein, Jack Keller, Matthew Hopard, Shay Horse and Aaron Cantu — have been denounced by organizations dedicated to press freedom. All of those arrested have denied participating in the violence.
“These felony charges are bizarre and essentially unheard of when it comes to journalists here in America who were simply doing their job,” said Suzanne Nossel, the executive director of Pen America. “They weren’t even in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were in the right place.”
The journalists in question are being arrested for being around the violent parts of the protests—a guilt by proximity.
While all but one of the journalists is a lefty, only one (Horse) is an self-avowed anarchist, who may have been as much a participant as a journalist. Expect charges to be dropped for Rubenstein. He’s as right-wing propagandist for Trump’s owner, Putin. Perhaps Cantu is the best accredited. He writes for The Nation. Guilt by proximity is criminal. If they committed the acts themselves, charge them. If not, apologize! RESIST!!
Cartoon:
\
