It’s the last day of what has turned out to be the worst year for the US in our history.  The Siberian candidate is upon us. For me tomorrow is a perfect storm day.  I need to transition all my personal record keeping, all my prison volunteer group record keeping, and all the tools I use to manage my PP writing to 2017.  In addition, it’s the day I do the data collection for the PP monthly report, which may be a day or two late.  On top of that, It’s a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos went from Super Bowl Champs to not even making the playoffs, so tomorrow is their last meditation of the year against the Raiders.  It will be televised here.  And finally, it’s a Wendy day.  In short, I’ll be trying to put five pounds of shit in a one pound bag.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:37 (average 6:00).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (TYT Channel): Former New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino is in hot water after publicly posting racist comments on Facebook. Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, John Iadarola, and Grace Baldridge, hosts of The Young Turks, discuss.

Paladino is a Republican. Would that all racists, Republicans, were fired for their hate speech. "I’m so tired of liberals going out of our way to be fair to fucking assholes!" Kudos to Ana Kasparian! Big time AMEN!  RESIST!!

From The Hill: President-elect Donald Trump is considering George Conway, husband of top adviser and former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, to be the next U.S. solicitor general, Bloomberg reported Friday citing two sources familiar with the matter.

I’m not surprised that George Conway is getting a pimp fee for the Fuhrer’s grabbing activities.  RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: The Portland Press Herald is reporting M.D. Harmon, a well-known conservative newspaper columnist, has died after a gun was improperly fired in his home by a visiting teenager. Harmon was showing one of his guns to the young man:

Police say the 71-year-old Harmon died at his home on Brunell Avenue after a handgun he was showing a teenage boy went off. The 16-year-old boy was handling the gun at the time.

Harmon, a steadfast defender of gun rights and champion of conservative viewpoints, was a longtime Maine Sunday Telegram and Press Herald editor and columnist. He worked for the newspapers for 41 years before retiring in 2011, although he continued writing a weekly column.

Republican Ammosexual karma!  RESIST!!

Cartoon:

The last year of comparative liberty is about to come to an end, and I shall be quite busy with record keeping.  I just received my annual Social Security letter.  My rent has increased $15 per month in the last year, medical copays – $30, groceries – $20, medical transit – $15, so that’s $80 per month hitting only the obvious.  Fortunately, I received a generous Cost of Living Adjustment to help defray that expense.  I got a whole dollar every month.   And in the coming Republican Rectum Reich, I may not even get that, although it’s possible that they will defer the change a few years to get past the 2020 voting.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 6:09 (average 6:37).  To do it, click here.  How did you do.

Here is one of my gifts from Wendy.

And, to bless your eyes after that assault on them, here is one of my gifts to Wendy.

She considers it a bad idea to wear it to the middle school where she works, but will wear it to her bartending job.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (RWW Channel): RWW News: Bakker: Hell Opposes Trump Because He Supports Righteousness

Barf Bag Alert!!

This is the same Jim Bakker that cheated on Tammy Faye and defrauded over 100,000 supporters out of $millions through assorted PTL Network scams. He certainly recognizes his own king in Trump. The Fuhrer is so righteous he called Ivanka a "piece of ass". RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Capping an extraordinary year for the former television host, the Kremlin has named Donald J. Trump its Employee of the Month for December.

“No one has worked more tirelessly for the glory of the Fatherland than Donald Trump,” the Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an official statement. “He has set a high bar for all Kremlin employees, and for that, we salute him.”

To mark the honor, Trump’s name will be added to a plaque that hangs in the hallway outside the Kremlin’s H.R. office.

According to Kremlin sources, Trump faced tough competition in the Employee of the Month voting, besting both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ExxonMobil’s C.E.O., Rex Tillerson.

OK, Andy, I give up. Is it satire, or are you actually suggesting that Putin (R-RU) honor his whore?  RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Republicans have no idea how to replace Obamacare and continue some semblance of care for the 20 million people the law covers, so they’ve come up with a solution: delayed implementation on steroids.

That’s right—Obamacare [repeal] is so “unpopular” that the GOP is trying to avoid backlash at the polls by delaying the effects of implementing it, potentially until after the next presidential election. Sahil Kapur writes:

Republicans are debating how long to delay implementing the repeal. Aides involved in the deliberations said some parts of the law may be ended quickly, such as its regulations affecting insurer health plans and businesses. Other pieces may be maintained for up to three or four years, such as insurance subsidies and the Medicaid expansion. Some parts of the law may never be repealed, such as the provision letting people under age 26 remain on a parent’s plan.

House conservatives want a two-year fuse for the repeal. Republican leaders prefer at least three years, and there has been discussion of putting it off until after the 2020 elections, staffers said.

Sheer cowardice! Talk about trying to untether themselves from the damage they will inflict on tens of millions of Americans. They repeal it, they own it! Doesn’t matter how long they delay implementation in order to lay the blame at someone else’s doorstep.

This is classic Republican projection.  We need to hammer home the damage this will do, especially to states in thrall to the Republican Rectum Reich, every day until the Republicans are defeated.  RESIST!!

Cartoon:

News is still in short supply, unless one wishes to repeat the same stories, day after day, where only the individual identities of the targets of hatred from the Fuhrer and Republican Rectum Reich are new.  Nevertheless, I’m back in the saddle.  Yesterday’s bank run proved most interesting.  In the shower, Stumpy had bee3n hanging down without a shrinker, causing him to expand, and the hot water made it worse, so as I dressed to go out, Stumpy would not fit into George.  Thankfully, Wendy accompanied me to the bank, and in return, I treated her to burritos from a neighborhood food cart.  Fortunately George popped on without difficulty today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:52 (average 4:53).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: As the Republican Congress prepares to vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act, gutting Social Security benefits for seniors and the disabled, and other measures to please their billionaire donor base, they are apparently deathly afraid of the American public seeing them do it, and even more afraid of allowing the public to see the Democrats’ response:

House members could be fined and referred to the Ethics Committee if they break rules governing electronic video and pictures in the House chamber under a new rule proposed by House Republicans more than six months after the Democrats’ guerrilla sit-in over gun control.

"Any subsequent offense will be assessed at the higher amount, regardless of whether it is connected to any other offense by time or proximity," part of the proposal reads.

The “fine" would be $500 for the "first offense" of photographing or videotaping, with $2500 for every "subsequent offense," according to the proposed Rule.

In addition, the new Republican rule would ban anyone from seeing organized protests by the opposition, because sit-ins in the House well will be banned as well.

The First Amendment is suspended for the Republican Rectum Reich.  RESIST!!

From Robert Reich: [Resident]-elect Donald Trump is accusing President Obama of putting up “roadblocks” to a smooth transition.

In reality, I think President Obama has been too cooperative with Trump.

In the waning days of his administration, I’d recommend Obama take the following last stands:

1. Name Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution gives the President power to fill any vacancy during the recess of the Senate. The Supreme Court is no exception: Justice William Brennan began his Court tenure with a recess appointment in 1956. Any appointments made this way expire at the end of the next Senate session. So if Obama appointed Garland on January 3, the appointment would last until December 2017, the end of the first session of the 115th Congress.

The Reich on the left is right. I shared one. Click through for the other six. I particularly like number three.  RESIST!!

From The Rachel Maddow Show:

Taking credit where credit is NOT dueVice President Biden’s Former Economic Advisor Jared Bernstein talks to Ari Melber about how Trump is trying to take credit for job growth when his policies could very well undermine his constituents.

You can be sure that, as soon as the Pumpkin Plutocrat is responsible for any economic developments, he will give "credit" for them to Democrats.  RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I’m waiting for my grocery delivery from Safeway.com to arrive.  It’s another slow day for news.  Last night, Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell all took the night off.  My YouTube subscriptions were more nekkid than a TomCat in a depilatory factory.  The Gray Lady looked anorexic.  Therefore this is today’s only article.  Tomorrow, I may have no more than a Personal Update.  Because Wendy is off from school, she wants to come in the morning, instead of the evening.  When she’s done, I have to go out to the bank, because it’s the only day this week with no rain, snow or ice forecast.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:53 (average 5:34).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

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

Congrats to Matt and Robb for making it to the championship game.

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Undeterred by a resounding defeat at the United Nations, Israel’s government said Monday that it would move ahead with thousands of new homes in East Jerusalem and warned nations against further action, declaring that Israel does not “turn the other cheek.”

Just a few days after the United Nations Security Council voted to condemn Israeli settlements, Jerusalem’s municipal government signaled that it would not back down: The city intends to approve 600 housing units in the predominantly Palestinian eastern section of town on Wednesday in what a top official called a first installment on 5,600 new homes.

The defiant posture reflected a bristling anger among Israel’s pro-settlement political leaders, who not only blamed the United States for failing to block the Council resolution, but also claimed to have secret intelligence showing that President Obama’s team had orchestrated it. American officials strongly denied the claim, but the sides seem poised for more weeks of conflict until Mr. Obama hands over the presidency to Donald J. Trump.

At that point, Butcher Bibi can complete the slaughter of the Palestinian people, while Resident Nincompoop Nazi watches and cheers. Resist!!

From Liberals Unite!: Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles)  told MSNBC’s Jacob Soboroff that she would refuse to meet with Trump at the White House and vowing to “fight him every inch of the way.”

Suboroff began the interview asking if Rep. Waters agreed with Senate Minority Leader Chuch Schumer’s strategy to work with Trump whenever possible or if she thought that “Democrats are being too nice” to the president-elect.

Waters blasted Trump in response telling Soboroff: “I tell you, that has been a problem in my party. That when we are in power, we’re nice. We bend over backwards to work with people.”

Spot on Maxine! Would that all Democrats had such big brass balls! Resist!!

From Salon.com: Julian Assange — who once argued that “since unjust systems, by their nature induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of government” — came out with high praise for both President-elect Donald Trump and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Friday.

I know many progressives consider this criminal a hero. This confirms my repeated claim to the contrary, since he became Putin’s stooge. Resist!!

Cartoon: