It’s 7:30 AM, and already the street repair crews are making an ungodly racket.  I hope the get Labor Day weekend off.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:44 (average 5:47).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fellow Authors:

Alternet has a new © policy.  The only way we can now use their articles without paying royalties to them is to embed them with their ads.  Please hold off, until I have time to put up a test article to see just what that will entail.

Fantasy Football Note:

Players, the season starts this coming Thursday, 9/8, at 5:30 PM PDT.  Please have your week one lineups set by then.

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: The war of words between Donald J. Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto continued on Thursday as Peña Nieto vehemently asserted that he made the Republican Presidential nominee pay for lunch during his visit to Mexico City.

“As soon as we sat down to order, I made it very clear that I had no intention of paying for lunch,” Peña Nieto said. “And when the check arrived, I made absolutely no move to pick it up.”

To support his claim, Peña Nieto tweeted out a photo of himself seated at a table with an aggrieved-looking Trump, who appears to be placing an American Express card on top of a restaurant check.

Andy, it’s a good thing Rump Dump didn’t pay the check with a check. It would have bounced!!

From Crooks and Liars: Donald Trump is banking on the devotion and adulation of his supporters, so much so that he is demanding all volunteers to sign a non-disclosure agreement. But it’s not your typical agreement for political volunteers, it’s a lifetime pledge to never disparage him, his family or Trump products until death do you part.

Am I the only one this reminds of the loyalty oath Hitler required?  On the other hand, Hitler wasn’t selling moustache wax.

From OpEdNews: One of the strangest aspects of the 2016 presidential campaign has been the mainstream media’s decision to spend equal time criticizing Trump and Clinton. This has created a false equivalence. Imagine a political contest between Godzilla (Trump) and Bambi (Clinton). Because of the equal time rule, the nightly news would report, "Godzilla destroys Los Angeles," and then, "Bambi ravishes community garden."

What an excellent point, especially since Hillary haters on the left love this false equivalence so. Clinton v. Trump is not choosing the lesser of two evils. It is choosing the lesser good over the ultimate evil.

Cartoon:

I spent the morning collecting the data and preparing the graphics for tomorrow’s Monthly Report.  That part actually takes considerably more time than writing the article.  I’m feeling quite tired, as I’ve been unable to nap.  When the weather started to cool, the city began a street repair project right below me.  For the last four days the noise has been deafening almost continuously from sunup to sundown.  Often there have been multiple jackhammers going at once.  ARGH!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:10 (average 4:55).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Donald Trump’s immigration speech on Wednesday night was described here as “fascism in it’s [sic] purest, most vile form, slathered in an unbroken stream of lies,” while most in the media tip-toed around, trying to explain it all away. So, who was praising the speech? 

There was the former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan:

A noted white supremacist and the founder of American Renaissance:

The editors of the white supremacist website VDARE:

In addition, Trump lied about his conversation with Peña Nieto. The Mexican President told him that he would not pay for Trump’s wall!

From NY Times: A deadlocked Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to revive parts of a restrictive North Carolina voting law that a federal appeals court had struck down as an unconstitutional effort to “target African Americans with almost surgical precision.”

The court was divided 4 to 4, with the court’s more conservative members voting to revive parts of the law. The court’s brief order included no reasoning.

North Carolina’s law, which imposed an array of voting restrictions, including new voter identification requirements, was enacted by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature in 2013. It was part of a wave of voting restrictions enacted after a 5-to-4 Supreme Court decision that effectively struck down a central part of the federal Voting Rights Act, weakening federal oversight of voting rights.

Challenges to the laws have met with considerable success in recent months, and Wednesday’s development suggested that the current eight-member Supreme Court is not likely to undo those victories.

We so need to dump Reichsfuhrer Roberts, Scalito, TEAbag Thomas, and Ku Klux Kennedy, all of whom voted against the Constructional right to vote.

From The Rachel Maddow Show: Trump anti-immigrant speech follows dark pattern of US history

Rachel Maddow shows how throughout American history, when normal politics breaks down, fringe voices gain prominence scapegoating immigrant groups. Duration: 16:12

After the Whig Party disappeared, a new progressive party sprung up to the left of the Democratic Party, and that Republican Party was wonderful, until it was coopted by Banksters, shifted right, and began the long slide to become the vile Reich it now is. It is my hope that the Republican Party disappears, and afterwards, a new progressive party will spring up to the left of the Democratic Party.

Cartoon:

Republicans cheered!

I took a nap this morning and still need more, but at least I’m enjoying the cool.  It’s a busy day, as I’m waiting for a grocery delivery and have to put them away.  Then Wendy will be coming to de-stink the TomCat.  Tomorrow, I may be late in getting my articles up, as I have to collect all the data and make the graphics for Friday’s Monthly Report.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:43 (average 5:16).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From KP Daily Funnies: Trump’s Doctor Is The Scientist From Independence Day (ft. Brent Spiner)

Having four sphincters instead of a heart explains how he became a Republican Rectumite!

From The New Yorker: President Barack Obama defended his decision on Wednesday to issue a payment of five billion dollars to Mexico to compel that nation to retain custody of Donald J. Trump.

The payment, which will be delivered to the Mexican government in hard American currency by Wednesday afternoon, will insure that Trump will remain in Mexico for the rest of his natural life.

“I have been assured by the government of Mexico that Mr. Trump will be well taken care of and, if he proves to be a productive member of their society, will be provided a pathway to Mexican citizenship,” Obama said.

While the transfer of funds to Mexico sparked howls of protest from some Trump supporters, it was hailed by congressional Democrats, as well as by over a hundred Republicans currently running for reëlection, including Arizona Senator John McCain.

Dang Andy!! That would be cheap at double the price!!

From Daily Kos:

Someone wake Mr. Fermi, and tell him the paradox may be resolved.

SETI researchers are buzzing about a strong spike in radio signals that seemed to come from the direction of a sunlike [sic] star in the constellation Hercules, known as HD 164595.

The signal conceivably fits the profile for an intentional transmission from an extraterrestrial source – but it could also be a case of earthly radio interference, or a microlensing [sic] event in which the star’s gravitational field focused stray signals coming from much farther away.

This is far from the first time that researchers have received a signal that at first looked hopeful, only to discover that it was either an Earthly source masquerading as extraterrestrial, or the result of some natural phenomenon.

I hope it turns out to be real. I would be a real shame for a universe as large as ours to be completely devoid of intelligent life.

Cartoon:

This is the first day in weeks that I’ve made it until Noon without having to turn on the A/C.  I took a much-needed nap, and am ready for more.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:36 (average 5:45).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From KP Daily Funnies: How ISIS Really Feels About Trump

I have no doubt that the Daesh would be almost as happy to see Rump Dump in the White House, as Putin would.

From TPM: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) — the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and thus a major player in the GOP Senate’s refusal to confirm President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee — opened the door to confirming Judge Merrick Garland in a lame-duck session, even as he continued to defend Republicans’ stance that the successor to the late Justice Antonin Scalia should be chosen by the next president.

At a question and answer session in Sioux City Monday, Grassley told attendees that, "It had nothing to do with Garland," but there was an "understanding" that Supreme Court vacancies that opened in up in a president’s final year should not be filled by that president, according to the Sioux City Journal.

But, he added, his blockade on considering Garland might lift if enough of his GOP colleagues express a desire to push the judge through after the election.

This is what Snake in the Grassley is actually saying. If Clinton wins the election, and if Democrats win control of the Senate, Republicans are likely to confirm Garland, a moderate appointee, so that Hillary cannot replace the currently sizzling Injustice Sturmbannführer Scalia with a more liberal Justice than Garland would be. Once the election is over, I hope Obama will remove Garland’s name from nomination, since Obama originally nominated him as someone he thought Republicans might accept.

From PoliticusUSA: Donald Trump and his for-profit presidential campaign thought they had the market cornered after winning the Republican nomination, but an enterprising fellow grifter invaded Trump’s turf and stole $1 million from his supporters (marks).

Because Donald Trump has no digital campaign operation to speak of, a grifter by the name of Ian Hawes was able to establish a super PAC and begin raising money by running a contest that promised the winner would get to have dinner with Donald Trump.

The money came pouring in, but there was a problem. Donors (marks) thought that they were giving to the Trump campaign. Democrats have run fundraising contests like this one for years, so donors (marks) were easily fooled into believing that the man who lives in Trump Tower would come down from his penthouse and share a quick trip through the McDonalds drive thru with them.

The donors (marks) never read the fine print of the contest that stated that the super PAC was only going to purchase two tickets to a future Trump fundraiser. There was no dinner alone with Trump.

Trump was livid that someone was smart enough to exploit his donors (marks) better than he could so he did what Donald Trump does best.

FOMCROTFPIMPLMAO!! Stupid !!!

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