Politics Plus

The doctor told me that I don’t have arthritis, bit that I do have tendonitis in my left hand.  He have me a cortisone shot (quite painful) and declared me fixed.  I’m skeptical.  I’m also quite pooped.  This is today’s only article.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:30 (average 8:31).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From HRC: Get The Facts about Donald Trump

Barf Bag Alert!

If you’re gay, vote blue! If not, vote blue!

From Daily Kos: Now then, let’s see how Conservapedia takes that ignorant liberal, Albert Einstein down a few pegs………..

Under the heading E=mc², we find the following:

E=mc² is Einstein’s famous formula which asserts that the energy (E) which makes up the matter in any body is equal to the square of the speed of light (c²) times the mass (m) of that body. It is a statement that purports to relate all matter to energy. In fact, no theory has successfully unified the laws governing mass (i.e., gravity) with the laws governing light (i.e., electromagnetism), and numerous attempts to derive E=mc² in general from first principles have failed. Political pressure, however, has since made it impossible for anyone pursuing an academic career in science to even question the validity of this nonsensical equation. Simply put, E=mc² is liberal claptrap.

Huh?!!? Here’s a rule as good as E=MC²: Thou shalt not commit TEAbuggery!!

From NY Times: “Officer down!” an officer screamed frantically into his police radio Sunday morning in Baton Rouge, La. “Shots fired! Officer down!”

One of the most dreaded calls in policing triggered a surge of officers to the city’s Airline Highway, not far from Police Headquarters, an agonizing replay of the distress calls 10 days earlier that prompted the Dallas police to scramble to the aid of their fallen colleagues.

The twin attacks — three officers dead Sunday in Baton Rouge, five killed on July 7 in Dallas, along with at least 12 injured over all — have set off a period of fear, anguish and confusion among the nation’s 900,000 state and local law enforcement officers. Even the most hardened veterans call this one of the most charged moments of policing they have experienced.

Don’t mistake what I’m saying. Gunning down cops in cold blood is evil. There is no excuse or justification for it. That said, this will happen again and again, as long as good cops cover up the murders committed by racist bad cops. Good cops everywhere and all who love them are in my thoughts and prayers.

Convention Observation:

The Repuglicans have already violated their own rules.

Cartoon:

Wendy has been here.  She fluffed and buffed the TomCat, swept and mopped the floors, made a run to the corner store for some instant coffee (my coffee maker died! ), and joined forces with me in cooking a several day supply of Pork Verde, a dish with sufficient fire to make me an air quality hazard.   Tomorrow I go to the arthritis doctor, so please expect no more than a Personal Update.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:50 (average 4:37).  To do it, click here,  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: The retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson told reporters on Saturday that he is “extremely confident” that Donald Trump will choose him to be his Vice-Presidential running mate.

“I’m not a betting man, but I would bet a million dollars it’s going to be me,” he told reporters at his residence, in West Palm Beach. “There are times in life when you’re just positive about something, and this is one of those times.”

Carson did not indicate how he had determined that he would be Trump’s pick. “Let’s just call it a strong feeling I have,” he said. “I don’t want to say anything now that might jinx it.”

As he awaits the all-important call from Trump, Carson said that he and the billionaire would be a “dream team” for the Republican Party in 2016.

Dang, Andy!! Uncle Token would be like a broken watch, but he’s never even right twice a day!!

From NY Times: For several years, the Obama administration has urged state insurance regulators to use tools provided by the Affordable Care Act to hold down health care premiums.

Now federal officials will have a chance to practice what they preach as they confront big increases proposed in several states where they are responsible for reviewing rates.

Federal officials defer to the insurance commissioners in 46 states deemed to have “effective rate review” programs. But in Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming, the federal government is in charge of reviewing rates.

And those reviews create an exquisite political challenge, spotlighting a pocketbook issue that affects millions of voters.

In Texas, Blue Cross and Blue Shield is requesting rate increases of nearly 60 percent for 2017. In Oklahoma, Blue Cross and Blue Shield has proposed increases that average 49 percent. And in Missouri, Humana has filed for a 34 percent increase. All three carriers say they have lost money on many policies sold to individuals and families under the Affordable Care Act.

Such large requests are not typical and will test the rate review process, described by the Obama administration as one of the most important consumer protections in the Affordable Care Act.

Unless these increases are stopped, very large increase requests will become the norm. This shows the need for Medicare for all, or at least a public option,.

From Alternet: At best, it’s an Oscar-level performance in tone-deafness.

Republican National Convention staffers are scrambling to remove signs labeling a bank of elevators as “white elevators,” the Wall Street Journal’s Byron Tau reports. Tau is in Cleveland, along with many reporters, gearing up for the Convention. The signs, meanwhile, are being frantically replaced.

“I’m told it’s being replaced for obvious reasons,” Tau tweeted.

According to the New York Daily News, the signs were spotted in Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena.

No matter how hard Republicans try to cover-up the appearance of racism, they cannot hide the very real racism in their statements, positions, and policies.

Cartoon:

I’m running way late today, because, after sleeping poorly last night, I overslept.  Then I did my research, and I needed a nap,.  After lunch, I restocked my pill box.  It took almost an hour, which is frustrating, as it was a ten minute job, when I could see well.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:09 (average 4:42).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Governor Chris Christie, of New Jersey, angrily refused to pick up Donald Trump’s dry cleaning during a tense encounter between the two men on Friday, campaign sources confirm.

The ugly scene unfolded at the billionaire’s offices in midtown Manhattan, shortly after Trump revealed that his Vice-Presidential pick would be Governor Mike Pence of Indiana.

According to Trump aides, Christie stomped into the presumptive Republican nominee’s office and hurled a dry-cleaning ticket onto his desk, telling Trump, “You can pick up your own damn dry cleaning.”

The New Jersey governor then stormed out, and has not been seen by Trump or his staffers since.

Knowing PIGnocchio as we do, there is no reason to suspect Andy of using satire.

From Media Matters:Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is still being paid by the presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s campaign while simultaneously drawing a salary as a CNN contributor to discuss the candidate on-air, according to the network.

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo and host Don Lemon noted that Lewandowski is “still receiving severance from the Trump campaign” while introducing him in July 11 and July 12 segments.

That takes media bias to an unprecedented level.

From NY Times: Within four hours of the attack on the French Riviera, Donald J. Trump pledged to seek a rare declaration of war from Congress against Islamic terrorists and called for “extreme vetting” of immigrants and a complete ban on those from “terrorist nations.”

Minutes later, two finalists to be Mr. Trump’s running mate began weighing in. Newt Gingrich proposed a loyalty test for American citizens who are Muslim and deporting those who believe in Shariah law, while Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, referring to terrorism, called for America to “defeat this enemy of civilization at its source.”

In my coverage of this yesterday, I also assumed it was a terrorist attack, like most of us did, but I acted responsibly. Instead of placing blame, before the facts were in, I suggested positive ways that the US can mitigate how we exacerbate the problem.  In stark contrast, the presumptive Rectum an d presumptive Vice Rectum of the Republican Party  blamed and called for retribution against all religious Muslims for the actions of a secular down-and-out loser.

Cartoon:

Needless to say, most of my medical mayhem free Friday was consumed with medical mayhem.  On Monday I have my long awaited initial appointment with an arthritis specialist.  I received a packet of paperwork to fill out n advance, so I spent the morning trying to read and fill out six pages of very fine print that was clearly not designed with the slightest consideration for the visually impaired.  Then I paid medical bills and household bills.  So my plans for a morning nap have evaporated into thin air.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:47 (average 4:59).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Over the last week, as the Republican platform committee added planks to their ever growing platform a pattern established itself. Again and again, libertarian forces in the party raised objections to the parts of the platform that drove Republicans ever deeper into social extremism. Again and again, the libertarians lost.

Meanwhile, every time extremists on the right put forward a new idea, whether it was Bundy-esque demands on federal land or gratuitous attacks on President Obama, the plank was accepted. The result is a document that’s far to the right of the 2012 platform, decades out of sync with social reality, and enormously intolerant.

If makes pseudo-Christian dogma a legislative guide, calls for teaching the Bible in public schools, calls for appointing judges who will elevate pseudo-Christian dogma above the Constitution, bars transgender people from public rest rooms, re-legalizes the use of forced conversion therapy for gay teens, builds the Rump Dump wall, pledges no limit on magazine sizes for assault weapons, plans to sell off National Parks and National Forests for fracking and coal mining, calls for overturning Roe v, Wade, and calls coal a source of clean energy. What a conglomeration of Caca!!

From Alternet: On "The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert Thursday, Bill Maher, host of "Real Time With Bill Maher" did not mince words when asked about the tragedies of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and the Dallas Police officers last week.

Bill Maher began the discussion with Colbert by admitting he’s a “bit of a cynic” who believes “civilization is a mile wide and an inch deep,”

Bill said something I have said often, and that is that the thin blue line mentality is a major problem in police culture. The people police have failed to police is their fellow officers. Unless that happens, there will be more Dallas tragedies.  They won’t be justified or justifiable, but as long as the injustice of good cops covering up for racist cops persists, the tragedies will happen.

From CNN: Donald Trump said Friday Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is his choice to be his running mate.

"I am pleased to announce that I have chosen Governor Mike Pence as my Vice Presidential running mate. News conference tomorrow at 11:00 A.M.," the presumptive Republican nominee tweeted.

I expected this. Pence is a lackey of the Theocon faction of the Republican Party and should serve to help shore up the Presumptive Rectum’s support among Talibangicals who hate gays, Muslims and Women’s rights. He also has a penchant for TEAbuggery and sucking Koch.  I guess that makes him the Presumptive Vice Rectum of the Republican Reich.

Cartoon:

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