Politics Plus

I’m running quite late, as today was a long day for Wendy.  Dang!!  She certainly is a good worker.  I let her go a half hour early, as I couldn’t find anything else for her to do.  She polished and shined the TomCat, did the dreaded task, changed the sheets, cleaned the countertops, swept and mopped the floors, dusted, and reorganized the kitchen drawers and cabinets.  The place is so clean I’m afraid to pass gas!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:37 (average 6:12).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

In the Mail:

Yesterday I received a gift from a friend, who shall remain nameless.  Here it is.

Here it is again in a more appealing environment.

Thanks Nameless!!

Short Takes:

From The Southern Illonoisan: U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth outraised Illinois Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk for the sixth consecutive quarter, giving her a multimillion-dollar cash advantage in a race that could help determine whether Democrats retake control of the Senate.

Kirk’s campaign said late Friday he raised more than $1 million between April and June, finishing with $3.1 million in his campaign fund.

Duckworth raised $2.7 million during the same period and ended the second quarter with $5.5 million cash on hand, her campaign said earlier this week.

Sad as this is, fundraising is more predictive that polling this early in the race. Go Tammy Go!!

From Vox: On Saturday morning, Hillary Clinton released a new health care policy proposal that emphasized several major progressive priorities, including a public option and increased funding for community health centers.

In the proposal, Clinton pledged:

• To give Americans in every state a "public option" health insurance plan
• To let Americans as young as 55 years old opt in to Medicare
• And to double funding for primary care services at community health centers

Now, these aren’t really new ideas for Clinton. She said at a campaign event in May that she supported "the public option, so that people can buy into Medicare at a certain age." And she’s long supported community health centers.

But the fact that she’s formally backing these progressive priorities at this moment — rather than pivoting to more centrist ideas as the general election contest approaches — is a testament to the influence of Bernie Sanders’s campaign. And it may be a prelude to an endorsement from Sanders as soon as next week.

Sanders: "The Clinton campaign and our campaign are coming closer and closer together"

That’s encouraging.  All three are steps in the right direction.

From PoliticusUSA: Megyn Kelly, sometimes the voice of reason on Fox News, switched into full-blown stupid mode again Friday by saying that “Especially in the days of iPhones…and social media where, you know, every encounter gets caught on camera. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s happening more.”

She appeared with racist Ex-LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman, who is frequently trotted out by Fox News to cover racially-charged events, like when Freddie Gray was shot in Baltimore and Fuhrman (again appearing with Kelly) called blacks “these people,” and was told by liberal guest Richard Fowler that “I really think you live in an alternate universe.”

Well, hello, Fox News.

Watch the most recent alternate reality segment from Friday’s The Kelly File, courtesy of Media Matters for America:

Barf Bag Alert!!

Not all people that support Black Lives Matter think that all cops are racist. I for one have said many times that the majority of police are professionals just doing their jobs. Here, these racists from the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, are conflating all Black Lives Matter protestors with the Dallas murderer.  How vile!

Cartoon:

Please pardon my brevity.  I’m just all the way tired out.  I heard from Julie yesterday.  She hit the road here in Portland on late Tuesday morning and drove all the way across the country to WV in just three days.  I can only surmise that she must have let Killer Dawg drive.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:19 (average 4:22).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Raw Story: Michael Strickland, the right-wing agitator and Trump supporter seen in this video brandishing a gun at a peaceful Black Lives Matter rally, has been charged with two class A felonies after being arrested and initially released Friday morning on his own recognizance without bail.

At his arraignment today at the Multnomah County Courthouse in downtown Portland Strickland was hit with two felony counts of “unlawful use of a weapon,” as well as misdemeanor charges of menacing and disorderly conduct.

The hearing took place on the same block where Strickland pulled a Glock 27, swept the gun at the crowd while yelling “Get the hell back!” He subsequently outfitted the gun with a large capacity magazine.

At the scene, Strickland said he was only armed in self-defense. But the Multnomah County District Attorney revealed in court that Strickland had six magazines of ammunition on him… [emphasis added]

Sadly, there are even Republicans like this Trump Humper here in Portland. I think that releasing him OR was a very stupid move by authorities. Kudos to the peaceful protestors who kept the situation from escalating, while waiting for police to intervene.

From Politico: Sen. Bernie Sanders has claimed victory in the fight for $15.

The Democrats’ platform committee late Friday approved an amendment that formalizes the party’s commitment to a $15 minimum wage, with indexing for inflation.

The language of the position reads: “We should raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour over time and index it, give all Americans the ability to join a union regardless of where they work, and create new ways for workers to have power in the economy so every worker can earn at least $15 an hour.”

Thank you Bernie for helping to change the Democratic Party the ONLY way it can be changed: one issue at a time from within.

From Alternet: The mainstream media in the U.S. and abroad badly botched the reporting of the Dallas police shooting that killed five officers Thursday, egged on by speculation by police sources that a team of snipers was bent on avenging the killing of two black men in Minnesota and Louisiana by white cops the day before.

Even after the Dallas Morning News changed its headline Friday afternoon to read, “Dallas sniper was loner, Army vet with stash of arms, bomb parts at home,” the article’s second paragraph said, “Four Dallas police officers and a DART officer were shot and killed in a coordinated sniper attack that followed a Thursday night protest."

The incorrect sniper meme was repeated internationally, such as this headline from the British Mirror, “Dallas police shooting: ‘Black Power group’ claims responsibility for police killings and warns of more assassinations to come.”

Yesterday, I repeated the false report that there were a team of snipers working together. I was wrong not to assume that Dallas Police Chief Brown was playing fast and loose with the facts, as I should have expected from a Republican appointee. Apologies!! When I’m wrong, I say so.

Cartoon:

I’ll be leaving shortly for my appointment with my Ocular Oncologist, so I’m hurrying.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:21 (average 5:19).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Home Health Update:

Julie says goodbye.

Wendy says Hi::

Killer Dawg is a camera hound!!!

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: We’ve been listening to the plots of "Never Trump" Republicans to somehow stage a floor fight at their party’s upcoming national convention to strip the nomination from the man with the most delegates and give it to, well, anyone else. We’ve had the announcement from white nationalist groups that they’ll be "defending" the convention from troublemakers, and white nationalist groups are white nationalist groups because they have very specific and detailed notions about who the "troublemakers" in society might be.

The only thing that could up the chaos ante at this point would be a quasi-organized-ish movement to make sure the pro-Trump delegates bring their guns!

"There are a whole bunch of things happening: You go to various events, receptions, whatever, outside the convention hall," says Ash Khare, a delegate from the northwest corner of [Pennsylvania] who applied for a concealed carry permit in preparation for Cleveland. "And you walk on the streets and, you know, people know that you are a delegate, and who knows what the crazy people are going to do? So you’ve got to be vigilant about what’s going on and prepare yourself."

I’d say the crazy people are going to be wandering downtown Cleveland with Donald Trump pins and loaded guns strapped to their hips—and yes, we’re all trying to "prepare ourselves" for that.

Not only should guns be allowed inside the hall at the Republican Convention, but also, their use should be mandatory.

From The New Yorker: In a stunning rebuke to one of the nation’s oldest and most established law-enforcement agencies, House Republicans voted unanimously on Tuesday to abolish the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Unlike most House measures, which come up for a vote only after months or even years of sluggish effort, the bill to eliminate the F.B.I. was drafted in a matter of minutes on Tuesday morning, Republican staffers confirmed.

House Speaker Paul Ryan offered no specific reason for the Republicans’ sudden frenzy of activity to abolish the F.B.I., but said that the Bureau represented “big government at its worst.”

“This is an agency that, when given even the simplest task to do, can’t manage to do it right,” he said.

Andy, do you care to guess why?

From NY Times: The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, on Tuesday recommended no criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her handling of classified information while she was secretary of state, lifting an enormous legal cloud from her presidential campaign less than two hours before she boarded Air Force One for her first joint campaign appearance with President Obama.

But on a day of political high drama in Washington, Mr. Comey rebuked Mrs. Clinton as being “extremely careless” in using a private email address and server. He raised questions about her judgment, contradicted statements she has made about her email practices, said it was possible that hostile foreign governments had gained access to her account, and declared that a person still employed by the government — Mrs. Clinton left the State Department in 2013 — could have faced disciplinary action for doing what she did.

To warrant a criminal charge, Mr. Comey said, there had to be evidence that Mrs. Clinton intentionally transmitted or willfully mishandled classified information. The F.B.I. found neither, and as a result, he said, “our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”

The Justice Department is highly likely to accept the F.B.I.’s guidance, which a law enforcement official said also cleared three top aides of Mrs. Clinton who were implicated in the case… [emphasis added]

When this first came up, I, as a Bernie supporter, suggested that this would be the end result, as Hillary had adopted State’s lax security standards that go back to the Nixon regime. While she clearly should have taken charge to correct the problem, her conduct was not criminal. However, I suspect the conspiracy theories and misrepresentations will continue, as long as Republicans and very few left wing regressives act out on what they want to be true, instead of what is true.

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