Politics Plus

My new A/C is certainly powerful enough to cool my tiny place.  It’s also very loud, and the noise bothered me last night.  I’m sure I’ll get use to it, and after a night of three, I won’t even hear it.  I’m about to leave to go to PT with Courtney.  Later.  Back and pooped.  George needs an ankle adjustment.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:48 (average 4:45).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The Guardian (H/T Daily Kos):A group of Polish women walk out of a church service to protest against a proposed tightening of the country’s abortion laws. The video, posted on Facebook, shows the women leaving as a priest reads out a letter in favour of the ban. In Warsaw, thousands of people have attended a pro-choice rally outside parliament, after the leader of the ruling party backed a call from Catholic bishops for a full ban on pregnancy terminations.

It looks like Poland has Republicans that hate women too!

From Daily Kos: In disappointing Tuesday news, the Wisconsin Supreme Court race went to Rebecca Bradley, a conservative. Bradley beat progressive candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg in the non-partisan election. Wisconsin residents are now stuck with Bradley for the next ten years.

It’s a sad end to an ugly race, and an ugly type of race at that. Judicial elections are rife with problems as a general matter—politics, bias, secret money, and low voter engagement, to name a few. But in Wisconsin the elections have been particularly grimy.

Bradley is so Republican, she makes Nancy Grace seem like a progressive. This is how she won.

From Media Matters: A Media Matters investigation of the discredited right-wing group Judicial Crisis Network (JCN), the main source of baseless smears against, and false characterizations of, Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, reveals a familial web of self-dealing between the organization, a major dark money funder of JCN called the Wellspring Committee, and a third nonprofit that also receives funding from Wellspring.

Nepotism’R’Us, Nepotism (R-US), or just plain Koch sucking?

Cartoon:

The A/C came yesterday, but is still not installed.  It was warm enough inside yesterday night that I did not sleep well,  Tomorrow I have PT with Courtney.  Since no rain is forecast, I’m going the take the regular bus.  The trip takes longer, but I spend such a shorter time waiting that my total time spent will be less.  Still, I’ll be tired enough that I’ll probably have just a Personal Update.  Later:  The A/C is in and working great!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:45 (average 4:40).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Within hours of news Tuesday that PayPal had pulled the plug on a 400-job facility in Charlotte because, it said, the state’s new law "perpetuates discrimination," the Republican Party started a mad display of Yosemite-Sam style finger pointing.

First, the state’s GOP Vice-Chairman Michele Nix questioned whether PayPal was ever even worthy of North Carolina.

So after PayPal was forced to settle after violating economic sanctions on Cuba, Sudan, and Iran, and even processed payments for someone looking to buy nuclear-weapon technology on the black market, the California-based company now has a problem doing business in North Carolina?

Yeah, we didn’t want your nasty 400-job expansion anyway. Hurrumph. Now those are some serious biz-dev skills. Work it, Michele!

My, how times have changed. Just a couple weeks ago, McCrory was singing PayPal’s praises:

“North Carolina is the ideal destination for innovation-based, worldwide companies like PayPal,” said Governor McCrory. “Today’s announcement means that we can add another prominent name to the state’s growing list of technology businesses with major operations here.”

Kudos to PayPal!! May thousands of companies pull the plug on the Fascist Republican Theocratic Dictatorship of McCrorystan.!!

From YouTube and YouTube:

Rest in peace.

From NY Times: Donald L. Blankenship, whose leadership of the Massey Energy Company catapulted him from a working-class West Virginia childhood into a life as one of the wealthiest and most influential men in Appalachia, was sentenced on Wednesday to a year in prison for conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards.

The prison term, the maximum allowed by law, came in Federal District Court here six years and one day after an explosion ripped through Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine, killing 29 men. Although Mr. Blankenship was not accused of direct responsibility for the accident, the deadliest in American coal mining in about 40 years, the disaster prompted the inquiry that ultimately led to his conviction. Federal officials have said that last autumn’s guilty verdict was the first time such a high-ranking executive had been convicted of a workplace safety violation.

This is one Republican I’m happy to see in a cell, but serving less than 13 days for every miner he murdered is a major understatement. He’d do more time had he stolen a loaf of bread to feed his family.

Cartoon:

Yesterday, Lu arrived in time, my window A/C was taken out, and I got my shower and became a pristine puddy tat.  Today I have a grocery order and my new portable A/C coming.  Because floor units are not as efficient as window units, I chose a 10,000 BTU unit to replace a 5,000 BTU window unit.  Building staff will install it, either today or tomorrow morning, depending on what time it arrives.  And it’s just in time!  Tomorrow’s high here is forecast at 85°.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:39 (average 4:54).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Real Clear Politics: Latest delegate count:

Wisconsin was an impressive double-digit win for Bernie, but because of the way they apportion delegates, Bernie cut into Hillary’s lead by only 11 delegates. He now needs 1,324 delegates to clinch the nomination. Hillary needs 634.

From Daily Kos: \Stanley Hoskins spent 13 years in Army, serving as a sergeant in the National Guard. His wife, Erica Flores Dunahoo, put down the first month’s rent at a Mississippi RV park, something she says they were doing to get out of financial difficulty. Stanley and Erica moved in with their children and Erica bragged how friendly everyone had been.

Unfortunately, once the whole family arrived, the situation and attitude of RV park owner Gene Baker quickly changed. From the Clarion-Ledger:

The next day, she said, Baker telephoned her and said, “Hey, you didn’t tell me you was married to no black man.”

She said she replied that she didn’t realize it was a problem.

“Oh, it’s a big problem with the members of my church, my community and my mother-in-law,” she quoted him as saying. “They don’t allow that black and white shacking.”

I don’t suppose we need to ask to which party Baker belongs, do we?

From The New Yorker:

In a sharply worded post-election threat on Tuesday night, the Republican Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump said that he intended to sue the entire population of Wisconsin “for everything it’s worth.”

In his terse remarks, Trump departed from the customs of political concession speeches by failing to congratulate the evening’s winner or thank his supporters, instead sternly warning the people of Wisconsin to “lawyer up.”

“By the time my attorneys are through with you, I’m going to own your entire state, lock, stock, and barrel,” he said. “Not that I want to own it. Wisconsin is a freaking dump.”

LOL Andy!! Will Fecal Dump Trump take a Trump dump on Fitzwalkerstan?

Cartoon: