Politics Plus

I running late again.  Yesterday my helper friend, Lu, was only fifteen minutes late, setting a new record for punctuality.  I was thrilled.  Before she arrived, I cooked bacon for a week’s breakfasts.  Then I cooked a four day beef, stuffing, veggies and gravy casserole.  I needed that shower!  This morning I got up early to do the dreaded task, and I now have everything folded and stowed.  Now I’m waiting for a grocery delivery.  Needless to say, I need Lona to send a nap.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:54 (average 5:05).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: The Grammy Awards just announced America’s 39th president of the United States Jimmy Carter has won a Grammy for his book Full Life: Reflections at 90 in the Best Spoken Word category. This is the second Grammy for the Noble Peace Prize laureate and former Democratic Commander In Chief.

I’m always happy to share glad tidings for Mr. Peanut.

From NY Times: On the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton has eloquently defined workers’ rights as human rights. She could assert both more forcefully by championing a stronger federal minimum wage of $15 an hour.

So far, Mrs. Clinton has proposed lifting the federal hourly minimum to $12, from its current level of $7.25 an hour. Bernie Sanders is pushing for $15.

She should, and for this and all of Bernie Sanders’ policies that Hillary adopts, Hillary must follow through with that support. Just saying so now would make her a one term President.

From Crooks and Liars: "He’s running for President on the platform of opening his mouth and saying things."

Behold, The Trump Phone.

I agree with the folks that said "Boo!"

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I’m feeling tired after a long day yesterday.  The Urologist told me my pee is grade A-1, and sent me for a blood test to make sure I don’t have prostate cancer.  With only three  legs, it’s harder to shred his toilet paper.

Today is the the first day my helper friend takes over as shower-aide.  She’s due at noon, and I so hope she shows up. Also on tap is meal-prep.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:17 (average 4:57).  To do it, click here.  Hoe did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Sen. Mitch McConnell, in 2005, defending the absolute right of a sitting president to nominate judges.

"The Constitution of the United States is at stake.  Article II, Section 2 clearly provides that the President, and the President alone, nominates judges.  The Senate is empowered to give advice and consent.  But my Democratic colleagues want to change the rules.  They want to reinterpret the Constitution to require a supermajority for confirmation.  In effect, they would take away the power to nominate from the President and grant it to a minority of 41 Senators."

"[T]he Republican conference intends to restore the principle that, regardless of party, any President’s judicial nominees, after full debate, deserve a simple up-or-down vote.  I know that some of our colleagues wish that restoration of this principle were not required. But it is a measured step that my friends on the other side of the aisle have unfortunately made necessary. For the first time in 214 years, they have changed the Senate’s ‘advise and consent’ responsibilities to ‘advise and obstruct.’"

I partially agree with Bought Bitch Mitch?!!?  ARGH!!!!  I think I’m going to throw up!!

From The New Yorker: In a television appearance on Sunday, the leading Senate Republican warned President Obama “in no uncertain terms” against doing anything in his remaining three hundred and forty days in office.

“The President should be aware that, for all intents and purposes, his term in office is already over,” Mitch McConnell said on Fox News. “It’s not the time to start doing things when you have a mere eight thousand one hundred and sixty hours left.”

While acknowledging that the President has eleven months remaining in the White House, McConnell said that he and the President “have an honest disagreement about how long eleven months is.”

“The President believes it is almost one year,” he said. “I believe it is almost zero years. I’m not a mathematician, but I believe I am right.”

Andy, I’m so relieved! Now that’s the Bought Bitch Mitch I know and despise!!

From NY Times: States are finally backing away from the draconian sentencing policies that swept the country at the end of the last century, driving up prison costs and sending too many people to jail for too long, often for nonviolent offenses. Many are now trying to turn around the prison juggernaut by steering drug addicts into treatment instead of jail and retooling parole systems that once sent people back to prison for technical violations.

But the most effective way to keep people out of prison once they leave is to give them jobs skills that make them marketable employees. That, in turn, means restarting prison education programs that were shuttered beginning in the 1990s, when federal and state legislators cut funding to show how tough they were on crime.

President Obama pointed the country in the right direction last year by creating a pilot program that will allow a limited number of inmates to receive federal Pell Grants to take college courses behind bars. The program will include colleges that either run prison education programs or want to start them. So far, more than 200 schools in 47 states have expressed interest.

From my volunteer work I know this.  National average recidivism is 67%. Recidivism for prisoners that completed an Associates Degree in prison < 10%. Recidivism for prisoners that completed an Bachelors Degree in prison < 5%. Since the average cost to incarcerate a prisoner is around $80 per day, can America afford to NOT educate prisoners?

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I’m hurrying, because I have to leave for a Urology appointment in a few minutes, and I’ll be way behind when I return.  Yesterday loading the chair was a success.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:34 (average 4:55).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: Can you answer this math question from a practice test for the SAT?

SAT study blogs recommend spending only about 75 seconds on each math problem, so you should set a timer.

Ready?

Here it is:

A typical image taken of the surface of Mars by a camera is 11.2 gigabits in size. A tracking station on Earth can receive data from the spacecraft at a data rate of 3 megabits per second for a maximum of 11 hours each day. If 1 gigabit equals 1,024 megabits, what is the maximum number of typical images that the tracking station could receive from the camera each day?
A) 3
B) 10
C) 56
D) 144

10 in under a minute.  What’s hard about that?

From Daily Kos (Classic: 8/2015): This man cannot be president.

I am not exaggerating what happened here.

If a mother was going to give up her child for adoption, the conservative legislature–supported and signed by one Jeb Bush– she was required to PUBLISH HER ENTIRE SEXUAL HISTORY in a major newspaper.

The idea behind it was… actually, I don’t know what the hell the idea was except to publically shame the woman.  (Publically shaming unwed mothers, by the way, is something JEB! actually loudly and proudly called on people to do.)

All I know is that it passed under our wacko bird GOP legislature.

It was called the Scarlet Letter law.

And Strike Three claims to be the moderate.

From NY Times: The Republican presidential candidates who battled for votes in New Hampshire last week, rousing the rabble with their usual talk of scary aliens at the border, were strangely silent about the closest international boundary. They did not warn of the Canadians who flood south by the millions each year to play and work, taking our Christmas-tree-selling jobs. They did not mention the Canadian scofflaws — nearly 100,000 in fiscal 2015 — who overstay their visas, the most of any nationality.

Yeah! They already committed an act of war against us with their secret weapon, the TRUS pervert!

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I’m hurrying, because I want to finish blogging before my friend gets here.  I hope loading the chair goes well, because if it does, I can go to the prison four times a year.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:34 (average 4:53).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Extreme Religious Agony:

Woe!  Oh!  The misery!!  The Ellipsoid Orb has gone dark and its holy light will not shine fully until September.  Let the distraught tears of grief flow!

Short Takes:

From CNN: Justice Antonin Scalia’s death immediately triggered a monumental election-year battle in Washington over whether President Barack Obama should choose a successor who could tilt the Supreme Court toward liberals.

Within two hours of Scalia’s death being reported, presidential candidates along with Republican and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill were feuding over whether Obama should appoint a replacement for the eloquent and outspoken Scalia or wait for the next administration to make a decision. The battle lines underscored the huge political stakes in the 2016 election, which could cement the ideological balance of the court for years to come.

Obama said Saturday he would nominate a successor "in due time," but Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted the next administration should make the appointment.

"The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice," the Kentucky Republican said. "Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President."

While decency demands that I express condolences to those who loved him, truth demands that I say his death is a blessing to the American people, and could be salvation for the US Constitution. Bought Bitch Mitch has his head next to Ted’s TRUS. The American People have spoken on who they want to appoint Supreme Court Justices between 1/2013 and 1/2017. Obama should appoint a progressive right away.  I do feel sorry for Beelzebub.  His abode just became  strict constructionist.

From The New Yorker: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida was forced to leave Saturday night’s crucial Republican Presidential debate after suffering what aides called a “low-battery warning.”

Rubio’s abrupt departure occurred immediately following his opening statement, which started in a spirited manner but concluded with the senator uttering the word “Obama” no fewer than a dozen times in succession.

With the other candidates and debate moderators looking on, Rubio’s eyes appeared to roll back in his head, which fell forward and came to rest on his podium.

Dang Andy!! Maybe I need to upgrade his nickname to Border Booter Bot!!

From Washington Post: Six Republican presidential candidates debated Saturday night in South Carolina, just hours after the sudden news of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death.

We’ve posted the complete transcript below, annotated with insight from Washington Post reporters.

If you have an unlimited supply of barf bags, and don’t mind a long, nasty read without a single good idea, click through for Clown Car Destruction Derby IX.

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