The heat wave is upon Portland with 100° today, building to 108° tomorrow and 109° Thursday.  There is no rain forecast for the next two weeks, and the first day below 90° is a week from Friday.  What wouldn’t I give for a rainy day!  Changing the poll and the Monthly Report for July will both be at least a day late, because I was so wiped out by yesterday’s eye torture and the extreme heat.  In case you missed it, there was no recurrence of cancer.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:55 (average 4:51).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Down Goes the Mooch! | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

Keith makes an excellent point. Scary Muck was only a reflection of his beloved Fuhrer. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Thousands of angry comedians protested outside the White House on Monday afternoon, demanding the immediate reinstatement of the ousted communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

Chanting “Bring back Mooch,” the irate funnymen and funnywomen argued that the abrupt removal of Scaramucci was akin to taking the food out of their families’ mouths.

Industry estimates had projected that Scaramucci’s presence on the White House staff would generate between four and five billion dollars for the comedy industry this year alone, a windfall that has now been erased.

Buddy Schlantz, the owner of the Bethesda, Maryland, comedy club known as the Laff Pagoda, travelled to the White House to protest what he called “a direct assault on the comedy community.”

That’s straight news, Andy. And who can blame them! Rumor has it that Samantha Bee and Bill Maher are hosting a drunken wake memorializing him. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio committed a crime by defying a court order to stop detaining suspected undocumented immigrants, a judge ruled on Monday, in the latest rebuke for a once-popular politician who was voted out of office last year.

United States District Judge Susan R. Bolton found Mr. Arpaio, 85, guilty of criminal contempt of court, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. Mr. Arpaio’s lawyers said he would appeal.

The conviction comes as sheriffs are under pressure to play a major role in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The president has threatened to withhold federal funds from local governments that do not cooperate by holding jail inmates for deportation, and immigrant advocates have pushed back with lawsuits charging that such detentions violate constitutional rights.

Mr. Arpaio served for 24 years as sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz., which includes Phoenix, building a national reputation for harsh conditions in his county jail, and for his campaign against undocumented immigrants. The criminal charge grew out of a lawsuit filed a decade ago charging that the sheriff’s office regularly violated the rights of Latinos, stopping people based on racial profiling, detaining them based solely on the suspicion that they were in the country illegally, and turning them over to the immigration authorities.

He’ll get six months at most, and will never serve a day, because he would not survive the first day. He is so hated that he would be killed even in protective custody. Give the bastard six months of supermax solitary, or at least make him wear an ankle bracelet for two years. RESIST!!

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Eye torture day.  I’m in a big rush.  I’ll comment when I return, if I can.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:18 (average 4:32).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: A little more than a year after the Russian effort to interfere in the American presidential election came to light, the diplomatic fallout — an unraveling of the relationship between Moscow and Washington on a scale not seen in decades — is taking its toll.

President Vladimir V. Putin bet that Donald J. Trump, who had spoken fondly of Russia and its authoritarian leader for years, would treat his nation as Mr. Putin has longed to have it treated by the West. That is, as the superpower it once was, or at least a major force to be reckoned with, from Syria to Europe, and boasting a military revived after two decades of neglect.

That bet has now backfired, spectacularly. If the sanctions overwhelmingly passed by Congress last week sent any message to Moscow, it was that Mr. Trump’s hands are now tied in dealing with Moscow, probably for years to come.

House and Senate Republicans got their quid, when the Fuhrer took the White House. They don’t care if Putin [R-RU] gets his quo. Trump [R-RU] signed the bill, only because he knew Congress would override a veto. Passing sanctions helps Republican legislators hide their seditious participation in covering-up Trump’s Treason. RESIST!!

From Washington Post: Even if they weren’t able to snuff out Obamacare, Republicans appear determined to ensure its marketplaces accelerate their meltdown.

Over the weekend, President Trump castigated the Senate for failing to pass multiple versions of legislation repealing parts of the Affordable Care Act, despite a marathon health-care debate that spanned four days last week. The president has few options left at this point, but he does have power over one crucial part of the ACA marketplaces: payments covering cost-sharing discounts (or CSRs) that insurers must offer to the lowest-income customers. These payments are estimated to total $7 billion this year — making up about 15 percent of all federal subsidies on which marketplace plans are counting.

At this moment, it’s up to the administration whether to make the monthly CSR payments to insurers. So far, it has delivered them around the 20th of each month. But the president tweeted on Saturday that he’s considering withholding the next batch (presumably in August), if Republicans don’t find a way to mov past their seemingly insurmountable gridlock on health care:

Click Through. I would hope the insurers could sue the Reich. Howl, Protesters! Howl! RESIST!!

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I’m waiting for Jason, my computer tech to arrive to delve into some network and laptop issues.  He arrived just as I finished that sentence and did an excellent job.  He cleaned up the network issues Comcast left, did a malware check on my laptop.  He founds it clean but buggy, and started a system recovery to return it to factory default.  I have a shitload of work to do to reinstall all the software.  He even reconfigured my TV, so my screen dimensions display properly.  Needless to say, I’m running late and am very tired.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:09 (average 4:29).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): The Timeline In the Case Against Trump | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

Guilty! RESIST!!

From YouTube (MoveOn Channel): Anna Galland on Trumpcare Defeat, Resistance

Thanks McCain, Murkowski, and Collins. Also thanks MoveOn and all the progressive patriots fighting RepubliCare, especially YOU! RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: With a fury that could spell political trouble for Republicans in the midterm elections, Trump voters across the country on Friday expressed their outrage and anger that they still have health coverage.

“I went to bed Thursday night and slept like a baby, assuming that when I woke up I would have zero health insurance,” Carol Foyler, a Trump voter, said. “Instead, this nightmare.”

Harland Dorrinson, who voted for Trump “because he promised that he would take my health care away from me on Day 1,” said that he was “very upset” that he will still receive that benefit.

“I woke up this morning, and my family and I could still see a doctor,” he said. “This is a betrayal.”

Many Trump supporters said that congressional Republicans “gave up too soon” in their efforts to deprive ordinary Americans like them of their health care.

Dang Andy! Sadly, that is correct. After deplorable, the next synonym for ‘Trump supporter’ is idiot. RESIST!!

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Today’s forecast high in 85°.  The humidity is 68%.  It’s the coolest day in the next two weeks.  This afternoon a Social Worker from Providence Elder at Home is stopping by to scan my Advance Directive into my records.  In summary, if it appears that survival is either likely or unlikely, resuscitate me by scratching my back and giving me coffee.  Tomorrow I have my annual wellness exam for Medicare done by Ellie, my PCP’s PA.  I’ll be leaving early in the morning and be gone half the day.  I will probably publish only a Personal Update, or at most an Open Thread.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:24 (average 4:56).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Funny or Die Channel): Donald Trump’s Temporary Bone Spurs

Cleary TBS is too great a handicap for the Fuhrer to remain in office. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Saying that the problem “is far worse than I imagined,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday urged First Lady Melania Trump to intensify her campaign against cyberbullying.

Speaking to reporters from his office at the Justice Department, Sessions said that, whatever Mrs. Trump had done to eliminate the scourge of cyberbullying, “It clearly has not been enough.”

“From my perspective, cyberbullying is very much a growing problem,” he said. “And with every passing day it gets worse and worse.”

Dang Andy! Isn’t it just like KKK Beauregard to hide behind the only skirt, the contents of which Putin’s Pervert doesn’t want to grab? RESIST!!

From NY Times: The Senate on Wednesday soundly rejected a measure that would repeal major parts of the Affordable Care Act without providing a replacement, leaving Republicans still searching for a path forward to fulfill their promise of dismantling President Barack Obama’s signature health law.

Seven Republican senators joined Democrats to vote against the measure, which had been embraced by conservatives but could have left millions of people without health coverage.

The rejection of “clean repeal” laid bare the deep divisions within the Republican caucus about how best to proceed. The night before, nine Republicans, including both conservatives and moderates, voted against comprehensive legislation to repeal the health law and provide a replacement.

Without the votes to replace the health law or to simply repeal major parts of it, Senate Republicans appeared increasingly likely to try to pass a modest measure that would repeal only a few provisions of the law, such as the tax on medical devices and the requirements that most individuals have insurance and that large employers offer coverage to workers.

But even that narrow bill could have a significant impact on the nation’s health care system. Democrats on Wednesday night released a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the effects of repealing several provisions that could be part of a “skinny” repeal measure. The analysis found that the number of uninsured people would increase by 15 million next year compared with current law, and Democrats said they were told that premiums would be roughly 20 percent higher… [emphasis added]

Call your Senators! RESIST!!

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