Politics Plus

Sometime during the next hour and a half, Safeway.com will be delivering groceries.  Unlike Store to Door, closed for the 4th, Safeway does not unpack my groceries for me or help me put them away, so I’ll have to break to do that myself.  I hope you are having a better holiday weekend than the US.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:02 (average 5:39).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: …As pr*sident, Donald Trump’s narcissistic tendencies first expressed themselves from the White House briefing podium when Press Secretary Sean Spicer argued against all evidence that the attendance at Trump’s inauguration exceeded that at President Obama’s. It seems almost quaint now—partly because the clear pictorial evidence made it so laughable—but that was an inaugural glimpse of where we were headed, pardon the pun.

It’s no secret by now that Trump is out of his depth, unable to comprehend the vast federal bureaucracy he’s supposed to command, incapable of absorbing the knowledge necessary to inform critical decisions about commanding it, and frankly, uninterested in anything that isn’t directly related to whichever immediate concern has hijacked his limited attention span at any given hour of the day.

But now we are seeing how that psyche is choking off the entire White House from the world, not just so Trump can maintain control over the government, but so no inconvenient truths can infiltrate his fortress and encroach on his reality…

Click through for the entire article. It’s worth it. I agree with the author, that it’s only a matter of time before the Fuhrer screws the pooch. RESIST!!

From NY Times: …Some policy subjects, on the other hand, really are complicated. One of these subjects is international trade. And the great danger here isn’t simply that Trump doesn’t understand the issues. Worse, he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.

According to the news site Axios, Trump, supported by his inner circle of America Firsters, is “hell-bent” on imposing punitive tariffs on imports of steel and possibly other products, despite opposition from most of his cabinet. After all, claims that other countries are taking advantage of America were a central theme of his campaign.

And Axios reports that the White House believes that Trump’s base “likes the idea” of a trade war, and “will love the fight.”…

Click through for the rest of Paul Krugman’s fine editorial. For one thing a tariff on imported steel, will price all the goods made by US workers with that more costly steel out of competition with foreign products. Bye Bye jobs!  How do you spell stupid? R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N! RESIST!!

From Raw Story: A man has been charged with plotting to assassinate President Emmanuel Macron at France’s Bastille Day military parade which the French leader is set to attend with US President Donald Trump, a judicial source said Monday.

The 23-year-old is a suspected far-right extremist who told investigators he wanted to kill Macron at the July 14 national day parade in Paris, a source close to the investigation said.

He said he also wanted to attack “Muslims, Jews, blacks, homosexuals,” the source added.

Police arrested the man at his home on Wednesday in the northwest Paris suburb of Argenteuil after being alerted by users of an internet chatroom where the suspect allegedly said he wanted to buy a firearm.

No doubt Trump is in mourning over the capture of a French Republican terrorist, who was plotting to give Trump a reason to cheer at the parade. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

No wonder Republicans hate the French!

It’s a busy day and not as hot as yesterday  After today, the temperatures will be in the mid-80°s and above for the next ten days.  The horrible part is that for that whole time, the humidity will never drop below 45%.  I hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend (US).

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:02 (average 5:25).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Trump Will Not Be Cleared

Was Trump an unwitting accomplice? Possibly. A dimwitted one? Indubitably! RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: From Vanity Fair:

But a few days shy of her six-month mark on air, Van Susteren’s business is finished on MSNBC, according to people familiar with the situation. The anchor, whose show struggled to gain traction even as the rest of her colleagues were buoyed by anti-Trump hysteria, has parted ways with the network. She will not appear on the show on Thursday evening. She will be permanently replaced by Ari Melber, the network’s chief legal correspondent and host of the The Point on weekends. He will continue to appear across NBC and MSNBC shows as he takes over the 6 p.m. slot next month. (MSNBC and NBC News declined to comment. Reached by phone Thursday afternoon, Van Susteren had no comment.)

I never published one of her clips, I gave her the benefit of the (very small) doubt, if any, and watched several when going to MSNBC for material from Chris, Rachel, and Lawrence. It was more like watching the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise. Good riddance to bad rubbish. RESIST!!

From NY Times: With Senate Republicans already bogged down over how to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, President Trump on Friday tossed in a new complication with an old idea: The Senate could repeal the health law now, then replace it later.

Mr. Trump gave his blessing [tweeting twit delinked] in a Twitter post after a Republican dissatisfied with the current repeal bill, Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, floated the two-stage approach as a backup plan. Mr. Sasse sent a letter to the president [Fascist delinked] and made a pitch on Fox News [Faux Noise delinked] on Friday as an agreement on a new version of the Senate’s repeal bill remained elusive.

Other conservatives quickly picked up the idea — including Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and the advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, backed by Charles G. and David H. Koch — presenting a new headache to Senate leaders who are trying to focus their conservative and moderate troops on finding a compromise.

It isn’t enough for the Fuhrer and his Koch sucking Republican cronies to take health care away from only 24 million Americans. This will do it to 36 million. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I made this cartoon five years ago today.  It still applies.

I’m sorry to say that the heat is returning.  Although today’s forecast is only 82°, the sun hit the outside wall at 6:00 AM, and by 8:00, I had to close the windows, lower the blinds, and turn on the AC.  It’s another muggy day.  Speaking of muggy, I put in the mug order last night.  Lona’s is the first I’ve customized, since my eye cancer surgery.  I hope I lined everything up right.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:17 (average 4:55).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The Rachel Maddow Show: Scientist says EPA asked her to change testimony to Congress

Deborah Swackhamer, chair of the E.P.A.’s Board of Scientific Counselors, talks with Rachel Maddow about the pressure she received from an EPA official to change her congressional testimony and how the EPA’s outside scientific review board has been "decimated."

Kudos to Deborah Swackhamer. She ought to take that hammer and swack Scott Pruitt upside the head. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Foreign-born recruits who signed up for the military with the promise of U.S. citizenship in exchange for their service are finally getting their thanks in the form of deportation. MAGA.

According to a new report, the Pentagon is considering ending the contracts of a large number of foreign-born recruits in the Military Accessions Vital to National Interest program—which puts service members with foreign-language and other speciality [sic] skills on an expedited path to citizenship—due to an “overtasked vetting process and heightened security risk.”

But according to one former official, this can be something as innocuous as having a foreign relative, which would be expected of a foreign-born applicant in the first place. And due to the fact that the federal government already has so much of their personal information on file, many of these recruits would be “prime targets” for immediate deportation.

Basically, “Thank you for your service. Now get out”

These people served our country honorably and in good faith.  It’s disgusting that Republican racists don’t consider promises made to folks they call mud-people binding. RESIST!!

From NY Times: President Trump’s nominee for general counsel of the Transportation Department, Steven G. Bradbury [Pig delinked], is coming under fire by Democrats and human rights advocates for his role in providing legal blessing for waterboarding and other torture techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency on terrorism suspects during the administration of George W. Bush.

Amid interruptions by anti-torture protesters at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Democrats grilled Mr. Bradbury about interrogation memos he wrote as head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel during Mr. Bush’s second term.

“You lacked the judgment to stand up and say what is morally right when pressured by the president of the United States, and I’m afraid you would do so again,” said Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, who wagged her finger at Mr. Bradbury and accused him of having a dangerous “rubber stamp” mentality. “I cannot oppose this nomination strongly enough.”

Like Tammy, I cannot oppose the appointment of a Republican War Criminal strongly enough, RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I don’t know why, but I could not sleep again last night, and between exhaustion and feeling sick of writing about the latest evidence of Republican treason and the latest Republican ploy to kill Granny, I need to make this today’s only article.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:26 (average 4:34).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): The Amazing New Trump Defense | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

I think I’m going to puke! RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: A goodly number of progressives rejected Hillary Clinton on the grounds that she wasn’t good enough for them. Their most common claim was that she is just as bad as Mr. Trump. I have a few questions for them:

Would Hillary Clinton have pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords?

Would Hillary Clinton have greatly accelerated deportations of illegal aliens?

Would Hillary Clinton have attempted to ban Muslims from entering this country?

Would Hillary Clinton have appointed Chelsea Clinton to an important position in the White House?

Would Hillary Clinton have encouraged foreign diplomats to pay inflated prices for her products?

How foolish, thoughtless and selfish they behaved! Click through. The list is a long one. RESIST!!

From NY Times: The Senate bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act was edging toward collapse on Monday after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said it would increase the number of people without health insurance by 22 million by 2026.

Two Republicans, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, said Monday that they would vote against even debating the health care bill, joining Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, who made the same pledge on Friday. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin hinted that he, too, would probably oppose taking up the bill on a procedural vote expected as early as Tuesday, meaning a collapse could be imminent.

“It’s worse to pass a bad bill than pass no bill,” Mr. Paul told reporters.

Ms. Collins wrote on Twitter on Monday evening that she wanted to work with her colleagues from both parties to fix flaws in the Affordable Care Act, but that the budget office’s report showed that the “Senate bill won’t do it.”

Heller and Collins are only two. We can’t depend on Idiot, Son of Idiot, Named after Idiot. RESIST!!

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