Politics Plus

Yesterday, I was so tired that I actually thought it was Saturday.  I finally realized my error after lunch.  It's a good thing I did, or I would not have scheduled my follow up with Amanda (Prosthetist).  The too hot for May weather has returned.  I expect a high of 90°.  The Portland Rose Festival just began, waking me up last night with a fireworks display.  Historically, the Weather always turns to crap for the Rose Festival, but not this year.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today's took me 3:00 (average 4:49).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: This humorous bit takes only several seconds to watch, but the laughter/smile will most likely linger much longer. On Thursday, Jordan (@JordanUhl) posted a hilarious GIF clip on Twitter, adding:

I don't care if this is fake I'm pretending it's real

Trump considers the Pope to be a soft liberal pussy. In the absence of absolute proof that it's fake, we have to conclude this is a real Trump attempt to grab a pussy. RESIST!!

From NY Times: The Democratic defeat in a hard-fought special House election in Montana on Thursday highlighted the practical limitations on liberal opposition to President Trump and exposed a deepening rift between cautious party leaders, who want to pick their shots in battling for control of Congress in 2018, and more militant grass-roots activists who want to fight the Republicans everywhere.

Rob Quist, the Democratic nominee in Montana, staked his campaign on the Republican health care bill, but he still lost by six percentage points, even after his Republican opponent for the state’s lone House seat, Greg Gianforte, was charged with assaulting a reporter on the eve of the election.

The margin in this race was relatively small in a state that Mr. Trump carried by more than 20 percentage points last year. But Mr. Quist’s defeat disappointed grass-roots Democrats who financed nearly his entire campaign while the national party declined to spend heavily on what it considered, from the outset, an all-but-lost cause in daunting political territory.

The DNC is dead wrong. Failure to fight Republicans anywhere gives moderate voters everywhere the impression that the Democratic Party does not care about them. On the other hand, we may have lost the Montana war, but we won enough of the battles to make it worthwhile. We made the Republican Party spend millions more than grass-roots Democrats did to defend a supposedly "absolutely safe" seat. Furthermore, the Gianforte body slam audio will be hung around the neck of Republican candidates everywhere, because that act actually increased Gianforte's support among Montana Republicans, who sent him $100,000 within 24 hours. RESIST!!

From Raw Story:

But Media Matters and others have been debunking Hannity’s fake news for years. Here are 5 of his more baseless theories:

1. CIA framed Russia for hacking the DNCFox News reported on Russia’s hacking the DNC as well as the January 6 Intel report. [Faux Noise delinked] Yet, less than 48 hours after a Wikileaks dump of the Vault 7 documents (March 7), Hannity began citing Breitbart’s reporting of the scoop: “WikiLeaks: CIA Uses ‘Stolen’ Malware To ‘Attribute’ Cyberattacks To Nations Like Russia.”

The Fox News host was joined on his show by retired 9/11-truther [Fascist delinked] and torture proponent Army Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Schaffer.

“Sean, we did it. Not me, but our guys, former members of NSA, retired intelligence officers used these tools to break in there and get the information out. That’s what the Democrats don’t want to talk about because it doesn’t fit their narrative,” Shaffer said.

“You’re telling me this whole Russian story that the media has been running with for months and months and months — that it was our people that did it, and they put the fingerprints of the Russians on it?” Hannity asked.

“That’s right,” Shaffer said, although he then admitted on-air he had no proof.

Barf Bag Alert!!

What hogwash! I shared one. Click through for the other four.  RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I have a short time to write before I have to break to dress for my Prosthetics appointment, and I shall append this before I return.

My appointment with Amanda went quite well.  She adjusted George and took an impression of my foot for new diabetic shoes.  I'll set an appointment to return in about three weeks.  TriMet, on the other hand, was horrible.  The got me to my appointment an hour early, so i had a long wait.  My return driver went to the wrong location and reported that I was not there.  At the end of my window, I called to see where my ride was.  Dispatch implied that I was not being truthful that I was there, and told me I had to wait several hours for another ride.  I asked for customer service to complain.  She was skeptical, but said they have software that takes a picture of every no show, and she would download the picture.  When she came back, she had changed her tune, because the picture proved me right.  She said that the software almost always proves the driver was right and apologized.  She sent a free to pick me up at their expense, but I still returned home over two hours late.  ARGH!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today's took me 4:31 (average 5:58).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): 40 Shady Things We Now Know About Trump and Russia | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

We know enough to realize that there is treason afoot. The problem is that Republicans have become the Know Nothing Party. RESIST!!

From Fox News: …Ben Jacobs of The Guardian — walked into the room with a voice recorder, put it up to Gianforte's face and began asking if he had a response to the newly released Congressional Budget Office report on the American Health Care Act. Gianforte told him he would get to him later. Jacobs persisted with his question. Gianforte told him to talk to his press guy, Shane Scanlon.

At that point, Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him. Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the reporter. As Gianforte moved on top of Jacobs, he began yelling something to the effect of, "I'm sick and tired of this!"

Jacobs scrambled to his knees and said something about his glasses being broken. He asked Faith, Keith and myself for our names. In shock, we did not answer. Jacobs then said he wanted the police called and went to leave. Gianforte looked at the three of us and repeatedly apologized. At that point, I told him and Scanlon, who was now present, that we needed a moment. The men then left.

I bet you never thought I would ever post a Faux Noise piece, but they were the only ones there.  It clearly demonstrates that Gianforte's version of what happened is a lie. He said, they said? If anyone would be biased in favor of the Republican, it's Faux. Furthermore, on the air, Faux is hyping Gianforte's lies and ignoring their own reporters. The pig has been charged with assault. Republicans love violence. RESIST!!

From Think Progress: Israel is altering how it shares intelligence with the United States after President Donald Trump shared classified information with Russia in the Oval Office two weeks ago.

Trump, who was meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Kislyak, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington, told both men about a believed threat from ISIS involving bombs buried inside of laptops. That information, the New York Times reported, came from Israel — something that was unconfirmed officially until Trump himself seemingly let it slip while speaking in Israel on Monday, ironically while attempting to defend himself on the issue to the media.

“I never mentioned the word or the name ‘Israel’. Never mentioned during that conversation,” Trump said. “They’re all saying I did, so you have another story wrong. Never mentioned the word ‘Israel.’”

But Israeli officials seem concerned less about being named as the intelligence source and more about the information leaking in general. Intelligence officials reportedly shouted at their U.S. counterparts over the leak, worried that a vital source might have been compromised to Russia — notably an ally of Israel’s regional foe, Iran. Now, the country is taking steps to ensure that the problem doesn’t happen in future.

This is a terrible development for US intelligence. As much as I have opposed Israel's horrid policies toward Palestinians and shall continue to do so, Israel has been our best source of middle eastern intelligence. Where we have only SigInt, Israel has HumInt. Trump has made us all less safe. RESIST.

Cartoon:

It’s another hot humid day, and I did not get much sleep last night.  Tomorrow and Wednesday will be cooler, but it will take a day or too for the excess heat in the interior hallways and bathrooms of the building to moderate.  After my morning Trump making on the throne at 5:45 AM, I had to change my shirt, as the one I had on was wet.  I have a reason for not covering the Manchester Arena attack.  I had MSNBC on for three hours last night through Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and Lawrence O’Donnell, and none of them covered any other news.  They repeated mostly the same information over and over and over again.  I would never downplay the tragic loss suffered by the dead, the injured, the traumatized and their families.  They have been in my thoughts and prayers.  However the losses from that one incident cannot begin to compare to the tragic losses of both life and human suffering that the policies Republicans have wanted for many years will bring.  Therefore, I’ll cover other things that need covering.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:07 (average 5:15).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): This is How Low the Trump Apologists Will Stoop | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

Republicans could not be more desperate to project their Fuhrer’s treason away. One cannot stoop lower than fronting the story with Scumbag Sean and Newtered. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Because he never stops being an entitled jackass:

President Trump’s first major budget proposal on Tuesday will include massive cuts to Medicaid and call for changes to anti-poverty programs that would give states new power to limit a range of benefits …

… The White House also is expected to propose changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, though precise details couldn’t be learned. SNAP is the modern version of food stamps …

Every penny spent to provide for the needs of sick seniors or hungry children is a penny Republicans can’t give to a billionaire. RESIST!!

From NY Times: The Trump administration, in a significant escalation of its clash with the government’s top ethics watchdog, has moved to block an effort to disclose the names of former lobbyists who have been granted waivers to work in the White House or federal agencies.

The latest conflict came in recent days when the White House, in a highly unusual move, sent a letter to Walter M. Shaub Jr., the head of the Office of Government Ethics, asking him to withdraw a request he had sent to every federal agency for copies of the waivers. In the letter, the administration challenged his legal authority to demand the information.

Mr. Shaub returned a scalding, 10-page response to the White House late Monday, unlike just about any correspondence in the history of the office, created after the Nixon Watergate scandal.

“O.G.E. declines your request to suspend its ethics inquiry and reiterates its expectation that agencies will fully comply with its directive,” Mr. Shaub wrote in a letter he also sent to every federal agency ethics officer, six members of Congress who oversee government operations and the inspector generals from agencies governmentwide. “Public confidence in the integrity of government decision making demands no less.”

Kudos to Schaub and O.G.E. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I figure I can get this started before leaving to my Oncologist and finish up when I return.  This is today’s only article.

I was very pleased with my Oncologist.  His preventive strategy is exactly what I wanted and expected.  I’ll set up the cat scans and his office will call me the next day with the results. Here he is.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:30 (average 4:46).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: A large crowd of students walked out of the Notre Dame commencement ceremony on Sunday in protest of the speaker, Vice President Mike Pence, who delivered a speech that mixed platitudes about bright, dream-filled futures with a lengthy rebuke of political correctness on college campuses.

As several dozen students in caps and gowns quietly exited the graduation ceremony, the vice president praised Notre Dame, one of the nation’s most prominent Catholic universities, as “a vanguard of freedom of expression and the free exchange of ideas…

…The protest began as Mr. Pence began his remarks at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind., where degrees were conferred on 2,081 students. Online video of the ceremony showed a large number of young people filing out of the stadium as the vice president began to congratulate the graduates and their families. Around them, the audience erupted into a mixture of boos and applause.

Kudos to the students. Follow their example. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: 26 Year Old H.S. Teacher Wins Primary Against Democratic PA. Mayor Who Backed Trump.

Click Through for details. Kudos! Wonderful!! This, not voting for Russia’s tools like Jill Stein, is how to RESIST!!

From Washington Post: U.S. Rep. Al Green said the phone calls came in not long after he called for the impeachment of President Trump.

“Hey, Al Green, we got an impeachment for you. It’s going to be yours,” one caller said. “Was actually gonna give you a short trial before we hang your n—– ass.”

“You’re not going to impeach anybody, you f—— n—– … You’ll be hanging from a tree,” another one said. “I didn’t see anybody calling for the impeachment of your n—– Obama when he was born in Kenya. He’s not even an American. So f— you, n—–.”

Aha! Reaching out to minorities, the way Republicans do it. I bet AG KKK Beauregard squealed with hooded glee! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

2017 Pact of Shit between Trump and Putin.