Politics Plus

It's a very busy day, and the tasks at hand keep increasing faster than the available timed to do then.  Just finding material for today's articles.  I shall catch up sooner or later.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today's took me 3:22 (average 5:39).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Ecstasy:

They did not make the playoffs.  Mike Shanahan announced his retirement yesterday.  I'm hoping they tap Wade Phillips.

Fantasy Football Report:

This is the final report of the year for our own Fantasy Football league, Lefty Blog Friends.

Playoffs:

Scoreboard:

Congrats to Jack for winning the playoffs.  I have already submitted my intent to keep the league going.  If you will not be participating next year, please let me know ASAP.

Short Takes:

From The Hill: Senate and House Republicans are headed for a clash over whether to tackle Medicare reform under President-elect Donald Trump.

Senate Republican leaders prefer to focus narrowly on an ObamaCare replacement bill that does not contain changes to Medicare — a cautious approach that reflects their slim majority.

But House Republicans, firmly in control of the lower chamber, want to aim higher. They say unified Republican control of government is a chance to finally enact the entitlement reforms that they’ve been talking about for years.

Rep. Pete Roskam (R-Ill.), a member of the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over healthcare, said voters have endorsed the Republican argument that Medicare needs to be reformed.

This is not an either/or issue. It's None of the Above! RESIST!!

From CNN: A Texas lawmaker is lucky to be alive after an apparently stray bullet hit his head during a New Year's celebration early Sunday, authorities said.

State Rep. Armando "Mando" Martinez, D-Weslaco, said his wife had just given him a kiss shortly after ringing in the new year with family and friends, and the next thing he knew, "it felt like a sledgehammer hit me over the head."

A bullet fragment had just punctured the top of the south Texas legislator's head.

Martinez said he had just stepped outside a home in a rural neighborhood north of Weslaco when he was hit.

IMHO, they should be looking for the one of Fuhrer's Ammosexual assassins.  RESIST!!

From HRW: Some senior Israeli officials have been encouraging Israeli soldiers and police to kill Palestinians they suspect of attacking Israelis even when they are no longer a threat, Human Rights Watch said today in an analysis of those statements. Other Israeli officials have failed to repudiate the calls for excessive use of force.

Human Rights Watch has documented numerous statements since October 2015, by senior Israeli politicians, including the police minister and defense minister, calling on police and soldiers to shoot to kill suspected attackers, irrespective of whether lethal force is actually strictly necessary to protect life.

“It’s not just about potentially rogue soldiers, but also about senior Israeli officials who publicly tell security forces to unlawfully shoot to kill,” said Sari Bashi, Israel advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “Whatever the results of trials of individual soldiers, the Israeli government should issue clear directives to use force only in accordance with international law.

I bet Butcher Bibi's butt buddy, the Fuhrer, wants popcorn to munch, while they watch the videos.  RESIST!!

Cartoon:

It’s the last day of what has turned out to be the worst year for the US in our history.  The Siberian candidate is upon us. For me tomorrow is a perfect storm day.  I need to transition all my personal record keeping, all my prison volunteer group record keeping, and all the tools I use to manage my PP writing to 2017.  In addition, it’s the day I do the data collection for the PP monthly report, which may be a day or two late.  On top of that, It’s a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos went from Super Bowl Champs to not even making the playoffs, so tomorrow is their last meditation of the year against the Raiders.  It will be televised here.  And finally, it’s a Wendy day.  In short, I’ll be trying to put five pounds of shit in a one pound bag.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:37 (average 6:00).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (TYT Channel): Former New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino is in hot water after publicly posting racist comments on Facebook. Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, John Iadarola, and Grace Baldridge, hosts of The Young Turks, discuss.

Paladino is a Republican. Would that all racists, Republicans, were fired for their hate speech. "I’m so tired of liberals going out of our way to be fair to fucking assholes!" Kudos to Ana Kasparian! Big time AMEN!  RESIST!!

From The Hill: President-elect Donald Trump is considering George Conway, husband of top adviser and former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, to be the next U.S. solicitor general, Bloomberg reported Friday citing two sources familiar with the matter.

I’m not surprised that George Conway is getting a pimp fee for the Fuhrer’s grabbing activities.  RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: The Portland Press Herald is reporting M.D. Harmon, a well-known conservative newspaper columnist, has died after a gun was improperly fired in his home by a visiting teenager. Harmon was showing one of his guns to the young man:

Police say the 71-year-old Harmon died at his home on Brunell Avenue after a handgun he was showing a teenage boy went off. The 16-year-old boy was handling the gun at the time.

Harmon, a steadfast defender of gun rights and champion of conservative viewpoints, was a longtime Maine Sunday Telegram and Press Herald editor and columnist. He worked for the newspapers for 41 years before retiring in 2011, although he continued writing a weekly column.

Republican Ammosexual karma!  RESIST!!

Cartoon:

News is still in short supply, unless one wishes to repeat the same stories, day after day, where only the individual identities of the targets of hatred from the Fuhrer and Republican Rectum Reich are new.  Nevertheless, I’m back in the saddle.  Yesterday’s bank run proved most interesting.  In the shower, Stumpy had bee3n hanging down without a shrinker, causing him to expand, and the hot water made it worse, so as I dressed to go out, Stumpy would not fit into George.  Thankfully, Wendy accompanied me to the bank, and in return, I treated her to burritos from a neighborhood food cart.  Fortunately George popped on without difficulty today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:52 (average 4:53).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: As the Republican Congress prepares to vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act, gutting Social Security benefits for seniors and the disabled, and other measures to please their billionaire donor base, they are apparently deathly afraid of the American public seeing them do it, and even more afraid of allowing the public to see the Democrats’ response:

House members could be fined and referred to the Ethics Committee if they break rules governing electronic video and pictures in the House chamber under a new rule proposed by House Republicans more than six months after the Democrats’ guerrilla sit-in over gun control.

"Any subsequent offense will be assessed at the higher amount, regardless of whether it is connected to any other offense by time or proximity," part of the proposal reads.

The “fine" would be $500 for the "first offense" of photographing or videotaping, with $2500 for every "subsequent offense," according to the proposed Rule.

In addition, the new Republican rule would ban anyone from seeing organized protests by the opposition, because sit-ins in the House well will be banned as well.

The First Amendment is suspended for the Republican Rectum Reich.  RESIST!!

From Robert Reich: [Resident]-elect Donald Trump is accusing President Obama of putting up “roadblocks” to a smooth transition.

In reality, I think President Obama has been too cooperative with Trump.

In the waning days of his administration, I’d recommend Obama take the following last stands:

1. Name Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution gives the President power to fill any vacancy during the recess of the Senate. The Supreme Court is no exception: Justice William Brennan began his Court tenure with a recess appointment in 1956. Any appointments made this way expire at the end of the next Senate session. So if Obama appointed Garland on January 3, the appointment would last until December 2017, the end of the first session of the 115th Congress.

The Reich on the left is right. I shared one. Click through for the other six. I particularly like number three.  RESIST!!

From The Rachel Maddow Show:

Taking credit where credit is NOT dueVice President Biden’s Former Economic Advisor Jared Bernstein talks to Ari Melber about how Trump is trying to take credit for job growth when his policies could very well undermine his constituents.

You can be sure that, as soon as the Pumpkin Plutocrat is responsible for any economic developments, he will give "credit" for them to Democrats.  RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I’m waiting for my grocery delivery from Safeway.com to arrive.  It’s another slow day for news.  Last night, Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell all took the night off.  My YouTube subscriptions were more nekkid than a TomCat in a depilatory factory.  The Gray Lady looked anorexic.  Therefore this is today’s only article.  Tomorrow, I may have no more than a Personal Update.  Because Wendy is off from school, she wants to come in the morning, instead of the evening.  When she’s done, I have to go out to the bank, because it’s the only day this week with no rain, snow or ice forecast.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:53 (average 5:34).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest in our own fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends.

Congrats to Matt and Robb for making it to the championship game.

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Undeterred by a resounding defeat at the United Nations, Israel’s government said Monday that it would move ahead with thousands of new homes in East Jerusalem and warned nations against further action, declaring that Israel does not “turn the other cheek.”

Just a few days after the United Nations Security Council voted to condemn Israeli settlements, Jerusalem’s municipal government signaled that it would not back down: The city intends to approve 600 housing units in the predominantly Palestinian eastern section of town on Wednesday in what a top official called a first installment on 5,600 new homes.

The defiant posture reflected a bristling anger among Israel’s pro-settlement political leaders, who not only blamed the United States for failing to block the Council resolution, but also claimed to have secret intelligence showing that President Obama’s team had orchestrated it. American officials strongly denied the claim, but the sides seem poised for more weeks of conflict until Mr. Obama hands over the presidency to Donald J. Trump.

At that point, Butcher Bibi can complete the slaughter of the Palestinian people, while Resident Nincompoop Nazi watches and cheers. Resist!!

From Liberals Unite!: Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles)  told MSNBC’s Jacob Soboroff that she would refuse to meet with Trump at the White House and vowing to “fight him every inch of the way.”

Suboroff began the interview asking if Rep. Waters agreed with Senate Minority Leader Chuch Schumer’s strategy to work with Trump whenever possible or if she thought that “Democrats are being too nice” to the president-elect.

Waters blasted Trump in response telling Soboroff: “I tell you, that has been a problem in my party. That when we are in power, we’re nice. We bend over backwards to work with people.”

Spot on Maxine! Would that all Democrats had such big brass balls! Resist!!

From Salon.com: Julian Assange — who once argued that “since unjust systems, by their nature induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of government” — came out with high praise for both President-elect Donald Trump and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Friday.

I know many progressives consider this criminal a hero. This confirms my repeated claim to the contrary, since he became Putin’s stooge. Resist!!

Cartoon: