Politics Plus

It’s a busy day and the start of a very busy week.  Wendy is here doing light housework.  The clothes are drying, and I’m trying to publish before the Bronco game.  Tomorrow is Halloween and my day to hide, because I’m such a magnificent pussy that Republican monsters will try to grab me.  Tuesday I collect the data for our Monthly Report, but Providence Elder at Home is coming to help me with my Advanced Directive.  Wednesday is Monthly Report, grocery delivery and Wendy day.  Thursday is fasting labs day, and Friday is Physical Terrorist  day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:06 (average 6:08).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: In an unexpected televised address on Saturday, Queen Elizabeth II offered to restore British rule over the United States of America.

Addressing the American people from her office in Buckingham Palace, the Queen said that she was making the offer “in recognition of the desperate situation you now find yourselves in.”

“This two-hundred-and-forty-year experiment in self-rule began with the best of intentions, but I think we can all agree that it didn’t end well,” she said.

The Queen urged Americans to write in her name on Election Day, after which the transition to British rule could begin “with a minimum of bother.”

Dang Andy! I could get behind THAT third party candidate! 😉

From NY Times: The day before the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, sent a letter to Congress announcing that new evidence had been discovered that might be related to the completed Hillary Clinton email investigation, the Justice Department strongly discouraged the step and told him that he would be breaking with longstanding policy, three law enforcement officials said on Saturday.

Senior Justice Department officials did not move to stop him from sending the letter, officials said, but they did everything short of it, pointing to policies against talking about current criminal investigations or being seen as meddling in elections.

At the time Obama appointed Comey as a gesture of bipartisanship, I said that appointing a Republican to head the FBI was a big mistake. I don’t think he supports Trump. Instead, he may have been trying to effect down ballot races.

From Think Progress: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump repeatedly suggests to his supporters that the elections are rigged against him, that undocumented immigrants are “voting all over the country,” and that there is “large scale” voter fraud.

Instances of voter fraud are so rare that only about 31 allegations of voter impersonation fraud have been found since 2000. But when they do occur, they often happen in a much different way than what Trump describes. On Thursday, voter fraud did take place in the form of a U.S. citizen in Iowa who allegedly voted twice for the Republican presidential candidate. And thanks to safeguards in place, the perpetrator was quickly identified and charged.

And the Republican criminal was caught without benefit of repressive Voter ID Laws.  If my memory is correct, virtually all the documented cases of intentional voter fraud were perpetrated by Republicans.

Cartoon:

Yesterday my volunteer trip was somewhat disappointing.  The President of our volunteer group had not done her job coordinating the meeting, because she recently suffered the sudden death of her best friend, and my guys’ new staff adviser seems to be somewhat of a minimalist, where her job is concerned.  My guys did not even know I was coming, until I wheeled into the visiting room.  In addition, since the last time I was there there, over six months ago, the inside group has elected new leadership.  I have never even met the new President, and he didn’t even know that I’m still a board member of the outside organization.  As a result, my only roll was that of observer.  Used as I am to be in the thick of things, it’s was a bitter pill.  At the same time, I have to realize that I just can’t be engaged in the same way I was, as I can visit only around three times a year, instead of being with them in the trenches three times a month.  Instead of being a teacher/facilitator, I must become more of a friend/advocate.   That will take some getting used to.

The trip itself was quite tiring.  Transferring between my chair and a car and back takes all my strength, and I did that twice.  In addition, using the visiting room restroom requires me to leave my chair outside the room,  get through the locked door, and creep to a toilet 20 feet from the chair using my quad cane.  I did it, but when I made it back to the chair I was actually winded.  So I’m really tired today.  I’ll bed back to posting tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:19 (average 4:59).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

I'm having a very busy day.  I have a grocery delivery coming in the next couple hours, and need to unpack them and put them away.  Later Wendy is coming to scrub and de-stink the TomCat, tighten down the nuts and bolts on my power chair, do some light cleaning, and eat both the supper I prepared for her and some sweets to contribute to the Southern Exposure Project.  Tomorrow I'm going to the prison to help facilitate a Victims Impact Meeting, involving several outside victims and up to 100 of my guys.  Because I won't be home until quite late, please assume that I will be publishing Personal Updates only and Thursday and Friday and will not be sending links messages on Care2, so please don't worry.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today's took me 4:10 (average 5:30).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NBC: Defense Secretary Ash Carter ordered the Pentagon on Wednesday to stop clawing-back the bonuses that thousands of soldiers got for reenlisting to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"There is no more important responsibility for the Department of Defense than keeping faith with our people," Carter said in a statement. "That means treating them fairly and equitably, honoring their service and sacrifice, and keeping our word. Today, in keeping with that obligation, I am ordering a series of steps to ensure fair treatment for thousands of California National Guard soldiers who may have received incentive bonuses and tuition assistance improperly as a result of errors and in some cases criminal behavior by members of the California National Guard."

Carter's announcement was greeted with cheers in Kempner, Texas where Don and Susan Haley — both Iraq War veterans — had been struggling to pay back the bonuses they got when they reenlisted a decade ago in the California National Guard.

I trust JD will be most pleased with this.

From US News: A new report finds that the global gender pay gap will not be closed for another 170 years if current trends continue.

 Click through to watch the video.  I had to remove it because it autoplays.

A woman's place is in the House… and the Senate… and the White House… and above the glass ceiling!!

From NY Times: Thanks to recent gains, the Democrats now have a clear but vulnerable lead in the race for Senate control. Prediction markets give them a 78 percent chance of winning control, according to PredictWise.

There are nine competitive races, and the Democrats need to win at least five of them (if they also win the vice-presidency, which breaks Senate ties).

Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, the Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world.

Democrats have seemingly safe leads over Republican incumbents in Illinois and Wisconsin and are also favored in Nevada, Indiana, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. Missouri is a toss-up.

If you see new polls from Pennsylvania and Missouri, pay particular attention. Recent polls have shown the Republicans slightly ahead, but the prediction markets seem to think the polls haven’t yet caught up to the Republicans’ Trump-inflicted wounds.

Keep an eye on North Carolina and Florida, too. The Republicans — Richard Burr in North Carolina and Marco Rubio in Florida, both incumbents — are still favored, but the Democrats have a shot.

I happily endorse every Democrat. Even a DINO is better than a Rump Dump Rectumite!

Cartoon:

The military doesn't want the F-22, but Republicans won't allow its removal from the budget.

I’m rushing today, because my Broncos are on Monday Night Meditation in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  I need to do some schedule juggling for that, and it’s more difficult today, because I’m suffering a mild case of Republicosis.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:58 (average 5:47).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Politico: President Barack Obama will make a late splash into races for state senate and assembly over the next week, endorsing roughly 150 candidates across 20 states.

He’ll also back a candidate for the North Carolina Supreme Court.

The endorsements — which will come along with a variety of robocalls, social media posts, mailers, photos of Obama with the candidates taken as he’s been traveling to campaign in recent weeks, and even a few radio ads — are Obama’s biggest investment in state races ever by far, and come as he gears up to make redistricting reform at the state level the political priority of his post-presidency.

This is the beginning of that effort, an unprecedented engagement all the way down-ballot for any president.

Kudos to Obama. Wherever there is so much as a Republican dog catcher, even dawgs should lift their legs in opposition!

From LA Times: Tom Hayden, a 1960s radical who was in the vanguard of the movement to stop the Vietnam War and became one of the nation’s best-known champions of liberal causes, has died in Santa Monica after a lengthy illness. He was 76.

Hayden vaulted into national politics in 1962 as lead author of a student manifesto that became the ideological foundation for demonstrations against the war.

President Nixon’s Justice Department prosecuted Hayden in the raucous “Chicago 7” trial following the violent clashes with police at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

I knew Tom, and although I often disagreed with him over whether to respond to police brutality passively or violently, he was a great leader in a troubled time, who stayed the course. Thoughts and prayers for all who loved him.

From Daily Kos: …In 2015, Daily Kos Elections published a series of articles where we attempted to draw entirely nonpartisan congressional maps for every state—the sort of maps you’d expect a court or a non-political redistricting commission to produce. These hypothetical maps take into account traditional nonpartisan redistricting criteria, such as respect for the Voting Rights Act, city and county integrity, communities of interest like shared culture or demographics, and geographic compactness, and they ignore things like partisanship or where incumbents live.

We then calculated the 2012 election results for president and other races for these hypothetical districts on the map shown at the top of this post (you can find a larger version here). From there, we estimated how the 2012 House elections might have turned out under these nonpartisan districts to try to measure the impact of gerrymandering.

Our conclusion was both astounding and infuriating: Gerrymandering likely cost Democrats a net of 25 seats in 2012, more than the 17 they needed to claim a majority that year, and far more than the eight they actually did gain.

With only some small exceptions, the same maps will be used again this year, and Daily Kos Elections and other analysts currently project Democratic gains of only around 10 to 20 seats, well short of the 30 the party now needs for a majority, following heavy losses in 2014. As a result, gerrymandering could once again cost Democrats a majority in 2016 even if they win more votes cast in House races nationwide than Republicans do—as they did in 2012.

It is critical that Democrats gain control of State governments in time for the redistricting that follows the 2020 census. Far more Americans will vote for a Democratic Representative than for a Republican next month. Nevertheless, I expect Republicans to hold the House Majority.

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Thanks labor!