Politics Plus

One year ago today, I passed out in my doorway, and the next thing I knew I was in the hospital, having lost a leg, having almost died, and having spent almost a month in a coma.  Fortunately, I have no plans to make that an annual event, but it does give me pause to reflect on how grateful I am to be alive, because there is more for me to accomplish.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:04 (average 4:46).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From NY Times: Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate for president, may be on track to win more votes than any third-party candidate in 20 years, if current polling holds up.

Who are his supporters?

Mr. Johnson, a former Republican governor of New Mexico, is relying heavily on the backing of young people and independent voters disillusioned with the two major parties’ nominees.

Some Berners consider Johnson a Bernie-lite, but don’t believe it! Johnson supports pseudo-Christian theocratic legislation, dog whistle restrictions on voting rights, open-carry anywhere, spending public funds for private school vouchers, and privatizing social security. He opposes EPA regulation, any restriction of gun ownership, a public option or single payer health plan, prioritizing green energy, infrastructure spending, and higher taxes on the super-rich. In summary, he’s just a pro-pot Republican.

From Crooks and Liars: Silly Chris Wallace. He seems to be under the impression that someone might mistake him for an actual journalist. As we already discussed here, Wallace has been chosen to be one of the moderators for the upcoming presidential debates. He checked in this Sunday on his buddy Howard Kurtz’s show, Media Buzz and was asked what he thought his role would be as moderator.

Faux Barf Bag Alert!!

You can be sure that that you will see massive favoritism for Rump Dump, who will be allowed any lie, in the last debate.

From Robert Reich: THE REALITY OF FREE TRADE DEALS

Free trade is figuring prominently in the upcoming presidential election. Donald Trump is against it. Hillary Clinton has expressed qualms.

As always, the Reich on the Left is right, except his statement that Trump is against it. That’s a lie to cover-up the way he exports American jobs for his own profit every day!

Cartoon:

I was so very tired that I overslept this morning.  The first thing I noticed was the quiet.  Looking out my window, I saw that all the heavy equipment is gone, so I’m hoping that means that they’re done for good, not just for the weekend.  After breakfast, I slept most of the morning, and feel ready to sleep some more as soon as my articles are up.  Please take care.  Republicans often drive as insanely as they vote.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:15 (average 4:41).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Media Matters: New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman reported in his September 2 cover story on the fall of Fox News chairman Roger Ailes:

Fox News also obtained the phone records of journalists, by legally questionable means. According to two sources with direct knowledge of the incident, Brandi, Fox’s general counsel, hired a private investigator in late 2010 to obtain the personal home- and cell-phone records of Joe Strupp, a reporter for the liberal watchdog group Media Matters. (Through a spokesperson, Brandi denied this.) In the fall of that year, Strupp had written several articles quoting anonymous Fox sources, and the network wanted to determine who was talking to him. “This was the culture. Getting phone records doesn’t make anybody blink,” one Fox executive told me.

I think Media Matters and Strupp could (and should) unbalance the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, with a lawsuit to make their bank account several $million lighter.

From Daily Kos: The Clinton campaign lays out the contrast between what Donald Trump—with an eager assist from media outlets like the New York Times—has been falsely accusing the Clinton Foundation of doing and what the Trump Foundation really did do:

"Donald Trump has been falsely attacking the charity run by President Clinton when it is Trump’s own Foundation that has been caught in an actual pay-to-play scandal.

"While the Clinton Foundation has received the highest ratings from independent charitable watchdogs, Donald Trump’s use of foundation money to donate to the Florida Attorney General actually broke the law. Worst of all, it appears the payment may have been intended to stave off an investigation into the sham Trump University that has ripped off unsuspecting students.

"Donald Trump has no standing whatsoever to question the Clinton Foundation, which works to make AIDS and malaria drugs more accessible, when it’s been proven he uses his own foundation to launder illegal campaign donations."

There you have it. This criminal quid quo pro bribery from Trump is so typical of how the Republican Party projects their own crimes onto their opponents.

From Think Progress: Arizona Republicans, who are scrambling to help Sen. John McCain win the “fight of his political life,” unveiled a poster this week depicting the face of McCain’s Democratic challenger surrounded by bullet holes.

The Wild West-themed poster accuses Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) — who is polling neck and neck with McCain — of not holding enough public events during her campaign.

The image has outraged many in the state, as it comes just five years after another Arizona Democratic congresswoman was shot in the head at a public event.

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ), who survived the attempted assassination in 2011 but remains partially paralyzed with limited speech, joined the chorus of voices demanding the state GOP remove the “irresponsible” poster and apologize.

This one is even more blatant than the one Bloody Bullseye Barbie used to inspire Jared Lee Loughner, the defective Republican terrorist that shot Gabby.

Cartoon:

I spent the morning collecting the data and preparing the graphics for tomorrow’s Monthly Report.  That part actually takes considerably more time than writing the article.  I’m feeling quite tired, as I’ve been unable to nap.  When the weather started to cool, the city began a street repair project right below me.  For the last four days the noise has been deafening almost continuously from sunup to sundown.  Often there have been multiple jackhammers going at once.  ARGH!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:10 (average 4:55).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Donald Trump’s immigration speech on Wednesday night was described here as “fascism in it’s [sic] purest, most vile form, slathered in an unbroken stream of lies,” while most in the media tip-toed around, trying to explain it all away. So, who was praising the speech? 

There was the former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan:

A noted white supremacist and the founder of American Renaissance:

The editors of the white supremacist website VDARE:

In addition, Trump lied about his conversation with Peña Nieto. The Mexican President told him that he would not pay for Trump’s wall!

From NY Times: A deadlocked Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to revive parts of a restrictive North Carolina voting law that a federal appeals court had struck down as an unconstitutional effort to “target African Americans with almost surgical precision.”

The court was divided 4 to 4, with the court’s more conservative members voting to revive parts of the law. The court’s brief order included no reasoning.

North Carolina’s law, which imposed an array of voting restrictions, including new voter identification requirements, was enacted by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature in 2013. It was part of a wave of voting restrictions enacted after a 5-to-4 Supreme Court decision that effectively struck down a central part of the federal Voting Rights Act, weakening federal oversight of voting rights.

Challenges to the laws have met with considerable success in recent months, and Wednesday’s development suggested that the current eight-member Supreme Court is not likely to undo those victories.

We so need to dump Reichsfuhrer Roberts, Scalito, TEAbag Thomas, and Ku Klux Kennedy, all of whom voted against the Constructional right to vote.

From The Rachel Maddow Show: Trump anti-immigrant speech follows dark pattern of US history

Rachel Maddow shows how throughout American history, when normal politics breaks down, fringe voices gain prominence scapegoating immigrant groups. Duration: 16:12

After the Whig Party disappeared, a new progressive party sprung up to the left of the Democratic Party, and that Republican Party was wonderful, until it was coopted by Banksters, shifted right, and began the long slide to become the vile Reich it now is. It is my hope that the Republican Party disappears, and afterwards, a new progressive party will spring up to the left of the Democratic Party.

Cartoon:

Republicans cheered!

This is the first day in weeks that I’ve made it until Noon without having to turn on the A/C.  I took a much-needed nap, and am ready for more.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:36 (average 5:45).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From KP Daily Funnies: How ISIS Really Feels About Trump

I have no doubt that the Daesh would be almost as happy to see Rump Dump in the White House, as Putin would.

From TPM: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) — the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and thus a major player in the GOP Senate’s refusal to confirm President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee — opened the door to confirming Judge Merrick Garland in a lame-duck session, even as he continued to defend Republicans’ stance that the successor to the late Justice Antonin Scalia should be chosen by the next president.

At a question and answer session in Sioux City Monday, Grassley told attendees that, "It had nothing to do with Garland," but there was an "understanding" that Supreme Court vacancies that opened in up in a president’s final year should not be filled by that president, according to the Sioux City Journal.

But, he added, his blockade on considering Garland might lift if enough of his GOP colleagues express a desire to push the judge through after the election.

This is what Snake in the Grassley is actually saying. If Clinton wins the election, and if Democrats win control of the Senate, Republicans are likely to confirm Garland, a moderate appointee, so that Hillary cannot replace the currently sizzling Injustice Sturmbannführer Scalia with a more liberal Justice than Garland would be. Once the election is over, I hope Obama will remove Garland’s name from nomination, since Obama originally nominated him as someone he thought Republicans might accept.

From PoliticusUSA: Donald Trump and his for-profit presidential campaign thought they had the market cornered after winning the Republican nomination, but an enterprising fellow grifter invaded Trump’s turf and stole $1 million from his supporters (marks).

Because Donald Trump has no digital campaign operation to speak of, a grifter by the name of Ian Hawes was able to establish a super PAC and begin raising money by running a contest that promised the winner would get to have dinner with Donald Trump.

The money came pouring in, but there was a problem. Donors (marks) thought that they were giving to the Trump campaign. Democrats have run fundraising contests like this one for years, so donors (marks) were easily fooled into believing that the man who lives in Trump Tower would come down from his penthouse and share a quick trip through the McDonalds drive thru with them.

The donors (marks) never read the fine print of the contest that stated that the super PAC was only going to purchase two tickets to a future Trump fundraiser. There was no dinner alone with Trump.

Trump was livid that someone was smart enough to exploit his donors (marks) better than he could so he did what Donald Trump does best.

FOMCROTFPIMPLMAO!! Stupid !!!

Cartoon: