It looks like we have three days in the high 70°s, before the excessive heat returns to Portland on Wednesday. We had our blog’s fantasy football draft yesterday. By lot, I drafted last. Even though, it was the worst position, I think I did well. Wendy just left, and I feel so clean. I was getting really stinky. Tomorrow I have a routine appointment with my Podiatrist, so please expect no more than a Personal Update.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:23. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NY Times: Donald Trump is heading to November like a certain zeppelin heading to New Jersey, in a darkening sky that crackles with electricity. He is fighting crosswinds and trying new tacks — hiring the head of Breitbart News to run his campaign, trying on a new emotion (regret) in a speech on Thursday night, promising to talk more this week about immigration, his prime subject. There’s still no telling what will happen when the gasbag reaches the mooring.
It could be that the polls are right, and Mr. Trump will go down in flames. But while that will solve an immediate problem, a larger one will remain. The message of hatred and paranoia that is inciting millions of voters will outlast the messenger. The toxic effects of Trumpism will have to be addressed.
In this case, I disagree with the Gray Lady. Trump is the symptom, not the disease. Racial hatred is not Trumpism, nor is Rump Dump even it’s messenger. Racial hatred is Republicanism. And Trump is just the disobedient parrot of that message, as he squawks when he’s supposed to be dog whistling.
From PoliticusUSA: Yes. It is true. Conservatives are freaking out because lesbians can be farmers too. And apparently there is something wrong with that. What has them all worked up is the “Iowa LGBT Rural Summit,” which took place on August 18 at Drake Law School. To make matters worse, the summit was co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which joined with the National Center for Lesbian Rights…
…So yeah. Pretty scary stuff for right wingers who can never find enough stuff about which to be frightened. Rush Limbaugh launched into one of his famously incoherent rants over it, exclaiming,
“Have you heard the latest Democrat scam? Have you heard about the Agriculture Department’s financial grants to lesbian farmers? You think I’m making this up? See, this is how they do it.”
Dang!! I’d better check to make sure my breakfast cereal doesn’t have a wet spot! Seriously, I could not make this stuff up!!!
Yesterday the temperature hit 102°. Today may well be worse. My A/C is holding it’s own, but the building’s hallways and restrooms have become super-heated. After my morning regal trip to the throne at 5:30 AM, taken to contemplate the odor of the Republican Party, I had to change my shirt to one that wasn’t sweat-soaked. Today I plan to write, attend the live draft of our fantasy football league, care for personal needs, and as little else as I can.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:25 (average 5:03). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The Nation: If you watch cable news, you’ve seen someone from an outfit called the “Independent Women’s Forum” promoting a conservative take on the women’s issue of the day. It’s no secret that the group leans right; it grew out of “Women for Judge Thomas,” which formed during Anita Hill’s testimony about Clarence Thomas at his 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing, and was formally launched in 1992 by the late Barbara Olson and Rosalie “Ricky” Silberman, along with a cadre of powerful conservative women that included former second lady Lynne Cheney. Still, it’s always billed itself as “non-partisan” and “independent.” In its early years, it promoted IWF-affiliated author Christina Hoff Sommers’s brand of “equity feminism” and opposed the “radical feminism” of the ’90s women’s movement, which it argued was pushing myths about sexual harassment, pay inequities, and discrimination in the workplace and widespread abuse on college campuses. For years it played no formal role in electoral politics.
But an analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), provided exclusively to The Nation, reveals that since 2010, IWF and its political arm, Independent Women’s Voice, have become aggressive players in Republican politics, embedded in the network of organizations backed by Charles and David Koch, advocating for the Koch brothers’ myriad concerns, and playing on their “independent” label to elect GOP candidates. If this country is to elect its first woman president, Hillary Clinton will have to face down this powerful conservative women’s group to get there.
From Media Matters: The Fox Cycle is the process by which Fox News pushes right-wing fringe stories into the mainstream news. Fox distorts facts, spreads myths as truths and devotes heavy, one-sided coverage to make viewers believe in baseless, manufactured stories — and, worse, to convince mainstream media outlets to cover these lies.
Example:
Barf Bag Alert!!
That’s exactly how the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, deceives the .
From Daily Kos: Yet another story whose full import won’t be discussed anywhere that the majority of Americans are likely to see it:
After the Director of the FBI fully exonerated Hillary Clinton and made clear that she broke no laws and told no lies, House Republicans took the extraordinary step of demanding copies if the FBI’s notes from its interview with Clinton. That request was granted, and almost immediately, information from those notes began leaking to the media. The trouble: every word of those notes is, by definition, classified information.
Jennifer Palmieri, the Communications Director for the Hillary Clinton campaign, tweeted this evening that she “Would remind all that this material is classified. So this is leaking of classified material.” Clinton Campaign Chair John Podesta added that he’s “Already hearing from people who have been contacted by reporters with knowledge of the content of their interviews in FBI 302’s.”
This is GOP SOP. As a rule Republicans break the law, leak classified information, and threaten national security to gain even a slight political advantage. Don’t take my word for it. Just remember Valerie Plame.
Have you actually tried to have a conversation with a Trump supporter? Even when it’s not about politics, you can’t reason with them. The other day one that works in the building told me that my A/C would work just fine with the tube that carries the heated air out the window disconnected. No explanation about how an A/C works would convince him. To get my A/C reconnected, I had to end run around him to another staff member. I’ve known this for some time, but this morning I say a video that shocked even me. It was of a mock focus group. The material was absurd by intent, but the Trump Supporters, were quite real.
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog has been running a “Triumph Summer Election Special 2016” on Hulu. It’s kind of amazing. One of the bits Triumph and crew did was bring in a group of Trump supporters, ostensibly to be a “focus group” for a new set of campaign advertisements that Donald Trump wanted to roll out. However, the advertisements are outrageous—even for Donald Trump (maybe?).
The first advertisement takes on the issue of transgender people and bathrooms. A voice actor doing a pretty good Trump impression can be heard over the commercial. The turn in this first ad is the proposal to put guns in every women’s bathroom.
The second ad takes on the “women’s issue” for Trump. It starts with a voice over by Trump:
I’m a big fan of women and they’re big fans of me. Some want to vote for Crooked Hillary just because she’s a woman … but it she?
From there it goes into a series of conspiratorial questions wondering aloud whether Barack Obama is actually a woman and Hillary Clinton is actually a man. It’s kind of extraordinary. At every point, they show the people being “focused grouped” try to bend their minds to the concepts being put forth in these “advertisements.”…
I call these Trump Supporters Republican Rectumites, because of the place they store their head to keep any light from getting in. But before you laugh at them too much, consider this. They are common. They breed prolifically. And they will ALL vote and work tirelessly to get others of comparable intellect to do so.
Today is the worst day of the heat wave so far. It’s before Noon and already 90°. 97° is forecast, but it will be hotter. My A/C is holding its own, albeit barely. While not comfortable, I’m not miserable either, as long as I remain quiet and expend little energy. Would you all please keep Nameless in your thoughts and prayers? He has an important medical appointment.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:50 (average 5:05). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Fantasy Football:
Lefty Blog Friends players, our live draft is tomorrow (Saturday) at 1 PM PDT (2 PM MDT, 3 PM CDT, 4 PM EDT). Feel free to contact me with questions.
Rump Dump target practice? Now that’s what I call a happy ending!!
From The New Yorker: President Obama is vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard when he should be hard at work running ISIS, Donald Trump charged on Thursday.
In an interview with Fox News, the Republican Presidential nominee said that Obama’s preference for golfing in favor of the demanding day-to-day work of running a terrorist organization shows “what a disaster he has been” at the helm of the Islamic State.
“Frankly, he doesn’t deserve to call himself the founder of ISIS,” Trump told Fox’s Sean Hannity. “He is a disgrace.”
Dang Andy!! That’s absurd enough for him to say! If Rump Dump were running his eternal resting place, Hell would need to import portable heaters for frost abatement.
From Alternet: The reign of record hot months in 2016 continues, with last month claiming the title of hottest July on record globally, according to data released by NASA on Monday.
The streak means that 2016 is still well on its way to upsetting last year as the hottest year on record. Or as Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, said on Twitter, there is still a 99 percent chance 2016 will take the top slot.
Every month so far this year has been record hot. In NASA’s data, that streak goes back to October 2015, which was the first month in its data set that was more than 1˚C hotter than average.
I can name two people who believe it: the Squatch and I.
Portland continues under an excessive heat warning through the weekend. My A/C kept it cooler last night, but as the temperature approaches 70° early in the morning, the humidity is 92%. I’m getting very little sleep. Tomorrow and Saturday will be the worst of the days.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today'[s took me 2:45 (average 4:24). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Fantasy Football Update:
Lefty Blog Friends players, our live draft is this Saturday at 1 PM PDT (2 PM MDT, 3 PM CDT, 4 PM EDT). Feel free to contact me with questions.
Short Takes:
From KP Daily Funnies: Daily Show: Uncovering Discrimination in the Baltimore Police Department
Very little about this video is funny. That Rump Dump used a spiel to dog-whistle racist Republicans, under the guise of asking for Black support, is just… Republican!
From NY Times: Donald J. Trump named as his new campaign chief on Wednesday a conservative media provocateur whose news organization regularly attacks the Republican Party establishment, savages Hillary Clinton and encourages Mr. Trump’s most pugilistic instincts.
Mr. Trump’s decision to make Stephen K. Bannon, chairman of the Breitbart News website, his campaign’s chief executive was a defiant rejection of efforts by longtime Republican hands to wean him from the bombast and racially charged speech that helped propel him to the nomination but now threaten his candidacy by alienating the moderate voters who typically decide the presidency
I have to wonder, is it possible for Rump Dump to make a worse choice than the head of Breitfart?
The day is going poorly so far. My A/C tubing came loose last night. I can’t see to fix it. If I could, I won’t fit in that corner. Building maintenance said they’ll come when they can, but are not sure when. Portland is now under an excessive heat warning through the weekend. In addition, today is a grocery delivery day. Late this afternoon, Wendy will be here for my care. I imagine I may be very stinky by then.
Maintenance arrived over two hours later. Even though the temperature was still under 70° outside, it was over 85° in here, because the sun had hit the brickwork and was superheating it. Fortunately, they were able to reconnect the exhaust hose.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:25 (average 5:23). To do it, click here. How did you do?
"Under those eight years, before Obama came along, we didn’t have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack in the United States. They all started when Clinton and Obama got into office."
And to think we used to call him Rudi 911! Nevertheless Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian terrorists are a far more deadly threat to the US than the Republican Supply-side pseudo-Muslims of Al Qaeda and the Daesh.
From NY Times: Hillary Clinton does not dispute that the presidential campaign is going well for her at the moment.
But she would rather not dwell on it.
“Don’t be complacent, my friends!” she told supporters on Tuesday inside a high school gym in West Philadelphia. “Even though we’re doing fine right now, I’m not taking anyone, anywhere, for granted.”
As Mrs. Clinton seizes polling advantages over Donald J. Trump in essentially every traditional swing state, her team is working to keep supporters energized and engaged, reminding them that winning public surveys in August is worth exactly zero electoral votes in November.
It is late and I cannot sleep because of the heat and humidity, currently at 88%. To make matters worse, my one neighbour has been in and out slamming the door each time, as well as running up and down her stairs with lead feet. This is not the first time for her antics. I have been awakened by her before. Temperatures on Friday and into the weekend are supposed to hit 33 C (92 F) — oh joy! NOT! — with high humidity. Tomorrow I have physio and then I will relax in the heat if I can.
Short Takes
CBC — Mauril Bélanger, the long-serving Liberal member of Parliament for Ottawa-Vanier, has died at age 61. Bélanger was diagnosed wIt is late and I cannot sleep because of the heatith ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, following the 2015 federal election, and his condition had deteriorated rapidly.
Mauril Bélanger 15/06/1955 – 16/08/2016
Honourary Speaker of the House
At the moment when Bélanger should have been celebrating his eighth electoral triumph as the member of Parliament for Ottawa-Vanier, he had struggled to find his voice to make a victory speech.
And yet even in his final days, Bélanger summoned his remaining strength eight months later to attend a vote in the House of Commons where his colleagues backed his private member's bill to make the lyrics of the national anthem more representative of all Canadians.
That vote on 15 June 2016, Bélanger's 61st birthday, resulted in the approval of Bill C – 210 which changed the second line to "in all of us command " from "in all thy sons command". And as sick as he was, he came into the House to vote. In the video above, if you are trying to listen to the words, the first two lines are in English, with some subsequent lines in French. I know the French version and can tell you it does not translate directly to the English version.
I brought to you short takes about Mauril Bélanger back on 30/01 and 12/03/2016. This is an incredible legacy for Mauril Bélanger who championed this change for years.
RobertReich.org — It looks increasingly likely that Hillary Clinton, a self-described “progressive who likes to get things done,” will have her chance starting next January. But how much that’s progressive will she actually be able to get done?
The Senate may flip to the Democrats but there’s almost no way Democrats will get the sixty votes they need to stop Republicans from filibustering everything she says she wants to do.
She’s unlikely to have a typical presidential honeymoon because she won’t be riding a wave of hope and enthusiasm that typically accompanies a new president into office. She’s already more distrusted by the public than any major candidate in recent history. On Election Day many Americans will be choosing which candidate they loathe the least. …
Even if Hillary sincerely intends to raise taxes on rich Americans in order to pay for universal child care, affordable higher education, and infrastructure spending, the moneyed interests have the clout to stop her.
They’ll also resist any effort to raise the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour, require employers to offer paid family leave, or push them to share their profits with employees.
The heart of American politics is now a vicious cycle in which big money has enough political influence to get laws and regulations that make big money even bigger, and prevent laws and rules that threaten its wealth and power.
Before Hillary can accomplish anything important, that vicious cycle has to be reversed. But how? …
The pragmatist in her must know that the only way her ideas will make it in real life is if the public is organized and mobilized behind them.
Which means that once she enters the Oval Office, she’ll need the countervailing power of a progressive movement – ironically, much like the one her primary opponent championed.
I read an article recently that stated that the Green Party needs to build its base substantially in order to be viable. Recently, TC commented (probably not for the first time) that any third party needs to start building on 15 November of an election year. Bernie has miraculously built a substantial base, one that challenged Clinton during the primaries. He launched a political revolution and has committed to moving forward with it. Part of that commitment means holding Clinton's feet to the fire. Personally, I think Bernie has a better chance of revolutionising the Democratic Party than the Greens have of becoming viable.
Raw Story — Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) revived and justified Republican criticisms against Khizr Khan on Tuesday, telling CNN host Jake Tapper that the Democratic Party “used him” irresponsibly during their party convention last month.
“Because he had a son that he lost to terror, that gives him a free ride to say what he would like against a candidate that he’s not for?” Perry asked Tapper. “That’s not proper, that’s not correct.”
Lost a son to terror?? Capt Khan was killed in Iraq during a war started by George W Bush and his cronies over oil but under the guise of weapons of mass destruction. How is that terror? And since when can one not comment on a political candidate who is in a race to run the nation (in the case of Drumpf, to 'ruin the nation')? That is a prime time to gather facts, form opinions etc. And of course, the first amendment — freedom of speech — also applies to Mr Khan. I also take exception to Perry claiming he is for service families because he writes the letters. But hey, did he lose a son as did Mr Khan? Little Ricky Oops! Perry is milking this for his own glory.
Youtube — This one is strictly to make you smile.
My Universe — This is a truly magnificent sight! My understanding is that these kayakers were near a nursing humpback and her calf. The breaching was likely done by the rest of the pod to protect the mother and babe. The location is near Campbell River BC, on the east coast of Vancouver Island, little more than half way up the Island. More over, this is a well known playground for various types of whales.
The weather remains somewhat hot but excessively humid today and tomorrow. Then Portland will be back under an Excessive Heat Warning from Thursday through Sunday, so it looks like no relief in the Cat Box. The big problem is that, as tired as I feel, it’s too damn sticky to get comfortable to sleep.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:31 (average 4:40). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Fantasy Football Update:
Lefty Blog Friends players, our live draft is this Saturday at 1 PM PDT (2 PM MDT, 3 PM CDT, 4 PM EDT). Feel free to contact me with questions.
Short Takes:
From USA Today: Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is consolidating the support of the Millennials who fueled Bernie Sanders’ challenge during the primaries, a new USA TODAY/Rock the Vote Poll finds, as Republican Donald Trump heads toward the worst showing among younger voters in modern American history.
The survey shows Clinton trouncing Trump 56%-20% among those under 35, though she has failed so far to generate the levels of enthusiasm Sanders did — and the high turn-out that can signal — among Millennials.
"I get worried about the bigoted element of our country, and that they will stick with Trump regardless of his stupidity," says Elizabeth Krueger, 31, an actress in New York City who was among those surveyed. She supports Clinton. "She is not going to be a perfect president, but who would be?"
It’s good to see that most of the Bernie supporters are separating themselves from those on the left who think our nation is better served by their hatred of Hillary than by their support for Bernie.
From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump lashed out at a new target on Monday, blaming his bad poll numbers on the existence of the numerical system.
In sometimes rambling remarks at an outdoor rally in Ohio, the Republican Presidential nominee called the numerical system “rigged” and unleashed a torrent of abuse on numbers themselves, calling them “disgusting” and “the lowest form of life.”
“It’s why I won’t release my taxes,” he said. “They’re full of goddam numbers.”
While Republican candidates in the past have attempted to exploit their supporters’ distrust of math, Trump is believed to be the first nominee to call into question the numerical system itself.
Dang Andy!! Before you know it he’ll blame ME for math!
From Alternet: Hillary Clinton earned a powerful progressive endorsement Tuesday, landing the support of the Working Families Party, which enthusiastically endorsed Clinton’s rival Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary.
“The change we need next year starts with electing Secretary Clinton, but it doesn’t end there,” WFP National Director Dan Cantor said in a press release, noting its major platform concerns include the student debt crisis, money in politics, racial injustice and climate change.
The group says it plans to pressure the Clinton administration to follow through with her progressive campaign promises. Clinton was forced to the left on several issues during the hard-fought primary battle; following Sanders’ concession speech, she laid out an economic plan that promised to tackle student debt and oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, among other policies embraced by Sanders and his supporters.
I support both the Working Families Party endorsement, and their pledge to hold Hillary’s feet to the fire. I’m glad they realized that the most progressive thing we can do between now and election day is to keep Rump Dump Trump out of office.
