Politics Plus

Yesterday’s trip to the doctor tired me thoroughly, and pain from the injection site in my hand interfered with my sleep.  I did manage a brief Lona Nap this morning, but pardon my brevity.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:27 (average 4:19).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: This is the absolute Insanity that’s going on in the GOP these days. Fueled by Donald Trump’s extremist rhetoric, fellow extremists like West Virginia lawmaker Michael Folk think tweets calling for a public hanging of Hillary Clinton are normal.

I kid you not folks.

www.cnn.com/…

On Friday, Folk had tweeted, "@HillaryClinton You should be tried for treason, murder, and crimes against the US Constitution… then hung on the Mall in Washington, DC."

Sadly, this extreme Rump Dump Rectumite might actually find agreement from the Regressive left.

From Crooks and Liars: Stephen Colbert brought back his famous ‘The Word’ segment from his Comedy Central days for his first night of coverage of the Republican National Convention, and he did not disappoint. From ‘Truthiness’ to ‘Trumpiness’, Colbert explained that’s how far we’ve devolved in just a decade.

Trumpiness?!!? He spelled it wrong.

From Liberals Unite: U.S. Representative Steve King (R-IA) ignited a firestorm when he declared that white people had contributed more to civilization than any other sub-group of people.

The Tea Party Congressman made the remarks during a roundtable discussion hosted by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.

The panel was discussing “the uniformly white leadership of the Republican Party” when fellow panelist Charlie Pierce, a writer for Esquire, stated: “If you’re really optimistic, you can say this was the last time that old white people would command the Republican Party’s attention, its platform, its public face.”

Barf Bag Alert!

Republican racism sure is UGLY!!  It’s as ugly as the presumptive Rectum.

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Wendy has been here.  She fluffed and buffed the TomCat, swept and mopped the floors, made a run to the corner store for some instant coffee (my coffee maker died! ), and joined forces with me in cooking a several day supply of Pork Verde, a dish with sufficient fire to make me an air quality hazard.   Tomorrow I go to the arthritis doctor, so please expect no more than a Personal Update.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:50 (average 4:37).  To do it, click here,  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: The retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson told reporters on Saturday that he is “extremely confident” that Donald Trump will choose him to be his Vice-Presidential running mate.

“I’m not a betting man, but I would bet a million dollars it’s going to be me,” he told reporters at his residence, in West Palm Beach. “There are times in life when you’re just positive about something, and this is one of those times.”

Carson did not indicate how he had determined that he would be Trump’s pick. “Let’s just call it a strong feeling I have,” he said. “I don’t want to say anything now that might jinx it.”

As he awaits the all-important call from Trump, Carson said that he and the billionaire would be a “dream team” for the Republican Party in 2016.

Dang, Andy!! Uncle Token would be like a broken watch, but he’s never even right twice a day!!

From NY Times: For several years, the Obama administration has urged state insurance regulators to use tools provided by the Affordable Care Act to hold down health care premiums.

Now federal officials will have a chance to practice what they preach as they confront big increases proposed in several states where they are responsible for reviewing rates.

Federal officials defer to the insurance commissioners in 46 states deemed to have “effective rate review” programs. But in Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming, the federal government is in charge of reviewing rates.

And those reviews create an exquisite political challenge, spotlighting a pocketbook issue that affects millions of voters.

In Texas, Blue Cross and Blue Shield is requesting rate increases of nearly 60 percent for 2017. In Oklahoma, Blue Cross and Blue Shield has proposed increases that average 49 percent. And in Missouri, Humana has filed for a 34 percent increase. All three carriers say they have lost money on many policies sold to individuals and families under the Affordable Care Act.

Such large requests are not typical and will test the rate review process, described by the Obama administration as one of the most important consumer protections in the Affordable Care Act.

Unless these increases are stopped, very large increase requests will become the norm. This shows the need for Medicare for all, or at least a public option,.

From Alternet: At best, it’s an Oscar-level performance in tone-deafness.

Republican National Convention staffers are scrambling to remove signs labeling a bank of elevators as “white elevators,” the Wall Street Journal’s Byron Tau reports. Tau is in Cleveland, along with many reporters, gearing up for the Convention. The signs, meanwhile, are being frantically replaced.

“I’m told it’s being replaced for obvious reasons,” Tau tweeted.

According to the New York Daily News, the signs were spotted in Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena.

No matter how hard Republicans try to cover-up the appearance of racism, they cannot hide the very real racism in their statements, positions, and policies.

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I’m running way late today, because, after sleeping poorly last night, I overslept.  Then I did my research, and I needed a nap,.  After lunch, I restocked my pill box.  It took almost an hour, which is frustrating, as it was a ten minute job, when I could see well.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:09 (average 4:42).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Governor Chris Christie, of New Jersey, angrily refused to pick up Donald Trump’s dry cleaning during a tense encounter between the two men on Friday, campaign sources confirm.

The ugly scene unfolded at the billionaire’s offices in midtown Manhattan, shortly after Trump revealed that his Vice-Presidential pick would be Governor Mike Pence of Indiana.

According to Trump aides, Christie stomped into the presumptive Republican nominee’s office and hurled a dry-cleaning ticket onto his desk, telling Trump, “You can pick up your own damn dry cleaning.”

The New Jersey governor then stormed out, and has not been seen by Trump or his staffers since.

Knowing PIGnocchio as we do, there is no reason to suspect Andy of using satire.

From Media Matters:Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is still being paid by the presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s campaign while simultaneously drawing a salary as a CNN contributor to discuss the candidate on-air, according to the network.

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo and host Don Lemon noted that Lewandowski is “still receiving severance from the Trump campaign” while introducing him in July 11 and July 12 segments.

That takes media bias to an unprecedented level.

From NY Times: Within four hours of the attack on the French Riviera, Donald J. Trump pledged to seek a rare declaration of war from Congress against Islamic terrorists and called for “extreme vetting” of immigrants and a complete ban on those from “terrorist nations.”

Minutes later, two finalists to be Mr. Trump’s running mate began weighing in. Newt Gingrich proposed a loyalty test for American citizens who are Muslim and deporting those who believe in Shariah law, while Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, referring to terrorism, called for America to “defeat this enemy of civilization at its source.”

In my coverage of this yesterday, I also assumed it was a terrorist attack, like most of us did, but I acted responsibly. Instead of placing blame, before the facts were in, I suggested positive ways that the US can mitigate how we exacerbate the problem.  In stark contrast, the presumptive Rectum an d presumptive Vice Rectum of the Republican Party  blamed and called for retribution against all religious Muslims for the actions of a secular down-and-out loser.

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Please pardon me for being very brief.  I slept very poorly last night, and feel very tired.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:52 (average 4:51).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: It was somewhere around North Dakota when the realization began to take hold. Donald Trump really is going to be the Republican nominee for president.

Republican insiders were looking forward to cavorting in Cleveland with their regular cast of money men, evangelicals on vacation, and money men, but Trump has frightened away most of the big donors along with what passes for the cool crowd in the GOP (can I get a “let’s replace income tax with a value added tax?” Whoop!). It all points to one terrible conclusion: the parties are going to suck.

Many GOP regulars are skipping Cleveland entirely. (“I would rather attend the public hanging of a good friend,” says Will Ritter, an up-and-coming Republican digital strategist who worked on the three previous conventions.) And among those who are making the trek, there’s an overwhelming sense it won’t be fun at all. At a time when many Republicans are deeply dissatisfied with their nominee, pessimistic about their prospects for victory in the fall and alarmed about the direction of their party, there’s a reluctance about attending the convention more typically reserved for going to the DMV, being summoned for jury duty or undergoing a root canal.

When I lived in Phoenix I had a friend, who was a high-end call girl (non-professional friendship) She explained to me that when groups of Republicans and/or Talibangical pseudo-Christians had conventions there, the working girls imported backup from Vegas, because the demand was far more that the local talent could bear. That said, other than strutting with guns, we know what kind of "Family Values" parties Republicans will throw for themselves in Cleveland.

From NY Times: After a startlingly swift transfer of power that made her Britain’s prime minister, Theresa May took charge of a new government on Wednesday, vowing to honor the referendum to leave the European Union and naming Boris Johnson, the former London mayor who had been widely considered politically dead, as foreign minister.

Correct me, if I’m wrong, but isn’t Johnson the UK version of Rump Dump Rectum?

From CNN: Donald Trump is currently winning more of the white evangelical vote than 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney, according to a Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday.

Trump — a Presbyterian who has been married three times and has said he has never sought forgiveness from God — is hardly a prototypical candidate for evangelicals, and Romney, a Mormon, also faced questions about the authenticity of his Christian faith.

But if the election were held today, 78% of white evangelical registered voters say they would vote for Trump, including about a third who "strongly" back his campaign. That number is higher than the 73% of white evangelicals who supported Romney at a similar point during the 2012 election.

There is propaganda from lefty regressives that lefties should vote third party, because Trump is not a serious threat. Hogwash!  We thought Crawford Caligula could never win reelection  in 2004.  I still remember the shame of apologizing to foreign friends all over the world, because we thought the win was in the bag.

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