Politics Plus

Yesterday Wendy and I worked so hard, and it was so damn hot, that I was unable to wind down and get to sleep until well after midnight, so I spent the morning napping instead of researching.  Therefore this is my only article today, and I will not be sending links messages at Care2.

Jig Zone Puzzles:

Today’s took me 7:01 (average 7:41).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Washington Post: President Trump on Sunday explicitly advocated for depriving undocumented immigrants of their due-process rights, arguing that people who cross the border into the United States illegally are invaders and must immediately be deported without trial or an appearance before a judge.

In the Republican Reich, let the Constitution be damned. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From NY Times: 2. Driver’s license offices are closed in black areas.

The year after the photo identification law took effect, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency announced that it would close 31 driver’s license offices, one of the primary places where Alabamians could obtain photo identification. The closings were in response to budget cuts, but there was a clear racial pattern.

This is the second of seven ways Alabama Republicans have made it harder to vote. Click through for the other six. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Washington Post: Rep. John Carter (R-Tex.) hasn’t won a race by fewer than 20 points in a decade. Veteran MJ Hegar (D) is trying to change that, and she made a big splash over the last few days with an ad that includes a subtle but brutal jab at Carter.

Hegar served three tours in Afghanistan and later successfully lobbied the Obama administration to lift the ban on women serving in combat.

In a new ad “Doors” — which you can watch above [below] — Hegar shows viewers how she opened “doors” throughout her career, facing many that slammed in her face. Behind one closed door was Carter, who she says in the ad she tried to lobby to lift the combat ban.

Great Ad! MJ Hegar for Congress! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Kudos to the winners!

It’s a cool morning here in the CatBox with a hot afternoon forecast, and a very hot day tomorrow, so I’m skipping my morning rest to do most of my work in the cool of the day.  I’m still feeling tired out.

Jig Zone Puzzles:

Today’s took me 3:31 (average 5:06).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Late Show Channel): Reefer Madness Reaches Canada

No wonder the Squatch has been particularly frisky lately! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): MR FORTY-FIVE Parody of Mrs Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel

That one could go on for hundreds of stanzas. To support Don Caron, click here. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (Daily Kos Channel):  Rep. Ted Lieu forces the House to hear the cries of immigrant children

Kudos to Rep. Ted Lieu! Republicans are too cowardly to listen to the effects of their evil ways. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From The New Yorker: A group of scholars who have been monitoring the descent of the bar over the past few decades have concluded that the bar can no longer be lowered, the scholars announced on Friday.

The academics, led by Professor Davis Logsdon, of the University of Minnesota, published their conclusion after their research definitively found that the bar had finally dropped to its lowest possible position.

“For those who thought the bar still had room to be lowered, our findings resoundingly contradict that assumption,” Logsdon said. “The bar is now essentially flush with the ground.”

Dang Andy! I disagree. The bar is subterranean. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Cats know how to deal with Republican mice!

It’s cooler today, but it will take a couple days for the building to lose the heat.  The restrooms and hallways are still in the 80°s, and the CatBox would be too, if I didn’t keep it buttoned up and the AC on.  I’m ready for another shower, but that’s three days away.  My guy in prison, for whom I recently wrote a letter to the Parole Board, received a date and will be released in December.  I feel very proud of him. For our Pagan friends, Blessed be.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:53 (average 4:25).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

TC Controls the Seasons:

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Did President Donald Trump Executive Order Make It Worse?

It’s not news to me that Trump is a coward. Cowardice is what bullies do. Note that 11 million children still cry in misery in GOP Gulags. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Daily Kos: It is World Refugee Day, and President Barack Obama just posted his thoughts on the matter. It is also transcribed below…

…Today is World Refugee Day.

If you’ve been fortunate enough to have been born in America, imagine for a moment if circumstance had placed you somewhere else. Imagine if you’d been born in a country where you grew up fearing for your life, and eventually the lives of your children. A place where you finally found yourself so desperate to flee persecution, violence, and suffering that you’d be willing to travel thousands of miles under cover of darkness, enduring dangerous conditions, propelled forward by that very human impulse to create for our kids a better life.

That’s the reality for so many of the families whose plights we see and heart-rending cries we hear. And to watch those families broken apart in real time puts to us a very simple question: are we a nation that accepts the cruelty of ripping children from their parents’ arms, or are we a nation that values families, and works to keep them together? Do we look away, or do we choose to see something of ourselves and our children?

Our ability to imagine ourselves in the shoes of others, to say “there but for the grace of God go I,” is part of what makes us human. And to find a way to welcome the refugee and the immigrant – to be big enough and wise enough to uphold our laws and honor our values at the same time – is part of what makes us American. After all, almost all of us were strangers once, too. Whether our families crossed the Atlantic, the Pacific, or the Rio Grande, we’re only here because this country welcomed them in, and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like, how our last names sound, or the way we worship. To be an American is to have a shared commitment to an ideal – that all of us are created equal, and all of us deserve the chance to become something better.

That’s the legacy our parents and grandparents and generations before created for us, and it’s something we have to protect for the generations to come. But we have to do more than say “this isn’t who we are.” We have to prove it – through our policies, our laws, our actions, and our votes.

Amen and Kudos to Obama! Republicans celebrated World Refugee day by listening to the screams from GOP gulags for refugee children. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From Raw Story: [A]n inebriated airline passenger who gave a Nazi salute and tried to strangle his flight’s pilot was jailed and made bail for the physical altercation involving multiple airline employees.

The Belfast Telegraph reported that 51-year-old Paul Anthony Burgoyne became erratic and disorderly when a flight attendant asked him to raise his window blind so the plane could take off at the Belfast International Airport earlier this year.

“All right, mein Fuhrer,” Burgoyne, originally from Northern Ireland, told the attendant before giving a Nazi salute. The captain came down during the altercation, and that’s when the passenger began yelling at the pilot, telling him he was going to punch him.

Burgoyne eventually tried to grab the pilot by the throat and missed, grabbing his collar instead.

After being ejected from the plane, the passenger attempted to commandeer a “tug vehicle” and managed to grab its wheel and joystick before being physically hauled off of it. He then tried to fight another airline employee before being arrested, and police reports indicated he was under the influence of both drugs and alcohol.

Rumor has it that this individual is being rushed through immigration to fill a high level staff position for Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon:

Vintage 2011.  Still fits.

The heat wave is continuing, but more recent forecasts show that it might not be quite as severe.  I’m staying hunkered down and moving as little as possible.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:28 (average 4:45).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Trey Crowder Channel): Liberal Redneck – Space Forcing Families Apart

Trey nailed it. White unborn children are the only ones Republicans care about! They wish they had death rays that don’t work on white people. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): The right-wing reactions to separating families at the border are atrocious

Barf Bag Alert!!

Excuse me, while I go puke! RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

From NY Times: President Trump said on Monday that he would direct the Pentagon to establish a sixth branch of the armed forces dedicated to protecting American interests in outer space, an idea that has troubled lawmakers and even some members of his administration, who have cautioned that the action could create unnecessary bureaucratic responsibilities for a military already burdened by conflicts.

During a speech at a meeting of the National Space Council, Mr. Trump announced plans to protect American interests in space through monitoring commercial traffic and debris, initiatives he said would be “great not only in terms of jobs and everything else, it’s great for the psyche of our country.”

Minutes later, the president zeroed in on Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and tasked him with the undertaking of creating another branch of the military.

Bend over. The Republican Reich wants to claim Uranus. RESIST!! VOTE BLUE!!

Cartoon: