Politics Plus

WWWendy is due in ten minutes, so I’ll have to do most of my writing after she leaves at around Noon.  I watched the opening ceremony last night, and neither Nambia nor Normay sent teams to Korea.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:44 (average 5:43).  To di it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Donald Trump Closer To Ending Russia Probe As Rachel Brand Quits DOJ

I think Rachel Brand was acting in her own self-interest. If it came down to either hamstringing the Mueller investigation for Trump, or refusing to do so, whatever she might do would be a career ending move for her. So when the Republican Reich got Wal-fart to offer her a plumb job, she ducked out of the line of fire and took the money. I know virtually nothing about Noel Francisco. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: In comments to reporters at the White House on Friday, Donald J. Trump stirred controversy by lavishing an alleged wife beater with praise that he historically has reserved for child molesters and Nazis.

Reporters who heard the President’s comments were taken aback since, in the past, the President had given no indication that he held wife beaters in the same high esteem in which he holds supporters of child abuse and white supremacy.

“We knew that President Trump considered child molesters and Nazis very fine people, but this was the first time he had put wife beaters up there, too,” Tracy Klugian, a member of the White House press corps, said. “We wanted clarification as to whether he considered wife beaters as fine as those other two groups, or finer.”

John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, accused reporters of attempting to drive a wedge between three of the President’s most cherished constituencies.

Dang Andy! Doesn’t the Fuhrer prefer all of the above? RESIST!!

From YouTube (RWW Channel): RWW News: Paul Begley Says Barack Obama Is Leading An Illuminati Plot To Assassinate Trump

Barf Bag Alert!!

This is what Republican Sheeple get to see as a substitute for real News. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I overslept this morning, because I’m overtired from the winter heat wave.  Starting tomorrow, temperatures will be seasonal for a few days.  I can’t wait for the feeling of snuggling under my covers to stay warm.  I spoke with my PCP yesterday afternoon.  Megan and I agreed to put my fasting labs and routine appointment off for a month, because the end of flu season is running late, it is more virulent than normal, the vaccine missed the target this year, and it’s airborne.  It’s not a good idea for me to expose myself with two routine trips to a place where people with flu routinely hang out.  I will, however, be going for my annual cancer screening at Casey Eye Institute on Monday.  Coverage of the Winter Olympics has started, and I remain a big-time amateur sports fan.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:39 (average 4:31).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter Resigns After Abuse Allegations Surface

The White House has known about Porter’s predations for over a year, and didn’t care, even when he could not get his security clearance because of them. Republicans tried to keep Porter indefinitely, even after his resignation, but due to publicity and public outcry, today is his last day. It is a dark day for little Donnie Grabatwat, who depends on Porter to help him develop techniques to abuse women, RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: The Pentagon has turned down Donald J. Trump’s request for a grand military parade in Washington, D.C., citing a sudden outbreak of bone spurs that would prevent men and women in uniform from participating.

Harland Dorrinson, a Pentagon spokesman, said that, within an hour of Trump’s request, more than a hundred thousand military personnel complained that they were suffering from acute cases of bone spurs that would make marching in such a parade a painful ordeal.

“In the history of the U.S. military, we have never experienced a bone-spur epidemic of this magnitude,” the spokesman said. “Regrettably, however, we have no choice but to issue thousands of deferments.”

Dang, Andy! That sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I bet the tanks caught bone spurs too! RESIST!!

From Think Progress: Before Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) became chairman in 2015, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence had a reputation for bipartisanship. With the revelation, reported by CBS News on Thursday, that the committee’s Republican majority staff will soon be separated from the Democratic minority staffers on the committee by a wall — literally, a physical barrier separating public officials from each other — members of both parties are saying Nunes has destroyed any spirit of collaboration the committee once enjoyed.

Is there nothing Nunes won’t do to protect America from the truth about his Fuhrer? RESIST!!

Cartoon

It’s been something so unusual that it’s almost unheard of here… a thoroughly routine day.  Other than doing my research, the most exciting thing I’ve done is order my groceries from Store to Door.  On the other hand, we received  some very sad news.  Prayers for Nameless and his family, please.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:32 (average 6:51).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Donald Trump: Dems Not Praising State Of The Union Are Treasonous

Barf Bag Alert!!

To a large extent, I disagree. What we have here is a clear-cut case of projection. The traitor just accused the patriots of treason. RESIST!!

From Washington Post: President Trump and congressional Republicans have spent much of the past year trying to connect a giddy stock market rally with their economic agenda, but stocks’ precipitous plunge in the past five days has delivered a sobering reality: What goes up can come back down — quickly and with little warning.

With Monday’s steep fall, Trump has presided over the biggest stock market drop in U.S. history, when measured by points in the Dow Jones industrial average. The free fall began in earnest Jan. 30 and snowballed Friday and Monday, for a combined loss of almost 2,100 points, or 8 percent of the Dow’s value.

It is also unclear if the past week will amount to a small correction or the beginning of a painful slide that many investors said was overdue.

I suspect it’s a correction. Because the tax cuts for billionaires are raising the debt, the US now needs to borrow more at a higher interest rate. Higher interest rates increase bond returns. That makes bonds a more attractive investment.  When investors move to bonds, they pull money from the stock market, dropping stock prices. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: After watching it suffer its worst losses since he became President, Donald Trump is “seriously considering” firing the Dow Jones Industrial Average, aides have confirmed.

According to the aides, Trump is “furious” at the D.J.I.A. for going down so precipitously and believes that it has treated him “very unfairly.”

“Increasingly, the President has become convinced that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is not on his team,” one aide said. “Seeing the negative Dow numbers in the corner of the TV screen has been wrecking eleven hours of every day for him.”

Reportedly, Trump is mulling replacing the Dow with a new system, in which Sarah Huckabee Sanders would appear every day at 4 p.m. to announce how high stocks had skyrocketed.

Dang, Andy! I thought he would just blame Little Adam for the drop!! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

It’s a high holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  The walking rectum likes the Patriots.  Go Eagles!  I’ll be spending the afternoon in meditation.  WWWendy is due in about 45 minutes to destink the TomCat and help with chores, including making a big load of chili.  That way I can cheer the Eagles from one end and Trump’s Patriots from the other.

WWWendy just left and greets you all! The chili will produce a magnificent green cloud!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:20 (average 5:54).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (SNL Channel): Fox & Friends Cold Open

I wonder if the SNL crew really understands just how close to the truth they are. I think, yes. RESIST!!

From Washington Post: Longtime televangelist Pat Robertson is recovering after suffering an embolic stroke, according to the Christian Broadcasting Network [hate channel delinked], a Virginia-based television network Robertson founded.

Robertson, 87, was rushed to the nearest stroke center Friday after a family member recognized “the onset of symptoms,” the CBN report says.

“Within minutes of receiving [clot-busting drugs], Dr. Robertson was awake and responsive and able to move all of his limbs,” CBN states. He is expected to make a full recovery.

As much as I cannot stand this Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian and purveyor of Republican hatred, I would not wish a stroke upon him. However, if he makes a full recovery, but loses the use of his vocal chords, that would be a blessing for the world. RESIST!!

From NY Times: For Republicans in the states, the political warning signs keep mounting: In Virginia, it was an electoral shellacking that nearly snapped their 20-year grip on the State House. In Wisconsin, it was a midwinter rout in a special election for the State Senate, fought in a conservative district.

And in Pennsylvania, it has been an exodus of state legislators from the Philadelphia area, where more than half a dozen Republicans have opted for retirement over a strenuous campaign in 2018.

“It looks like it’s going to be a war zone,” said State Representative Gene DiGirolamo, a moderate Republican, of his native Bucks County, a spacious suburb on the New Jersey border.

As national Republicans dig in to defend their majorities in Congress in the midterm elections, party leaders across the country have grown anxious about losses on a different front: state legislatures. Over the last decade, Republicans have dominated most state capitals, enacting deep tax cuts, imposing new regulations on labor unions and abortion providers, and drawing favorable congressional maps to reinforce their power in Washington.

November can’t come soon enough! RESIST!!

Cartoon: