Politics Plus

I’ve had another busy day figuring out this week’s grocery list.  All the extra hassle is keeping me tuckered out.  Happy CATurday!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:00 (average 5:05).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Real Time Channel): Real Time with Bill Maher (2018) | Season 16 Trailer

I’m looking forward to his return in January. RESIST!!

From Washington Post: Congressional Republicans secured enough support Friday to pass their massive tax plan, a measure that would deliver a major legislative victory to President Trump and his GOP allies and make tax changes affecting nearly every American family and business.

Passage appeared certain after two critical holdouts, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), said they would vote for the bill next week.

They know what they are doing to America. They know they are bankrupting people. They know they are murdering people. They know they are making children go hungry. They don’t care. We must hang this around their necks, until me drive them the way of the Whigs. The survival of The Republican Party and that of the USA are mutually exclusive.  RESIST!!

From NY Times: The House Intelligence Committee is racing to complete its investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, scheduling a host of witness interviews here and in New York for next week as Congress heads for its break, and, Democrats said, leaving other leads unfollowed.

Some of the most important witnesses are to be interviewed in New York by committee staff early next week, possibly leaving Democrats to choose between attending those depositions or voting on the massive tax bill coming before the House.

And in an indication that Republicans hope to wrap up their probe, the House committee has yet to schedule a single interview after the holidays, according to two committee officials familiar with the schedule. That has left Democrats fearful that the majority is trying to finish the investigative portion of its work by the end of next week, before the committee can connect the dots on one of the most serious efforts by a hostile foreign actor to hijack American democracy.

“I feel no need to apologize for concluding an investigation,” said Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, one of the Republicans leading the investigation.

This is what they’re up to. When they are "done", Gowdy can declare Putin’s Piddle Puppet innocent, opening up more attacks on and possible action against Mueller. RESIST!!

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I’m hurrying to finish, so that I can get some rest this afternoon, because this evening is a holy night in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos are playing the Colts on Thursday Night Football, and it is televised here.  Could it happen again?  Fantasy players,  there are Saturday games this week.  I received a call from the alternate food delivery guy I found for the two weeks Store to Door will be closed.  He has to go out of town.  So I’ll have to use Amazon Prime Now.  They are pricey.  Their offerings are incomplete.  Their user interface for groceries is a horrid disjointed maze.  But there is no waiting, and they are reliable.  I got my test results back from my stool sample.  My cat box is now a certified source of A-1 prime high octane kitty shit!  I just heard that Net Neutrality is dead.  The vote was 3-2.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:03 (average 5:26).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Huffington Post: An ethics watchdog group is asking the Department of Justice to investigate whether Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) violated federal conflict of interest laws by promoting a column he was paid for during a meeting with President Donald Trump’s commission on election integrity, a panel on which he is a top official.

Kobach has written 14 columns for Breitbart since June, and he told the Kansas City Star he gets paid by the outlet for his work. On Tuesday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked the Department of Justice to probe whether Kobach broke the law when he wrote a paid column alleging widespread voter fraud could have changed the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in New Hampshire and then introduced the piece for discussion at the September meeting.

CREW alleges Kobach was using his official position on the commission to advance his financial interest, something prohibited by federal law. Kobach’s columns all have a note at the bottom noting Kobach’s position as vice chair of the commission, which is formally called the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

Kudos to CREW! Kobitch needs a Saguaro suppository! RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Roy Moore’s defeat in Alabama’s special election means that the Texas senator Ted Cruz will easily retain his status as the most despised person in the United States Senate, congressional insiders confirmed on Wednesday.

According to those insiders, Cruz had been secretly hoping that Moore’s election would displace him from his unenviable position as the most vilified pariah in the upper chamber.

“Cruz was praying that, if Moore got in, that might change the daily conversation around here from ‘Who has to sit next to Ted?’ ” one Republican colleague said.

Cruz, whom colleagues deem even more insufferable than such other senatorial ass-clowns as Mitch McConnell and Tom Cotton, was reportedly “distraught” upon learning that Moore would not be joining him in the U.S. Senate.

What do you think poor Ted will do, Andy? I think he’ll seek comfort from his TRUS. RESIST!!

From Robert Reich: Common sense and decency have prevailed in Alabama. It was a vote not just against sexual abuse but also against racism and against those who would ride roughshod over our democratic institutions.

Yes, the margin was small, and Roy Moore was the worst candidate Republicans could possibly have dredged up. But remember, this is Alabama – where Democrats are hated, where minority votes are suppressed, where Trump won overwhelmingly last November.

In the most Trumpian of all states, Trump has been delivered the most powerful repudiation to date. First it was Virginia; now, Alabama. I’d like to think this is a precursor of what’s to come next November – the beginning of the end of the nightmare.

The Reich on the left is right. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

It took me a lot of time to do my research, because the news fixated on whether Roy Moore will pay more attention to the election or the erection.   Keep your fingers, toes, and whatever else will cross (eyes for me) crossed.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:37 (average 7:51):  To do it click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest from our own fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends.

Scores:

Woooo Hoooo!!

Standings:

Congrats to Vivian for winning the regular season.

Playoff Schedule:

Good luck to all!

Short Takes:

From NPR: President Trump has formally told NASA to send U.S. astronauts back to the moon.

"The directive I’m signing today will refocus America’s space program on human exploration and discovery," he said.

Standing at the president’s side as he signed "Space Policy Directive 1" on Monday was Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, one of the last two humans to ever walk on the moon, in a mission that took place 45 years ago this week.

Since that time, no human has ventured out beyond low-Earth orbit. NASA doesn’t even have its own space vehicle, having retired the space shuttles in 2011. Americans currently ride up to the International Space Station in Russian capsules, though private space taxis are expected to start ferrying them up as soon as next year.

I’d bet a buck that Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten intends to use the moon as a weapons platform. Fortunately, whoever he puts in charge will be too incompetent to launch a fart, let alone a space mission.  RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: It’s getting worse.

Before Trump decided to enflame the Middle East, just this past week he tweeted violent, fake, racist videos and said the Access Hollywood tape was faked.

Yale psychiatrist Dr. Bandy Lee:

What we’re seeing is someone mentally falling apart. This is what we mean when someone is coming unglued or unhinged. With stress, they will be less able to tell apart what is real from what is unreal, become more bizarre and, in the case of Mr. Trump, will likely become violent. He will have thoughts and reasoning that will be hard for us to follow because he is pulled more by his internal processes, what’s going on in his head, be they fantasies, conspiracy theories or imaginary threats than what is going on in the real world.

This is our reality:

At no other time in U.S. history has a group of mental health professionals been so collectively concerned about a sitting president.

If a regular person was acting as delusional as this president—making repeated calls for violence,  denying reality, saying he never said or did things we all saw him do—we’d be compelled to take action.

Throw a net over him, give him a nice padded cell, and treat internally with a cattle prod. RESIST!!

From Alternet: The Alabama Supreme Court stepped into Tuesday’s U.S. Senate race between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones on Monday night by blocking a lower state court’s ruling earlier in the day that ordered election officials to take steps to preserve digital images of every ballot cast Tuesday.

In effect, the Alabama Supreme Court’s stay—or freezing—of an earlier court order to preserve the digital ballot images undermines the best-case scenario for ensuring that an accurate vote count can be verified in the controversial Senate race.

You know what they are up to. Republican courts  prevented a recount 17 years ago today.  RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Wendy just left and I’m going to rush to connect with my pillow, instead of paying attention to my Broncos getting slaughtered.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:59 (average 5:51).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Politico: Democrats head into Tuesday’s Senate election in Alabama confident that they’ll come out on top no matter who wins.

And many Republicans agree with them.

If Doug Jones prevails, Democrats expect it will further excite their base, bolster candidate recruitment and fuel fundraising heading into 2018, coming off their near-sweep of last month’s elections. They will revel in picking up a Senate seat in the Deep South, especially in a state so central to President Donald Trump’s political rise and where he earlier backed the loser of the GOP primary. Practically, Republicans would have a 51-49 Senate majority, leaving them with a single vote to spare assuming Democrats stick together.

But the alternative won’t make for bad politics, either, Democrats say.

If Roy Moore wins, they’ll spend the next year yoking every Republican they can to the accused child predator and a president who welcomed him into the GOP fold. They’ll be quick to remind everyone of all the other comments Moore has made against Muslims and gays and in favor of Vladimir Putin’s view of America as evil, as well as his rosy view of slave-era America.

“He’ll be the gift that keeps on giving for Democrats. If you’re running in 2018, Roy Moore’s going to be your new best friend. As a Republican, to think that you can win without the baggage of Roy Moore is pretty naïve,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

He certainly does have a point. I want to win, but if we lose, Moore will be an ongoing source of ammunition. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: In a unique accord, the billionaire Koch brothers and the National Rifle Association have reached a timeshare agreement over the ownership of House Speaker Paul Ryan, representatives of both parties have confirmed.

Speaking on behalf of the Kochs, Charles Koch said that he contacted the N.R.A.’s executive director, Wayne LaPierre, with the timeshare proposal “so that we could all get the maximum enjoyment out of owning Paul.”

The arrangement is intended to minimize conflicts between the Kochs and the gun group that have arisen in the past when both co-owners have wanted to use Ryan at the same time, Koch said.

“I said to Wayne, ‘This is craziness,’ ” he said. “ ‘Let’s work something out where you get Paul half the year, and we’ll take him the other half.’ ”

Under the timeshare deal, the Kochs will have the exclusive use of Ryan during the months when tax cuts and environmental deregulation are put to a vote, while the N.R.A. will have him for the months when gun legislation is to be defeated.

Dang Andy! Aren’t the KKK feeling snubbed? RESIST!!

From NY Times: Newly released body camera footage shows a police officer shooting an unarmed man in an Arizona hotel after the man sobbed and pleaded with officers not to shoot him.

The graphic video, which was released after a jury on Thursday acquitted the officer of murder and manslaughter charges, stoked outrage on social media and renewed calls for reforms in law enforcement.

WARNING! Fatal Shooting Shown!

The murderer could not have had a more Republican jury than what he had in Mesa.  Perhaps Republicans should not be allowed in police work.  If that isn’t murder, what is? RESIST!!

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