Politics Plus

A new month is upon us, and I’m quite busy.  I swapped out the poll and voted on the new one.  I did today’s research.  I’m writing today’s articles now.  When I’m done, I’ll make the graphics and do the research for tomorrow’s Monthly Report for November.  Then I’ll publish today’s articles and do my Care2 stuff.  Somewhere in that mix, I’ll make and eat lunch.  Finally, I’ll pop off George and rest.  All along, I’m listening to the news, waiting for the Reich to explode over Flynn flipping.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:31 (average 5:31).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Daily Kos Channel): Sen. Sherrod Brown blasts the GOP Tax cuts

Keep calling your Republican Senators. RESIST!!

From The Last Word: Fmr. GOP Treasury official: Tax cut bill makes no sense

Bruce Bartlett, who worked in the Reagan Treasury Dept., says Republicans are cutting taxes as if it’s a game of golf: just trying to get to the lowest number possible without thinking of the impact on the deficit or the middle class. John Heilemann also joins.

There’s a simple explanation for this. They haven’t "done the work", because they know that the analysis will ever say want they want. It’s not that people have no jobs. It’s that those jobs pay too little. RESIST!!

From Think Progress: During an interview with CNN on Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was asked if he’s concerned about recent reports that President Trump has been privately questioning whether a recording of him bragging about groping women is legitimate and that he remains interested in racist conspiracy theories about President Obama’s birth certificate.

Instead of answering, Graham tried to turn the tables and attacked the media for reporting about those issues in the first place.

“You know what concerns me about the American press is this endless, endless attempt to label the guy as some kind of kook not fit to be president,” Graham said.

The notion that Trump is “some kind of kook not fit to be president” isn’t merely a media creation, however. Graham himself used those exact same words to criticize Trump during a Fox News interview in February 2016, back when he was supporting Jeb Bush.

Republicans’ mind-blowing hypocrisy in their attempt to attack the media, everyone: pic.twitter.com/EKfXQGUeiu

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) November 30, 2017

Lindsey Poo earned his PhD (piled higher and deeper) in Bullshitology. RESIST!!

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Store to Door was a little early, so all my groceries are unpacked and put away.  I’ve had adequate sleep, but for some reason, I think I would sleep all day, if I let myself.  The end of the month is upon us, so the next few days will be busy as hell.  WWW is coming this evening to destink the TomCat and have dinner.  I’m actually looking forward to hot dogs and sauerkraut, having turkey bird up the ying-yang.  Has everyone recovered?

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:49 (average 4:26).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Jeff Merkley Channel): Senator Merkley Speaks Out Against GOP Tax Scam

I don’t think I have to call Jeff to tell him how to vote, but I did call to thank him. Oregon leads the way. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Full Frontal Channel): Full Frontal’s Undercover Sting

Sam gives us a great parody of the O’Keefe scam to help Roy Moore discredit Moore’s victims. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump’s use of the name “Pocahontas” at a White House event honoring Navajo veterans was not a racial slur, a prominent white expert said on Monday.

“If some Native Americans were offended by the use of this term, I’m sorry that they’re so wrong,” the expert said. “As a white person, I think I’m in a better position to know about this stuff.”

She also defended the decision to honor the Navajo veterans near a portrait of Andrew Jackson, who is widely reviled by Native Americans. “Before we held the ceremony, we consulted with a number of other white experts, and we all agreed that Andrew Jackson was great,” she said.

But Andy, Sarah Upchuckabee Sanders [pictured in article] is an expert on only one thing: the dissemination of Republican Bullshitology! RESIST!!

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I started watching Keith, when he started hosting Countdown on MSNBC in 2003, and I have followed him ever since.

Thanksgiving Dinner with WWW was magnificent.  I have never had an organically raised bird before, but I recognized the taste as the same as the wild turkey I shot in Colorado about forty year ago.  We also had stuffing gravy, and dinner rolls.  WWW made cream puffs for dessert.  That was TC heaven!  Purrrr!!  After carving all the meat we could get, we boiled the bones, and cleaned off the rest of the meat to make soup later.  We also fed dinner to the desk clerk here at the building.  I’ve had a very busy morning.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:47 (average 4:52).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Agony:

It was their turn this week.  It isn’t really agony anymore.  At this point, each loss increases the value of our draft choices, while I wonder who the head coach and three new QBs will be next year.

Short Takes:

From Reuters: U.S. media company Meredith Corp said on Sunday it will buy Time Inc, the publisher of People, Sports Illustrated and Fortune magazines, in a $1.84 billion all-cash deal backed by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

The deal is a coup for Meredith, which held unsuccessful talks to buy Time earlier this year and in 2013.

I predict that Times People of the year will be goose-stepping Republican Koch suckers. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Alex M. Azar II, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has expressed concern about the soaring cost of prescription drugs for many consumers. This week, Mr. Azar, a former pharmaceutical executive, is expected to face tough questions at a Senate confirmation hearing over why his own company raised prices.

Democratic senators say that, as a top manager at Eli Lilly and Company, he was responsible for steep increases on insulin and other drugs. How he would now tackle that problem as secretary, along with the future of the Affordable Care Act, promises to dominate the hearings.

Republican greed mongers in the Senate will confirm Azar, knowing that he will cause many Americans to die and not caring. RESIST!!

From Alternet: As Congressional Republicans return from the Thanksgiving break, they face a crammed agenda and the daunting task of passing an already wildly unpopular tax plan by the end of the year.

According to Politico, many are worried that the White House has already doomed the tax overhaul with a tone-deaf rollout that featured multimillionaires Steven Mnuchin and Gary Cohn as spokesmen.

The GOP hopes to convince voters that their tax plan isn’t a giant handout to millionaires and billionaires — which it is — and that it will lower the tax burden of middle class families — which it will not.

From Alternet’s keys to God’s eyes! RESIST!!

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I’m making this a lazy day.  I don’t know why, but I slept very poorly last night.  Most of the news seems to be rehashing old business.  This is my only article today, and I shall not be sending links messages on Care2.  Between 10 AM and Noon Amazon.com/New Seasons Market is delivering the bird, a cooked 6-10 lb. Free Range Turkey.  Purrrr!!  This morning I prepared the Brussels Sprouts Hollandaise.  The stuffing and gravy are done.  And I look forward to feeding Wonder Woman Wendy (Thanks, Lona!) tomorrow.  Tomorrow is also a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.  My Broncos play Wendy’s Raiders, but we don’t get to watch, as it is not televised here.

Later: The turkey came.  It’s in the fridge, waiting to be put in the TomCat.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:12 (average 5:29).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Washington Post: President Trump and the outgoing head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau both named acting directors to head the watchdog agency on Friday, throwing its leadership into disarray.

Legal analysts were split over whether the White House or the CFPB had authority to name an acting director, with each side citing the fine print of dueling federal rules. Some added that the laws were open to interpretation and that the courts ultimately would have to decide the matter.

Trump proposed his White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, as the acting director of the CFPB, which Mulvaney once called a “joke” and said he wished didn’t exist. Several defenders of the agency said they were worried that Mulvaney, if given the helm of the CFPB on a temporary basis, would gut its powers.

The series of events began Friday when the CFPB’s long-time director, Richard Cordray, announced that he would leave at the end of the day — instead of at the end of the month — and promoted his chief of staff, Leandra English, to become deputy director. Cordray said in a letter to CFPB staff that English would serve as the agency’s acting director until a replacement was confirmed by the Senate.

I have no doubt that the CFPB would not survive a week as a functional entity with Mulvaney at the helm. English is the rightful Acting Director, and Trump is trying to duck Senate confirmation. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Despite efforts by Congress, the Obama administration and state attorneys general to stop the predatory practices of for-profit colleges, veterans and service members who rely on funding from the G.I. bill and the Defense Department to attend school are still being targeted by an industry infamous for saddling people with debt and useless degrees.

A Senate committee report sounded a warning on this problem three years ago, when it raised questions about deceptive practices in the industry. State attorneys general and federal agencies at the time were investigating seven for-profit outfits with significant revenue streams from the G.I. bill. Some of these schools have since been forced to shut down.

Nevertheless, a new analysis of federal data by Veterans Education Success, a nonprofit that provides free legal services to student veterans, finds that the for-profit industry is still setting its sights on veterans and service members even as its nonmilitary enrollment has declined.

The Republican Reich views our veterans as prey fit to be ravished by Republican criminals. RESIST!!

From Alternet: As Americans gather for Thanksgiving, we can only hope that the richest among us have the good graces to give thanks for the bounty they expect to receive in a few days thanks to how Donald Trump and the Republican leaders on Capitol Hill conned millions of voters.

The plutocrats should set aside a moment to thank all the voters suckered by the Trumpian promise to drain the swamp. What Trump really meant was to drain the pockets of Americans who make less than $500,000 a year so the richest of the rich can have more.

Amen! Amen!! Amen!!! YOU are the swamp! RESIST!!

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