I’m in a big hurry to get my writing done before I leave.  May the Holy Ellipsoid Orb bless my Broncos tonight.  Back!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:52 (average 6:08).  To do it, click here.  How did you do.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Jeff Merkley Channel): Senator Merkley Slams GOP Efforts to Kneecap Consumer Rights

Note that both Jeff Flake and Bob Corker voted FOR the legislation that Jeff is speaking against. Oregon leads the way. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Senator Jeff Flake’s decision to abandon his 2018 re-election campaign in Arizona has thrown open the Senate race there, exposing deep fissures not only on the Republican side where a nationalist insurgency is gunning for the party establishment but also among Democrats contending with a rising left.

Establishment Democrats have high hopes for Representative Kyrsten Sinema, a centrist who recently dined in the Blue Room of the White House with President Trump, teaches a bipartisan spin class in the House gym and has broken ranks with her own party on key votes. She was one of only seven House Democrats, for example, who voted to create a select committee to investigate the 2012 attack on the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

But those impulses toward bipartisanship have soured Arizona progressives against the candidacy of a woman who rose to prominence on a biography that included time as a homeless child and an identity that includes being the first open bisexual in Congress.

“There are issues, murmurs within grass-roots groups and the progressive community, the environmental community and others, including immigration advocates,” said Representative Raúl M. Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona and a co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who is withholding his endorsement of her.

Establishment Republicans, meanwhile, are scrambling to find a candidate to replace Mr. Flake and wage a primary challenge against Kelli Ward, a former state senator who aligns herself with Mr. Trump. Ms. Ward, derided by critics as a fringe candidate and a conspiracy theorist, was beaten badly by the senior senator from Arizona, John McCain, in a 2016 primary, and party leaders fear she would lose to Ms. Sinema in the general election.

I certainly prefer a more progressive alternative to Sinema, but a DINO is better than a Republican, especially Kelli Ward. RESIST!!

From NBC News: Given all of the focus on President Trump’s political base — and how he’s still holding on to it – our new NBC/WSJ poll sheds light on a less-discussed development: Trump is losing ground with the middle of the country.

Just 34 percent of independents approve of Trump’s job performance, while 57 percent disapprove (-23). That’s a decline from September, when 41 percent of independents approved and 48 percent disapproved (-7). As for self-described moderates, only 27 percent approve of Trump’s job, versus 68 percent who disapprove (-41). The president’s overall job-approval rating stands at 38 percent — his lowest yet in the NBC/WSJ poll.

What’s more, independents prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress over a Republican-controlled one in next year’s midterm elections by 6 points, 39 percent to 33 percent, while moderates want a Dem-controlled Congress by 32 points, 60 percent to 28 percent.

That might be barely enough to flip the House. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I did have to turn on my AC briefly yesterday afternoon, and may have to do so again today.  It’s amazing how the radiator effect of the sun hitting the wall heats the room 10° – 25° warmer than the outside temperature.  Tomorrow is a holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, but my Broncos visit to the division leading Chiefs is not until Monday evening.  I slept well, but still feel tired.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:54 (average 4:59).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): How Trump Manipulates America With Twitter

Keith has a point. Trump even effects honest media this way. How many times have media focused on what the Twat Twit tweeted instead of matters that needed attention? RESIST!!

From YouTube (Jeff Merkley Channel): Climate Disruption Quiz Episode 6

I got four of five. I picked A for #2. How about you? Kudos to Jeff! Oregon leads the way! RESIST!!

From The Rachel Maddow Show: First charges filed in Mueller’s Trump Russia probe: report

Barbara McQuade, former U.S. attorney talks with Rachel Maddow about new CNN reporting that a federal grand jury has "approved the first charges" in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump Russia investigation.

On whom is the axe falling? Tick… tick… tick… Chick through. She has lots more. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I must have been really tired, because, after sleeping well last night, I slept most if the morning too.  There is no improvement in my trigger finger, but I don’t expect any for a few days.  It’s a sunny day, and even though it’s only 66°, the room is getting too hot from the sun hitting the wall.  TGIF!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:01 (average 5:01).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Funny or Die Channel): Republican Tax Plan: How The Koch Brothers Are Robbing America

Republicans are Koch suckers by definition. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an emergency travel ban preventing Republicans from fleeing the United States Senate.

In a sombre Oval Office ceremony, a grim-faced Trump signed the ban, which he said would remain in effect “until we figure out what the hell is going on.”

The executive order calls for the relocation of three hundred Border Patrol officers from the Mexican border to Washington, D.C., in order to form what Trump called “a human ring of steel” around the Capitol Building.

Under the travel ban, Republican senators will be permitted to leave their seats in the Senate chamber for meals and bathroom breaks but will be strictly forbidden from speaking to journalists in the building’s corridors.

Andy, is this supposed to be satire? RESIST!!

From Alternet: NBC Late Night host Seth Meyers criticized Republicans and right-wing media for trying to keep the focus on attacking Hillary Clinton even when no credible reason exists.

The conservatives’ latest nonsense claim is that Clinton was colluding with Russia. Why she would try to collude with Russia to her own detriment is never really explained.

But the right-wing media doesn’t care about the facts, only keeping the focus on a perceived villain.

“The right would rather talk about Hillary Clinton than Trump,” Meyers said. “That’s because the right, in the Trump era, doesn’t have coherent principles or an ideology. It just has enemies. Which is why they prefer to inhabit an alternate reality where Hillary Clinton is president. And what little you will hear about Trump won’t be negative.”

Here’s the video:

Barf Bag Alert!!

Amen Seth! Kudos! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

And we are still the incarceration nation to our shame.

It’s a busy day for me, because I’m waiting for a grocery delivery from Store to Door.  When they arrive, I’ll stop writing, put them away, make lunch and eat.  Then I’ll finish writing, publish, and do my online blogging.  This evening Wendy is coming to de-stink  the TomCat.  Tomorrow, please expect no more than a Personal Update from me.  I have a medical appointment for a cortisone shot in my left hand.  That hurts almost as bad as watching a Republican win, but so does the trigger finger it will correct.  I will be back on Friday.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:34 (average 5:10).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Is Donald Trump Paying Hush Money?

Consider how cheap Trump is. He grips a quarter so tight that the eagle shits.  He must be desperate. RESIST!!

From YouTube (RWW Channel): Rick Wiles Says A Foreign Army Will Invade America If We Don’t Shut Down Planned Parenthood

Barf Bag Alert!!

If you listen carefully, you can hear the voices Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians proclaiming their affirmation: BAAA-A-A-A-A! RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Donald Trump cancelled his entire schedule on Tuesday to focus all his energy on choosing an insulting nickname for the Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, aides have confirmed.

Trump rejected his first attempt at a demeaning moniker for the senator, “liddle’ Bob Corker,” because he felt that he had used the “liddle’ ” construction too much in the past and feared that it was getting old.

“The President has very high standards for the insulting nicknames he uses,” an aide explained. “He was not about to settle for ‘liddle’.’ ” Trump thought he had a winner when he came up with “Corker the Porker,” until aides pointed out that the Republican senator from Tennessee has an average physique, to which such an insult would not accurately apply.

Come on Andy! You KNOW he divided the day between Bob Corker and Jeff Flake. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

So much for God’s opinion!