Politics Plus

I just returned from my doctor’s appointment and ate lunch.  The report was a good.  I’m recovering on or ahead of schedule, anf I have no need to go back, unless I have trouble.  The only down side, is that I’m extremely tired.  I understand that Putin’s pervert and Putin agreed to cooperate in cyber security.  Isn’t that what they’ve been doing all along?  I’m too pooped to research it now, but I shall cover the meeting tomorrow, as I expect to be back in the saddle then.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:45 (average 4:44).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Funny or Die Channel): The Miracles of Jesus Under Trumpcare

Dang! Bought Bitch Mitch is Republican Supply-side Jesus?!!?  RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is being dispatched to Pyongyang in what the White House is calling a high-stakes mission to reverse North Korea’s years of progress in math and science.

DeVos, who is expected to arrive in Pyongyang later this week, plans to throw a monkey wrench in North Korea’s swiftly advancing nuclear program by replacing its current system of training scientists with a dizzying array of vouchers, sources said.

According to the White House, it is hoped that, after a few weeks in North Korea, DeVos will succeed in returning that nation’s nuclear program to pre-1970 levels.

At a press briefing announcing the mission, the White House deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, called DeVos “our nation’s best bet to stop North Korea.”

Dang Andy! Sarah Upchuckabee is right!! RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Kelly Macias wrote a sobering piece, Politics in Texas provide insight into how the rest of the nation can go and it’s downright scary, that prompted a question in my mind. What do Republicans run on versus what they are doing when in office? Further, I asked, what are Democrats running to do if they were to win?

With those questions in mind, I did some digging, checking out every representative’s campaign web page and identifying the 3 top issues each candidate raises. I looked at all 150 seats and discovered some interesting and sobering things. Before I share my findings, let’s take a quick look at the makeup of the Texas House of Representatives.

A quick disclaimer; I am not a Texan, which, for purposes of this exercise, I think will prove useful since I have no preconceived notion of any of the players involved. This allowed me to remain somewhat neutral as I reviewed their campaign information.

THE TEXAS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OVERVIEW

• Number of Representatives = 150
• Republican-held seats = 95 (63%)
• Democratic-held seats = 55 (37%)
• Seats not contested by Democrats in the last cycle = 60 (40%)
• Seats Republicans needed to win to secure majority = 16 (11%)
• Constituents per House District = 167,637
• Constituents represented by Democrats = 9,220,035
• Constituents Democrats DID NOT SEEK to represent = 10,058,220

Now that’s what I call pathetic!  If you don’t compete, you can’t win! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

It’s hot enough to melt a brass monkey, and my little AC is going full speed, trying to keep it tolerable in the room.  When Wendy gets here for my shower, it will be 93° outside, so it will be at least that hot or hotter in the shower room.  It will be a dry off twice day, once when I finish the shower, and once when I’m back in my room.  Tomorrow I have an annual board meeting with my prison volunteer group, and Friday I have a follow up appointment with my gall bladder surgeon, so please expect no more than a Personal Update on both days.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:25 (average 6:28).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Newsweek: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken a pop at the political direction of the U.S. and the U.K. in a conversation with Ireland’s new Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

During his official visit to Ireland, Trudeau said in a joint press conference with Varadkar that Canada and Ireland had major allies who were going in a “different direction” from them, underlining his souring relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.

"There are tremendous opportunities for countries like Canada and Ireland, at a time where perhaps our significant allies and trading partners in the case of both the U.S. and the U.K. are turning inward or at least turning into a different direction,” Trudeau said in comments carried by AFP.

Kudos to Trudeau. We all know what country the Fuhrer wants to insert into Canada’s favored position. RESIST!!

From NY Times: …Republican senators have had to decide whether public appearances would be fruitful or the crowds hostile. Many lawmakers seem to have given up on town hall-style meetings and parades…

In short, most Republicans are avoiding the rich political opportunities for grandstanding the 4th offers, so they can to stay in hiding from their constituents. What anti-American cowards they are! RESIST!!

From Alternet: Did you hear about the Civil War Part II over the weekend? Somehow, word got around among Confederate “patriot” groups that AntiFa (anti-facists) were planning to desecrate Confederate memorials like Gettysburg. Never mind there are no Confederate memorials at Gettysburg.

For their part, the Central Pennsylvania AntiFa organization made it clear they had no plans to show up and emphatically denied they ever had any intention of going to Gettysburg.

Nevertheless, the rally cry had already gone out, the Confederate bugle sounded, and so-called “patriots” heeded the call and made their way to Gettysburg to defend their great, great, great, great grandpappy’s honor. Among the “patriots” was Ben Hornberger, a Trump supporter, who accidentally shot himself while resting his flag pole on his gun at the rally of Gettysburg:

A "patriot" who brought a revolver to Gettysburg National Military Park Saturday amid rumors of desecration of memorials accidentally shot himself in the leg Saturday.

Benjamin Hornberger, 23, of Shippensburg, accidentally triggered the revolver, which was inside a leg holster, when he temporarily rested the bottom of his flag pole against the holster, according to witnesses.

Park police were nearby when the shooting occurred and officers quickly applied a tourniquet that may have saved the man’s life, said Sgt. Anna Rose, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Park Police.

After police took the gun, it went off again as they were trying to unload it. Humiliation aside, Hornberger is expected to recover.

As long as the fool was shooting himself, it’s a shame this Nazi Republican Ammosexual didn’t shoot himself in a place that would have prevented him from polluting the gene pool. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Sometime during the next hour and a half, Safeway.com will be delivering groceries.  Unlike Store to Door, closed for the 4th, Safeway does not unpack my groceries for me or help me put them away, so I’ll have to break to do that myself.  I hope you are having a better holiday weekend than the US.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:02 (average 5:39).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: …As pr*sident, Donald Trump’s narcissistic tendencies first expressed themselves from the White House briefing podium when Press Secretary Sean Spicer argued against all evidence that the attendance at Trump’s inauguration exceeded that at President Obama’s. It seems almost quaint now—partly because the clear pictorial evidence made it so laughable—but that was an inaugural glimpse of where we were headed, pardon the pun.

It’s no secret by now that Trump is out of his depth, unable to comprehend the vast federal bureaucracy he’s supposed to command, incapable of absorbing the knowledge necessary to inform critical decisions about commanding it, and frankly, uninterested in anything that isn’t directly related to whichever immediate concern has hijacked his limited attention span at any given hour of the day.

But now we are seeing how that psyche is choking off the entire White House from the world, not just so Trump can maintain control over the government, but so no inconvenient truths can infiltrate his fortress and encroach on his reality…

Click through for the entire article. It’s worth it. I agree with the author, that it’s only a matter of time before the Fuhrer screws the pooch. RESIST!!

From NY Times: …Some policy subjects, on the other hand, really are complicated. One of these subjects is international trade. And the great danger here isn’t simply that Trump doesn’t understand the issues. Worse, he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.

According to the news site Axios, Trump, supported by his inner circle of America Firsters, is “hell-bent” on imposing punitive tariffs on imports of steel and possibly other products, despite opposition from most of his cabinet. After all, claims that other countries are taking advantage of America were a central theme of his campaign.

And Axios reports that the White House believes that Trump’s base “likes the idea” of a trade war, and “will love the fight.”…

Click through for the rest of Paul Krugman’s fine editorial. For one thing a tariff on imported steel, will price all the goods made by US workers with that more costly steel out of competition with foreign products. Bye Bye jobs!  How do you spell stupid? R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N! RESIST!!

From Raw Story: A man has been charged with plotting to assassinate President Emmanuel Macron at France’s Bastille Day military parade which the French leader is set to attend with US President Donald Trump, a judicial source said Monday.

The 23-year-old is a suspected far-right extremist who told investigators he wanted to kill Macron at the July 14 national day parade in Paris, a source close to the investigation said.

He said he also wanted to attack “Muslims, Jews, blacks, homosexuals,” the source added.

Police arrested the man at his home on Wednesday in the northwest Paris suburb of Argenteuil after being alerted by users of an internet chatroom where the suspect allegedly said he wanted to buy a firearm.

No doubt Trump is in mourning over the capture of a French Republican terrorist, who was plotting to give Trump a reason to cheer at the parade. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

No wonder Republicans hate the French!

It’s a busy day and not as hot as yesterday  After today, the temperatures will be in the mid-80°s and above for the next ten days.  The horrible part is that for that whole time, the humidity will never drop below 45%.  I hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend (US).

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:02 (average 5:25).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Trump Will Not Be Cleared

Was Trump an unwitting accomplice? Possibly. A dimwitted one? Indubitably! RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: From Vanity Fair:

But a few days shy of her six-month mark on air, Van Susteren’s business is finished on MSNBC, according to people familiar with the situation. The anchor, whose show struggled to gain traction even as the rest of her colleagues were buoyed by anti-Trump hysteria, has parted ways with the network. She will not appear on the show on Thursday evening. She will be permanently replaced by Ari Melber, the network’s chief legal correspondent and host of the The Point on weekends. He will continue to appear across NBC and MSNBC shows as he takes over the 6 p.m. slot next month. (MSNBC and NBC News declined to comment. Reached by phone Thursday afternoon, Van Susteren had no comment.)

I never published one of her clips, I gave her the benefit of the (very small) doubt, if any, and watched several when going to MSNBC for material from Chris, Rachel, and Lawrence. It was more like watching the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise. Good riddance to bad rubbish. RESIST!!

From NY Times: With Senate Republicans already bogged down over how to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, President Trump on Friday tossed in a new complication with an old idea: The Senate could repeal the health law now, then replace it later.

Mr. Trump gave his blessing [tweeting twit delinked] in a Twitter post after a Republican dissatisfied with the current repeal bill, Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, floated the two-stage approach as a backup plan. Mr. Sasse sent a letter to the president [Fascist delinked] and made a pitch on Fox News [Faux Noise delinked] on Friday as an agreement on a new version of the Senate’s repeal bill remained elusive.

Other conservatives quickly picked up the idea — including Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and the advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, backed by Charles G. and David H. Koch — presenting a new headache to Senate leaders who are trying to focus their conservative and moderate troops on finding a compromise.

It isn’t enough for the Fuhrer and his Koch sucking Republican cronies to take health care away from only 24 million Americans. This will do it to 36 million. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I made this cartoon five years ago today.  It still applies.