Politics Plus

I’m sorry to say that the heat is returning.  Although today’s forecast is only 82°, the sun hit the outside wall at 6:00 AM, and by 8:00, I had to close the windows, lower the blinds, and turn on the AC.  It’s another muggy day.  Speaking of muggy, I put in the mug order last night.  Lona’s is the first I’ve customized, since my eye cancer surgery.  I hope I lined everything up right.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:17 (average 4:55).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The Rachel Maddow Show: Scientist says EPA asked her to change testimony to Congress

Deborah Swackhamer, chair of the E.P.A.’s Board of Scientific Counselors, talks with Rachel Maddow about the pressure she received from an EPA official to change her congressional testimony and how the EPA’s outside scientific review board has been "decimated."

Kudos to Deborah Swackhamer. She ought to take that hammer and swack Scott Pruitt upside the head. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Foreign-born recruits who signed up for the military with the promise of U.S. citizenship in exchange for their service are finally getting their thanks in the form of deportation. MAGA.

According to a new report, the Pentagon is considering ending the contracts of a large number of foreign-born recruits in the Military Accessions Vital to National Interest program—which puts service members with foreign-language and other speciality [sic] skills on an expedited path to citizenship—due to an “overtasked vetting process and heightened security risk.”

But according to one former official, this can be something as innocuous as having a foreign relative, which would be expected of a foreign-born applicant in the first place. And due to the fact that the federal government already has so much of their personal information on file, many of these recruits would be “prime targets” for immediate deportation.

Basically, “Thank you for your service. Now get out”

These people served our country honorably and in good faith.  It’s disgusting that Republican racists don’t consider promises made to folks they call mud-people binding. RESIST!!

From NY Times: President Trump’s nominee for general counsel of the Transportation Department, Steven G. Bradbury [Pig delinked], is coming under fire by Democrats and human rights advocates for his role in providing legal blessing for waterboarding and other torture techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency on terrorism suspects during the administration of George W. Bush.

Amid interruptions by anti-torture protesters at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Democrats grilled Mr. Bradbury about interrogation memos he wrote as head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel during Mr. Bush’s second term.

“You lacked the judgment to stand up and say what is morally right when pressured by the president of the United States, and I’m afraid you would do so again,” said Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, who wagged her finger at Mr. Bradbury and accused him of having a dangerous “rubber stamp” mentality. “I cannot oppose this nomination strongly enough.”

Like Tammy, I cannot oppose the appointment of a Republican War Criminal strongly enough, RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I don’t know why, but I could not sleep again last night, and between exhaustion and feeling sick of writing about the latest evidence of Republican treason and the latest Republican ploy to kill Granny, I need to make this today’s only article.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:26 (average 4:34).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): The Amazing New Trump Defense | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

I think I’m going to puke! RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: A goodly number of progressives rejected Hillary Clinton on the grounds that she wasn’t good enough for them. Their most common claim was that she is just as bad as Mr. Trump. I have a few questions for them:

Would Hillary Clinton have pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords?

Would Hillary Clinton have greatly accelerated deportations of illegal aliens?

Would Hillary Clinton have attempted to ban Muslims from entering this country?

Would Hillary Clinton have appointed Chelsea Clinton to an important position in the White House?

Would Hillary Clinton have encouraged foreign diplomats to pay inflated prices for her products?

How foolish, thoughtless and selfish they behaved! Click through. The list is a long one. RESIST!!

From NY Times: The Senate bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act was edging toward collapse on Monday after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said it would increase the number of people without health insurance by 22 million by 2026.

Two Republicans, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, said Monday that they would vote against even debating the health care bill, joining Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, who made the same pledge on Friday. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin hinted that he, too, would probably oppose taking up the bill on a procedural vote expected as early as Tuesday, meaning a collapse could be imminent.

“It’s worse to pass a bad bill than pass no bill,” Mr. Paul told reporters.

Ms. Collins wrote on Twitter on Monday evening that she wanted to work with her colleagues from both parties to fix flaws in the Affordable Care Act, but that the budget office’s report showed that the “Senate bill won’t do it.”

Heller and Collins are only two. We can’t depend on Idiot, Son of Idiot, Named after Idiot. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Yesterday’s 98° high set another new record for the date.  Today’s forecast 100° promises to do the same.  The AC keeps it bearable in my room, but the temperature in bathroom with the handicapped shower is currently 85°.  Wendy is due in about 45 minutes to de-stink the putrid TomCat.  As I noted before, I think the TomCat will have to de-stink Wendy too.  Later:  It was so hot that Wendy was happy to throw on a swimsuit, so we could drench each other with a cool spray.  What fun!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:32 (average 7:41).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Former President Barack Obama used his Facebook page to deliver a message to Republicans as they consider dismantling the Affordable Care Act, “step back and measure what’s really at stake.” Read his thoughtful, heartbreaking statement on the attempt to take away health care coverage from tens of millions of Americans:

Our politics are divided. They have been for a long time. And while I know that division makes it difficult to listen to Americans with whom we disagree, that’s what we need to do today.

I recognize that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has become a core tenet of the Republican Party. Still, I hope that our Senators, many of whom I know well, step back and measure what’s really at stake, and consider that the rationale for action, on health care or any other issue, must be something more than simply undoing something that Democrats did.

Thank you, Mr. President. Click through for the rest. It’s worth it. RESIST!!

From NY Times: …On Thursday, Senate Republicans joined their House colleagues in proposing steep cuts to Medicaid, part of the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Conservatives hope to roll back what they see as an expanding and costly entitlement. But little has been said about what would happen to older Americans in nursing homes if the cuts took effect.

Under federal law, state Medicaid programs are required to cover nursing home care. But state officials decide how much to pay facilities, and states under budgetary pressure could decrease the amount they are willing to pay or restrict eligibility for coverage.

“The states are going to make it harder to qualify medically for needing nursing home care,” predicted Toby S. Edelman, a senior policy attorney at the Center for Medicare Advocacy. “They’d have to be more disabled before they qualify for Medicaid assistance.”

States might allow nursing homes to require residents’ families to pay for a portion of their care, she added. Officials could also limit the types of services and days of nursing home care they pay for, as Medicare already does.

Click through. If it passes, RepubliCare will force many seniors out of their nursing homes and leave them helpless in the streets. RESIST!!

From Think Progress: The Nebraska Democratic Party has removed a party official after he was recorded saying he was glad House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) was shot, according to a Fox News affiliate [Faux Noise Delinked].

“His whole job is to get people, convince Republicans to fucking kick people off fucking health care,” Phil Montag, a technology chairman with the state Democratic Party, said in the verified audio recording [Faux Noise Delinked]. “I hate this motherfucker, I’m glad he got shot.”

“I’m glad he got shot, I’m not going to fucking say that in public,” Montag added. An unidentified male later says he would release the recording publicly.

I condemn Montag and his statements as anti-Democratic and anti-American. However, the Democratic party fired Montag for his hatred. Had he been a Republican, saying he was gkas a Democrat had been shot, the Republican Party would have promoted him for it. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Once in a long while, the good guys win one.