Since the unholy advent of the Republican Rectum Reich, the term OGIM! has taken on an unprecedented air of putrefaction.  Every week brings the question: to what new level of evil will the Nectarine Nincompoop Nazi take us this week?  Am I the only one shuddering at the thought?

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 6:01 (average 8:18).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Robert Reich: Donald Trump has reorganized the National Security Council – elevating his chief political strategist Steve Bannon, and demoting the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Bannon will join the NSC’s principals committee, the top inter-agency group advising the President on national security.

Meanwhile, the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will now attend meetings only when “issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed,” according to the presidential memorandum issued Saturday.

Political strategists have never before participated in National Security Council principals meetings because the NSC is supposed to give presidents nonpartisan, factual advice.

But forget facts. Forget analysis. This is the Trump administration.

And what does Bannon have to bring to the table?

In case you forgot, before joining Donald Trump’s inner circle Bannon headed Breitbart News, a far-right media outlet that has promoted conspiracy theories and is a platform for the alt-right movement, which espouses white nationalism.

This is truly scary.

Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice calls the move “stone cold crazy.” Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who also served under George W. Bush, says the demotions are a “big mistake.”

Republican Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told CBS News, "I am worried about the National Security Council. … The appointment of Mr. Bannon is a radical departure from any National Security Council in history.” McCain added that the “one person who is indispensable would be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in my view.”

Here’s the big worry. Trump is unhinged and ignorant. Bannon is nuts and malicious. If not supervised by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, their decisions could endanger the world… [emphasis added]

The Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right. The Reich on the Right, the Republican Reich, is insane. Unterfartenfuhrer Bannon is a Nazi.  RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Calling it a “medical mystery of the first order,” scientists are baffled by the ability of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan to stand upright without the benefit of spines.

Doctors at the University of Minnesota Medical School, who have been studying the skeletal structures of both Republicans for months, believe that their ability to stand, walk, and even break into a brisk trot when confronted by reporters’ questions is “virtually inexplicable.”

“The fact that they can do these things without the aid of spines makes McConnell and Ryan anomalies in the animal kingdom,” said Dr. Davis Logsdon. “According to everything medical science teaches us, their bodies should be collapsing to the ground in two heaps.”

Spot-in, Andy!! In toilet trout fishing terms, Bought Bitch Mitch and Lyin’ Ryan are boneless browns!! RESIST!!

From Think Progress: Donald Trump’s executive order, which blocked all citizens of seven majority-Muslim nations and refugees from any nation from entering the United States, has drawn widespread criticism from the corporate world.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings called Trump’s order “unAmerican” and said it would “make America less safe (through hatred and loss of allies) rather than more safe.” Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield called Trump’s actions “gratuitously evil.” EBay CEO Devin Wenig said the executive order “fundamentally contradicts our company’s values and America’s values.”

Starbucks, however, is taking things a step further.

In an open letter, CEO Howard Schultz announced that, in response to Trump, Starbucks would hire 10,000 refugees.

Kudos to all these, and especially to Schultz of Starbucks. Let us remind each other, in this time that encourages unthinking knee jerking, that not all corporations, as well as all billionaires, are evil.

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It’s very rare for me to get my articles out so late in the day, but I had a ton of chores that I had to get done, and more to do, so please pardon my brevity.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:18 (average 5:41).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Full Frontal Channel): MILCK Performs "Quiet" with GW Sirens and Capital Blend

Since so many of you loved this, Sam posted the entire song. RESIST!!

From Washington Post: Republican lawmakers aired sharp concerns about their party’s quick push to repeal the Affordable Care Act at a closed-door meeting Thursday, according to a recording of the session obtained by The Washington Post.

The recording reveals a GOP that appears to be filled with doubts about how to make good on a long-standing promise to get rid of Obamacare without explicit guidance from President Trump or his administration. The thorny issues with which lawmakers grapple on the tape — including who may end up either losing coverage or paying more under a revamped system — highlight the financial and political challenges that flow from upending the current law.

Senators and House members expressed a range of concerns about the task ahead: how to prepare a replacement plan that can be ready to launch at the time of repeal; how to avoid deep damage to the health insurance market; how to keep premiums affordable for middle-class families; even how to avoid the political consequences of defunding Planned Parenthood, the women’s health-care organization, as many Republicans hope to do with the repeal of the ACA.

“We’d better be sure that we’re prepared to live with the market we’ve created” with repeal, said Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.). “That’s going to be called Trumpcare. Republicans will own that lock, stock and barrel, and we’ll be judged in the election less than two years away.”

Click through for many more statements from the secret recording. Note that not one of these fascist Republicans gives a damn about YOU, only the damage they wouls do to their careers. RESIST!!

From The Rachel Maddow Show: Trump, weak under pressure, caves; wall’s future uncertain

Rachel Maddow reports on a series of orders from Donald Trump to federal agencies this week that were ultimately reversed as Trump caved to pressure, and wonders about the future of Trump’s wall when Americans learn he wants them to pay for it.

This is why we…

RESIST!!

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I don’t know why, but I slept poorly last night, so with your permission, I’ll dispense with my normal chattiness and get to the task at hand.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:15 (average 5:28).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): How the Media Needs to Respond to Trump Now | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

Amen Keith! The Fourth Estate has two choices. They can do their duty or they can become an insignificant pawn of the Fifth Reich! RESIST!!

From The Rachel Maddow Show: PPP poll: Trump base deluded by false facts

Rachel Maddow gives an exclusive first look at the latest PPP poll showing Donald Trump with historically low approval ratings and that most Americans do not believe his lies about inauguration numbers, though his supporters do.

This reiterates what Keith said.  Media might as well report truth.  Only deplorables will believe the Fuhrer’s lies anyway!  RESIST!!

From NY Times: It contained crossed-out phrases and typos. It said that the Sept. 11 attacks occurred in 2011, rather than a decade earlier. It was clearly not meant for public consumption.

But the draft of a Trump administration executive order that spilled into public view early Wednesday — a document that raised the prospect of reviving C.I.A. “black site” prisons like those where terrorism suspects were once detained and tortured — has the potential to further fracture a national security team already divided over one of the most controversial policies of the post-9/11 era.

Time to dust off the Statue of Republican Liberty. RESIST!!

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Allison, my Ocular Oncology Surgeon,  told me I’m in remission after several hours of torture.  I really hate it when they do an ultrasound right on the eyeball.  It’s like fingernails on a blackboard in your head.  Now I need only five more surgeries to see right again.  I will also have to submit to two more of Allison’s torture sessions a year and a full contrast pleural and abdominal CAT scan once a year.  I’m still blurry from the dilation, but nearly functional.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:50 (average 5:09).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): A Plea to Trump Fans: This Man is Dangerous | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

Although his plea, if heard at all, will fall on deaf ears, everything Keith said about the Fuhrer is true. Every morning, I thank God that the world has survived another day of Putin’s Puppet’s Reich. RESIST!!

From The Last Word: Lawsuit: President Trump is violating the Constitution

The President is being sued for allegedly violating the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution because his hotels may accept payments from foreign governments. Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit, joins Lawrence.

Kudos to CREW. Sue the bastard!!  RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: A man who was described as “visibly deranged” eluded the Secret Service on Saturday and gave a five-minute press conference at the White House.

The man, who somehow obtained White House credentials in order to bypass security, unloaded a delusional and paranoid rant that left a room full of experienced reporters shaken.

“We were all very, very scared,” Tracy Klugian, a reporter who witnessed the incident, said. “The things he was shouting made absolutely no sense, and he seemed to just get angrier and angrier.”

After a stream-of-consciousness tirade in which he accused the reporters of being part of a far-reaching conspiracy to distort reality, the man abruptly walked off “before he could do any real harm,” a Secret Service spokesman said.

Reporters who left the White House called the incident the scariest five minutes of their lives and said that they were grateful it did not escalate further.

Dang Andy! Don’t ya think the Secret Service should have shot Sean Spicer, before he ever got near a microphone?    RESIST!!

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