Politics Plus

It’s been a very busy day, I was up early, and I’m quite tired.  Wendi and I shined and polished the TomCat, did the floors, counters and dusting, cleaned thy CatBox, filed a pants-load of paperwork, cooked a sic day sausage casserole, and made steak and baked potatoes for brunch.  I contributed a big sticky bun to the Southern Exposure Project.  I’m looking forward to a nap.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:40 (average 5:13).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Although this was all legal, this Virginia man’s protest was frightening for the staff and volunteers at Jane Dittmar’s Palmyra (VA-05) congressional campaign office. Virginia resident Daniel Parks, who says he served in the military, stood outside for 12 hours, staring into the office and intimidating campaign volunteers:

"I’m just trying to provide a voice for someone who might be a closet supporter of trump. Other people who are a little worried to speak out because of possible persecution," he said.

He actually made a point of showing the gun to make campaign workers fearful. I suspect this is a trial run for how we might expect Republicans to behave at polling places.

From NY Times: Britain and the European Union may be getting over the initial shock of the British demand for a divorce. Now comes the bitter fight. Already, both sides have staked out very different positions on immigration, an issue that promises to be the most contentious in the separation proceedings.

Germany, France and other union members have argued that Britain must maintain open borders if it is to enjoy favorable access to Europe’s single market. Many British voters who chose to leave the bloc in June would like to see those borders more tightly regulated by the British government. However this issue is resolved, both sides have an obligation to find ways to minimize the economic damage to Britain and the rest of the union that a new relationship could bring. Formal negotiations are expected to start by the end of March.

The British prime minister, Theresa May, wants unfettered access to the European market, the world’s largest. Under her vision, Britain’s manufacturers would be able to sell products to customers in the bloc without paying duties, and bankers in London could serve businesses and investors anywhere in the union. But she and her colleagues insist on restricting immigration from other European Union countries.

Those demands are unacceptable to leaders like Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President François Hollande of France who insist that the union can accept the free movement of goods, services and capital only with countries that also accept the free movement of people.

It sounds to me that the Brexit Bridiots, who thought a protest vote was safe, now want all the benefits of membership in the EU, but none of the responsibilities.  I don’t think so.

From Think Progress: Most of the grumblings and musings of rebellion have come from everyday Trump voters, but on Saturday, Trump surrogate and Milwaukee Sheriff David A. Clarke, an elected law official, tweeted that it’s “pitchforks and torches time” with a (stock) photo of an angry mob.

Here we have a Republican law enforcement official openly calling for riots, if Rump Dump loses.

Cartoon:

I have another day with lots of chores to get done.  TGIF!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:46 (average 5:04).  To do it. click here.  How did you do?

Religious Agony:

The head coach, Gary Kubiak, was out sick.  ARGH!!

Short Takes:

From KP Daily Funnies: Danny Elfman: Trump Stalks Hillary

There is nothing funny about this. Am I the only one that was surprised she didn’t turn and kick his tiny dingles?

From Daily Kos: Emails leaked by a hacker reveal that former Secretary of State Colin Powell considers Donald Trump “A national disgrace and international pariah,” and that he and his successor, Condoleezza Rice, agreed the years of investigation into the Benghazi attack in 2012 were “a stupid witch hunt.”

The emails are thought to have come from DCLeaks.com, which some computer specialists believe is connected to Russian intelligence services.

That’s a big OOPS for Putin’s spies. They are only supposed to leak things that help Putin’s dog.

From YouTube: Obama Angrily Tears Into GOP: You Don’t ‘Get Credit’ for Just Suddenly Dumping Trump!

Trump is a symptom of the Republican Party, a cancer that must be excised to save America.

Cartoon:

It’s another busy Wednesday.  I lay down after finishing my research this morning.  I have a grocery delivery coming this afternoon, and I have to unpack and put them away.  Later, Wendy is coming to wash the TomCat, do some light cleaning and have dinner.  I made a one-day chili for us this morning, so we can send a double green cloud after the Squatch.   Happy hump day to all!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:52 (average 5:51).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From CCR (Hat-Tip JL A, who sent me an email about it): Today, nearly 14 years after the case began, the Supreme Court granted John Ashcroft and other Bush-era government officials’ requests to review CCR’s class action challenge to the post-9/11 immigration detentions. In Turkmen v. Ashcroft, the Supreme Court will directly confront, for the first time, whether the Constitution guarantees non-citizens the right to sue cabinet-level officials for clearly unconstitutional discrimination and abuse in a US prison.

In some ways, the answer seems obvious.  In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, hundreds of Muslim, Arab, and South Asian men were arrested on civil immigration charges and treated as suspected terrorists based on nothing more than their race and religion. As a panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals explained last year, “detaining individuals as if they were terrorists, in the most restrictive conditions of confinement available, simply because these individuals were, or appeared to be, Arab or Muslim exceeds [constitutional] limits. It might well be that national security concerns motivated the Defendants to take action, but that is of little solace to those who felt the brunt of that decision. The suffering endured by those who were imprisoned merely because they were caught up in the hysteria of the days immediately following 9/11 is not without a remedy.”

And yet.  Ashcroft, along with former-FBI director Robert Mueller, and former-INS Commissioner James Ziglar, are arguing that non-citizens injured in the name of national security, and pursuant to high-level policy, should not even be allowed in the courthouse door. A doctrine called “qualified immunity” already provides these Government actors with substantial protection, allowing them to be held personally liable only if they are shown to have violated clearly established law about which any reasonable official would have known.  These defendants want more. Represented by the current Solicitor General of the United States, former government officials are asking the Supreme Court to grant them the right to violate clearly established constitutional rights at will. Perhaps even more troubling, they are also arguing that it is not clearly established that our Constitutional guaranty of equal protection prohibits the government from placing people in the most restrictive conditions of confinement that exist in the federal prison system based only on their race, religion, ethnicity and national origin, while knowing there is no non-discriminatory reason to suspect them of ties to terrorism.

In my opinion, the Republicans that committed this war crime should be convicted both civilly and criminally. This case also shows how important it is to have Supreme Court vacancies filled by Clinton, not Trump. Trump Injustices would criminalize refraining from committing war crimes.

From TPM: Four former contestants in the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant told Buzzfeed News that Donald Trump walked into the dressing room while they were changing clothes.

"I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a man in here,’" Mariah Billado, former Miss Vermont Teen USA, told Buzzfeed News.

Billado said that Trump said something along the lines of, "Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before," when he walked into the room.

As Buzzfeed News noted, girls as young as 15 competed in the pageant, and contestants told Buzzfeed that the dressing rooms were typically open spaces without barriers shielding them while they changed clothes.

Three other former contestants in the Miss Teen USA pageant confirmed to Buzzfeed News that Trump walked into the dressing room, but they asked to not be named. One former contestant said that Trump’s decision to enter the dressing room was "shocking" and "creepy," according to Buzzfeed News.

We now have enough Republican smoking guns to start WWIII.

From NY Times: With early voting already underway in many of the states that will decide the presidency, Hillary Clinton is beginning to reap the benefits of years of Democratic efforts to target and register voters, even as Republicans steadily close their disadvantage in party registration.

The first wave of data from states like Florida and North Carolina shows preliminary signs that Mrs. Clinton was building a slight edge even before the revelation that Donald J. Trump had bragged about sexual assault roiled the race.

The closer we get to election day, the more news of this kind we will get. We must not allow complacency to set in.

Cartoon:

I’m about to go to a medical appointment over my double vision.  I’ll publish this after I return.  In last nights masdebate, Trump was deplorable.  No fact passed his lips.  However, this was more even than the last, because Hillary performed poorly.

The doctor said that she thinks I’ll need surgery, but wants to be the last thing done, after cataract surgery and after surgery to remove the droop from my eyelids.  In the meantime, she fitted my old glasses with a prism that partially corrects the double vision at short range, as long as I’m looking straight ahead.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:49 (average 7:09).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Agony:

Cartoon: