I’m running way late today because Julie was here.  I’m a very pampered puddy tat.  We finalized the details for my surgeries next week.  We did a whole gamut of housekeeping tasks, including the dreaded task.  Killer Dawg helped.

I fed her lunch, a plate of Tony Roma’s Baby Back Ribs. The down-side is that Killer Dawg has hidden three rib bones in my apartment, and I have no idea where they are.  We also took a pic of Killer Dawg in his official duds, in compliance with a European request for it.

The parade was cold and it rained on and off.  I took a few pics, but as the bands passed us, none were playing and almost none of the girls were baton tossing, pompom shaking, or flag waving.  Everyone was just walking past, so about mid-way through, I gave up and had lunch.  I still have to resize the pictures and plan to post them tomorrow.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:51 (average 4:51).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos (classic 2/2015): The U.S. Geological Survey has backed-up what scientists have been suggesting for years–that deep injection of wastewater is the primary cause of the dramatic rise in detected earthquakes:

Keep it in the ground!!

Also from Daily Kos (classic 3/2015): DW-NOMINATE is a method for analyzing data on preferences, such as voting data, developed by political scientists Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal. Unlike the scoring done by interest groups, DW-NOMINATE doesn’t rely on subjective determinations of what constitutes a liberal vote or a conservative vote–it sorts members of a population according to how similar each member’s choices are to those of other members of the population. Two senators who vote the same way 90 percent of the time will be much closer to each other than two senators who only vote the same way 10 percent of the time. Poole and Rosenthal have used this method to discover some interesting statistics and trends going back to the First Congress in 1787-89.

Using House and Senate roll call votes as inputs, DW-NOMINATE has been used to chart every member of every Congress in a two-dimensional space. The primary dimension corresponds strongly to conventional notions of the liberal-conservative axis in modern politics, while the significance of the secondary axis tends to change over time (traditionally it tended to highlight the distance between Dixiecrats and the rest of the Democratic party; today it’s kind of a more nebulous indicator of social and cultural differences and is, in my opinion, not particularly interesting). The point is that we can sort the members of a particular Congress by their scores on the primary dimension to easily rank them from most liberal to most conservative based entirely on their own voting data.

And when we do this for the period in which Hillary Clinton was in the Senate, here’s what we get:

As it turns out, with a first-dimension score of -0.391 based upon her entire service in Congress, Hillary Clinton was the 11th most liberal member of the Senate in each of the 107th, 108th, 109th, and 110th Congresses. That places her slightly to the left of Pat Leahy (-0.386), Barbara Mikulski (-0.385) and Dick Durbin (-0.385); clearly to the left of Joe Biden (-0.331) and Harry Reid (-0.289)

This surprised me, but I can’t argue with authentic voting stats. I was not surprised that Bernie is number one!

From LA Times: A heavily armed gunman who had reportedly pledged allegiance to Islamic State stormed into a packed gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., early Sunday, and began rapidly firing into the crowd, killing at least 50 people and wounding 53 in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

The gunman was killed by a SWAT team after taking hostages at Pulse, a popular gay club, investigators said at an early morning news conference. He has been preliminarily identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Fla., a U.S. law enforcement official said.

Mateen called 911 moments before the attack, pledging allegiance to the Islamic state, a federal law enforcement official said, confirming earlier reports. Federal investigators said they also were looking into reports that he recited prayers to Allah during the attack. The investigators stressed that they have just begun digging into his background and don’t want to jump to conclusions about any links to Islamic State.

May their loved ones be comforted. Barack, Bernie and Hillary all tried to comfort their suffering and condemned the pseudo-Muslim from the Daesh. Rump Dump Trump wants congratulations. Some other Republicans are even condemning the victims.

Cartoon:

I’m getting ready to leave for PT with Courtney.  This is today’s only article, and I’ll finish it when I return.  Last night I stayed up late, because I needed to do some scanning, and the scanner in my all-in-one color laser printer wouldn’t work.  It turned out  that my old printer software was incompatible with Windows 10, so I had to upgrade the software and completely reinstall the printer.  It works fine now, but I’m very tired.

I’m back.  I worked hard.  I’m totally pooped!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:07 (average 5:26).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Oklahoma Highway Patrol began using a new device they have begun using called ERAD—Electronic Recovery and Access to Data machine. The device allows a law enforcement officer to scan any credit or ATM cards and seize any money connected with that card.

"We’re gonna look for different factors in the way that you’re acting,” Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. John Vincent said. “We’re gonna look for if there’s a difference in your story. If there’s someway that we can prove that you’re falsifying information to us about your business."

Troopers insist this isn’t just about seizing cash. 

"I know that a lot of people are just going to focus on the seizing money. That’s a very small thing that’ s happening now. The largest part that we have found … the biggest benefit has been the identity theft," Vincent said.

How do you spell B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T?

From YouTube: Bernie Sanders Speech following White House Meeting with Obama Sanders slams Trump 6/9/16

To me that speech strongly indicates Bernie’s intent to work with Hillary. Will those that have made Bernie a cult follow Bernie? I hope so!

From MSNBC: Warren: I’m ready to get in this fight for Hillary Clinton

Senator Elizabeth Warren offers her endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president of the United States, and talks with Rachel Maddow about the Democratic primary and her objections to Donald Trump.

"The Republicans underestimated Donald Trump, and look where it got them." That’s what Liz to the people who think they can vote their conscience without changing anything. They are wrong. Liz is right.

Vote Blue No Matter Who!!

Cartoon:

As usual, I’m running late,  Julie was here.  Killer Dawg loves his service animal vest.  Julie went on a feist and did most of the housework tasks I planned for Saturday.  Now that the heat wave is finally over, my shower was especially welcome.  I’m waiting for my groceries to be delivered and for a former prisoner’s daughter to stop by.  I’m helping them with a bus ticket to Portland.  I look forward to a night’s sleep without needsing AC.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:07 (average 5:14).  To do it click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Real Clear Politics:

The fat lady has sung. Hillary has won enough delegates to be nominated. She has won a majority of pledged delegates. She has won the popular vote by over 3,600,000 voters.  I have been a Bernie Sanders man from day one, but the time has come for me to admit defeat and urge Bernie to throw his considerable fire and skill behind the presumptive Democratic Nominee. The only other alternative is Rump Dump Trump.

From Daily Kos: Donald Trump’s GOP nomination isn’t a hypothetical anymore and he is proving even worse than originally anticipated, what with his repeated attacks on the ability of Mexican and Muslim judges to do their jobs. Unfortunately for Republicans, they’ve all pretty much caved and endorsed Trump and now they "own" him, reports CNN:

Veteran Republican strategist Rick Wilson warned this weekend that GOP leaders who have endorsed Trump "own his politics."

"You own his politics," Wilson wrote in a column for Heatstreet, adding later, "You own the racial animus that started out as a bug, became a feature and is now the defining characteristic of his campaign. You own every crazy, vile chunk of word vomit that spews from his mouth."

The GOP’s deepest fear: A Barry Goldwater effect that could last far longer than Trump’s political aspirations.

Goldwater, the Arizona senator who was the 1964 GOP nominee and a leader of the conservative movement, alienated a generation of African-American voters by opposing the Civil Rights Act — opening the door for Democrats to lock in their support for decades. Republicans fret that Trump could similarly leave a stain with Latino voters.

On the other hand, many Republicans continued to oppose AuH2O after the nomination, but today, virtually all Republicans are goose-stepping in lock-step behind Rump Dump. He says what they pretend not to support, but do support through their policies.

From The New Yorker: Upping the ante in his quest for the White House, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders vowed on Tuesday night to continue battling for the Democratic Presidential nomination even if Hillary Clinton is elected President of the United States.

“If, on November 8th of this year, Hillary Clinton is elected President, we will have only begun to fight,” Sanders told a packed rally in San Francisco.

Sanders acknowledged that continuing to fight for the nomination after Clinton is elected President would represent a “steep challenge,” but added, “When we started this race we were only at three per cent in the polls. Anything is possible.”

Oh Andy!!

FOMCROTFPIMPLMAO!!

Cartoon: