Politics Plus

Yesterday, I was overly tired for some reason.  I went to the building community meeting.  They are outlawing window air conditioning Un its, because one fell from a window and barely missed a passer by.  I will have to get a free standing A/C with a tube that vents through a window kit.  ARGH!  Today I have PT, OT and the bath-aide all coming. so I have another busy day on tap.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:46 (Average 5:28).  Top do it click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From HRC: Following the publication this week of a commentary by Everett Piper, president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, in which he boasts of being “proud” to lead an institution that sought a waiver from the government so that it could discriminate against transgender people, Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality, released the following statement:

“Mr. Piper’s assertions are despicable, but, sadly, not surprising, given his track record of working with anti-LGBT organizations like the World Congress of Families [GOP Hate delinked]. Piper should be ashamed. Imagine what it feels like to be a young LGBT student at Oklahoma Wesleyan University and hearing the president of your school publicly disparage you in this way. His astonishingly callous response to revelations that he sought the right to discriminate against his own students is not only stomach-turning, but anathema to the role of an educational leader.”

In his piece defending the university’s decision to request an exemption to existing civil rights law in order to discriminate against LGBT students on religious grounds, Piper used the same bigoted and hateful language that is his stock-in-trade: referring to transgender people as a “human fabrication,” and non-discrimination efforts as “misogyny.”

I fully agree with Chad Griffin. All people deserve equal rights.

From Daily Kos: In an explosive new piece, the New York Times reports that Republican Sen.Ted Cruz failed to disclose a six-figure loan from Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank where his wife Heidi works, that he used to support his successful upset bid for Senate back in 2012. Cruz was required to report the loan (and another similar one from Citibank)—which may have been worth as much as $500,000—in filings with the Federal Elections Commission but never did so.

Instead, he reported putting some $1.2 million in unspecified "personal funds” into his campaign, claiming to the Times several years ago that he and his wife had “liquidated our entire net worth” to support his quest for public office. This turns out to have been a deception, uncovered because Cruz later filed personal financial disclosures with the Senate that detailed the two low-interest loans.

In the face of such blatant criminal activity, Uranus Inspector should be deported to his birth country,

From YouTube (H/T MoveOn):

The Reich on the Right, Ryan’s Republican Reich, is wrong. And as always, the Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right. Those seven ideas are the core of the Republican Party’s economic agenda.

Cartoon:

Yesterday was busy.  I worked with PT.  I ordered groceries.  I scheduled two medical appointments.  My bath aid is ill, and she did not come yesterday, so I had a substitute bath-aide today.  She just left.  My fur is soft, and I smell kitty clean, not like a mangy dawg.  Today is a grocery delivery day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:11 (average 5:18).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Looking ahead to his final State of the Union address, Barack Obama told NBC’s Matt Lauer that he was “celebrating, just celebrating the last time I ever have to talk to these bastards.”

“I’ll be going over some of the accomplishments of the past seven years and outlining some of the challenges for our nation that remain ahead,” the President said, in an interview taped for NBC’s “Today” show. “But inside, I’ll be like, ‘Good Lord, I never have to so much as look at these horrible people again.’ ”

Asked which member of Congress he would most enjoy never looking at again, Obama responded, “That’s tough. It’s a toss-up between Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell. But the beautiful thing is, I don’t have to choose, Matt. After tonight, I don’t have to look at either of them.”

If ever Andy reported straight news, this is it.

From NY Times: As the first nominating contest approaches, Hillary Clinton’s commanding lead nationally in the Democratic primary has largely melted away, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

The tightened race between Mrs. Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is revealing a sharp generational divide within the Democratic Party, with primary voters under 45 favoring Mr. Sanders by a roughly 2-to-1 ratio.

Go Bernie, Go!

From Crooks and Liars: With the Iowa caucuses less than three weeks away and the New Hampshire primary hard on its heels, there is an essential truth in politics today that transcends all others: The Republican Party has finally screwed the pooch and is on a collision course with electoral Armageddon.

This has become such common knowledge — The New York Times climbed on board recently with a thumbsucker reading like the plot outline of Titanic — that the problem for pundits like myself in describing the party’s self-immolation is to somehow sound new and different. And wonder all the while why the heck the party is unable to do anything beyond rearranging deck chairs as it steams full speed ahead toward that iceberg of a presidential election.

That question is actually fairly easy to answer: The loyalists cognizant of the GOP’s parlous condition have been banished from its temple of political purity, and what has become paramount to the forces that now pretty much control the party is defending the five pillars of the temple — rank nativism, economic recidivism, nonsensical beliefs, an aversion to governing and pathological fear of change. This is more important than even winning big elections.

While I agree with this assessment, we cannot stop fighting tooth and nail to win big at all levels of government.

Cartoon:

In yesterday’s Open Thread, I forgot to tell you that I have a medical appointment.  I think I’ve mentioned that I decided to fire my primary care physician, the one about whom I’ve told you all the horror stories.  My appointment this morning is my initial visit with the woman I chose to replace her.  I need to leave before 9:00 and will not return until after noon, so this is today’s only article.

Jig Zone:

Today’s took me 4:40 (average 5:52).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Cartoon:

Yesterday my Prosthetist adjusted George, so he no longer leans me to the left, putting excessive pressure on the outside of my knee.  My friend that had a mastectomy called last night.  She had let worrying compound into the beginnings of panic.  I was able to help her restore calm.  Then I had trouble getting back to sleep, so I feel a bit pooped today. My helper-friend may be coming to do laundry. May the holy Ellipsoid Orb bless your team.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:58 (average 4:37).  To do it, click here.  Hoe did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: A day after President Obama held a nationally televised town hall about guns in America, a new poll shows that a majority of Republicans would rather actually be shot by a firearm than agree with him.

In an indication of the challenges facing the President in persuading Republicans, those surveyed named a wide variety of specific guns that they would choose to be personally shot by rather than seeing eye to eye with Obama.

When asked to state their preference, forty-three per cent stated “handgun,” twenty-seven per cent replied “shotgun,” twenty-one per cent responded “assault rifle,” while only two per cent named “agreeing with Obama.”

Andy, with tongue deeply embedded in cheek, I think these Republicans should be accommodated.

From Daily Kos: There is new divide in the Oregon Y’all Qaeda militants who’ve taken over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. RawStory.com has the details:

Joe Oshaugnessy, an Arizona militiaman, has been actively seeking volunteers through social media to join the occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

But his friends tearfully announced that Oshaugnessy, who is known as “Capt. O,” had left the refuge Wednesday and was instead staying at a motel nearby — as some others associated with the militants have apparently been doing, according to sources.

Some of the militants have reportedly been spotted eating at area restaurants during the standoff, as well.

A Y’all Qaeda spokesperson said he drank away the donations:

Peltier said Ritzheimer had confirmed that Oshaugnessy had kept the money he had raised through social media for himself and had spent at least some of it on a drinking binge.

Y’all Qaeda supporter Cai Irvin posted a tearful video (which has since been removed) saying Oshaugnessy’s betrayal “is like finding out there is no such thing as Santa.”

FOMCROTFPIMPLMAO!!

From NY Times: A combative Gov. Paul R. LePage of Maine, who has a history of making blunt, sometimes racially tinged remarks, found himself in a familiar position on Friday as he sought to walk back a comment that had drawn widespread condemnation for its racial overtones.

On Wednesday, he said out-of-state drug dealers come to Maine and “impregnate a young white girl” before leaving.

“These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty — these types of guys,” he said while discussing the state’s heroin crisis at a town-hall-style meeting in Bridgton, Me. “They come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue that we’ve got to deal with down the road.”

On Friday, Mr. LePage, a Republican, characterized the statement as a slip of the tongue.

Rachel Maddow covered this well.

Rachel has him dead to rights. The rest of my comment is today's cartoon.

Cartoon: