Politics Plus

Yesterday I went into the prison to do volunteer work.  I had had almost no sleep, because the night before was so sticky.  The temperature was in the high 90°s and very humid.  The room in the Activities section, where we met, has no A/C and no ventilation.  It is directly above the prison bakery.  I suffered.  My guys were wonderful and most appreciative, even though my participation was moistly passive.  On the way home, my friend stopped at a branch of my bank for me to withdraw money.  I was so exhausted that I put my credit card in the ATM, when I intended to use my debit card,  I didn’t understand why the PIN for the debit card didn’t work, and when I tried again, the ATM ate and shredded my credit card.  Then I realized what I had done and used my debit card to withdraw funds.  I felt like a total idiot! Without my credit card, I am virtually home bound.  It will take 8 – 10 business days to get it replaced, so I have to reschedule three medical appointments I had set for next week.  I’m completely exhausted.  However, I do have one piece of good news, one of my guys, who is now in his 30s and has been in prison since he was 17, has given me permission to share some of his writing with you.  I consider him a far more talented writer than I am, so you guys are in for a treat.  But today, I just need to recover.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:03 (average 4:49).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

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The good news is that I enjoyed the first glimmer of the Holy Ellipsoid Orb.  Viking fans should feel blessed.  The bad news is that a surprise heat wave has hit with temperatures in the 90°s for at least today and tomorrow.  Of course it has come just in time to coincide with  my voluntee3r day in prison.  While discretion might trump valor sufficiently for me to take the day off, my friend has her cancer surgery a week from tomorrow, so this is probably my last chance to work with my guys, until my three day volunteer trip late next month.  Discretion be dammed.  I’m going.  I’m also running late due to prep work for that, and  I got a late start too.  Thanks Lona.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:54 (average 5:46).  To do it click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Tempers flared in the aftermath of Thursday night’s Republican debate, as rival candidates accused the billionaire Donald Trump of failing to back up his misogynist slurs with concrete and workable anti-woman proposals.

Florida governor Jeb Bush and Wisconsin governor Scott Walker led the charge, as both of them asserted that Trump’s sexist rhetoric paled in comparison with their own strong records of opposition to women’s rights.

Andy is spot on again. Any Republican who would win the Presidency would put all of Hairball’s misogyny into practice, and then some.

From NY Times: A day of peaceful protest commemorating the killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, by a white police officer one year ago ended in gunfire late Sunday as multiple shots rang out on West Florissant Avenue, the commercial district hit by rioting last summer.

A St. Louis County police officer was involved in the shooting, which occurred at about 11:15 p.m., after coming under heavy gunfire, the department said in a post on Twitter. Another department post said, “At least 2 unmarked cars took shots.”

First, I condemn this attack on police officers in the strongest possible terms. That said, I’m not at all surprised that it happened.

From Think Progress: After Jake Tapper, host of CNN’s State of the Union, asked Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina about Netflix’s announcement that it will offer a year of unlimited paid family leave, the former Hewlett Packard CEO said she opposes any requirement that employers offer their workers paid leave.

“I don’t think it’s the role of government to dictate to the private sector how to manage their businesses, especially when it’s pretty clear that the private sector, like Netflix…is doing the right thing because they know it helps them attract the right talent,” she said. “I’m not saying I oppose paid maternity leave. What I’m saying is I oppose the federal government mandating paid maternity leave to every company out there. [emphasis added]

First, Netflix does not offer family leave to employees in it’s DVD division. Second, the family leave (up to 12 months) Netflix offers other employees is NOT paid. Having exposed Carly’s Republican lie, let me point out that she stands in the forefront of the Republican War on Women.

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I’m still recovering from the barf bath I had to take, while covering the Criminal Clowns.  The forecast has already changed for the next few days.  While 80°s weather is not a heat wave, it’s not the more comfortable 70°s weather I was expecting.  I want to catch up on rest this weekend, because Tuesday is a volunteer day in prison.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:01 (average 5:48).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From J Street (Iran Deal Facts): Media Coverage

Opponents are pouring millions into television and print ads attacking the agreement. Right-wing media have blasted the deal with extreme vitriol, doing everything they can to drown out the facts. But J Street is leading the fight to make sure that the voices of responsible journalists, leaders, and experts that support the deal are being heard loud and clear.

J Street is the organization for American Jews that represents their real interests and not the interests of the Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian war mongers that control AIPAC. They have two more excellent video clips on the page. Click Through.

From The New Yorker: The billionaire Donald Trump shocked the American people Thursday night by proving to be considerably more heinous than they had previously thought, an instant poll taken after the debate shows.

According to the poll, viewers who went into tonight’s debate thinking that Trump was one of the most horrible people that they had ever seen were still totally unprepared for the depths of awfulness he displayed during the televised contest.

When presented with the descriptors “loathsome,” “appalling,” and “monstrous,” viewers who witnessed Trump’s interaction with Fox News’s Megyn Kelly said that none of those words did justice to how odious Trump was.

OK, Andy, if you say so. But isn’t saying that Hairball is more heinous than previously thought a lot like saying that the Pope is more Catholic than previously thought?

From Daily Kos: John Kasich sure has a convenient memory. Asked about how he’d respond to Hillary Clinton’s presumptive attacks, Kasich mentioned his father was a mailman (drink!), then digressed to talking about balanced budgets:

I was the chairman of the budget committee and the lead architect the last time it happened in Washington, and when we did it, we had great economic growth, we cut taxes, and we had a big surplus.

Oh yeah, mofo? You know what else led to that balanced budget in the late 1990s? Bill Clinton’s tax hikes in 1993, which Republicans absolutely howled would destroy this country. Of course they were wrong, and they helped usher in an unprecedented era of growth and prosperity.

John "KKK" Kasich doesn’t like the kind of prosperity that benefits the 99%, and for him to try to take credit for Clinton’s budget surplus is an absurd Republican lie.

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It’s another moderately cool day, with a forecast high of 80°.  Since I’m extra tired after yesterday, and I plan to subject myself to TEAbuggery torture this evening, I’m hoping to catch up on sleep during the day.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:13 (average 6:44).  To do it click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos:

Dick Dale, the "King of the Surf Guitar", is still on the road, playing nearly every night. Is he doing it for the love of music? Not exactly. The 78-year-old guitar legend has twice suffered rectal cancer, had parts of his stomach and intestines removed, lives with renal failure, diabetes, a damaged vertebrae and to top it all off, his wife is suffering from multiple sclerosis. And that’s why he’s still on the road. From the Pittsburgh City Paper:

“I have to raise $3,000 every month to pay for the medical supplies I need to stay alive, and that’s on top of the insurance that I pay for,” Dale explains. “The hospital says change your patch once a week. No! If you don’t change that patch two times a day, the fecal matter eats through your flesh and causes the nerves to rot and they turn black, and the pain is so excruciating that you can’t let anything touch it. That has happened to me because I was following the orders of the hospital.”

“Sure, I’d love to stay home and build ships in a bottle and spend time with my wife in Hawaii, but I have to perform to save my life,” he says. “I’ve been living like this for the past 15 years, but I’m still here and opening my eyes each morning.”

I found some video of him.

What an incredible guy. But shouldn’t he be able to have the medical supplies he needs covered? Republicans would take away what coverage he does have.

From NY Times: Hillary Rodham Clinton has very noticeably and intensely trained her sights on a single rival candidate for president: Jeb Bush.

On Friday, she lambasted Mr. Bush, a former Florida governor, as he waited in the wings at a National Urban League conference in Miami, twisting his campaign slogan into a critique of his stands on the Affordable Care Act and raising the minimum wage. On Tuesday night in Denver, she called him “out of touch” for questioning, earlier that day, how much government should spend on women’s health — a quick insert into a speech in which Mrs. Clinton had already planned to hit Mr. Bush on immigration.

For Mrs. Clinton, going after Mr. Bush with such gusto offers a debate about policy instead of simply answering persistent questions about her email practices and her family’s foundation, which have helped to precipitate a dip in her approval ratings.

And attacking Mr. Bush before black leaders, on immigration and on women’s health, can only help fire up Mrs. Clinton’s core supporters.

I think Hillary is smart to focus on Strike Three. The Republican Reich tends to follow the money, and most Republican money is following him.

From Alternet: What follows is a list of some of the biggest clichés and lies from the top 10 Republican contenders.     

Bush: The cliché that Jeb Bush promotes is that he’s the "moderate" in the GOP field, but that is also his biggest lie. Just this week, he revealed how immoderate he is on women’s reproductive rights and health, saying the federal government is spending too much for gynecological-related medical services, which includes abortion. And Bush also keeps pedaling the line that he opposes ground troops to fight ISIS, but would send in more special forces and trainers—as if those soldiers have never been the harbinger of deploying more troops when war plans don’t work.

Carson: The cliché that Ben Carson keeps reciting is that Obamacare is one of the worst things federal government has ever forced on Americans. That’s always been a bizarre right-wing complaint, especially as Obamacare is built on the conservative embrace of the private health insurance industry. It’s also factually wrong, as evidenced by the 15-plus million people who have signed up for it. The optics of a retired African-American surgeon whcking [sic] Obama looks good on Fox News, but that’s just another ruse.

Rubio: The cliché that Marco Rubio keeps repeating is that he is a fresh face bringing new ideas and energy to the GOP, just as John F. Kennedy did for Democrats in 1960s. The big lie is that Rubio is a new Latino champion who breaks from past GOP policies. Even though his grandfather was undocumented immigrant, Rubio has walked away from earlier immigration reforms and embraced the party’s most draconian stances. He now opposes amnesty, the Dream Act, wants bigger border walls, and wants to require English proficiency for green cards.

I shared three of the Republican Cavalcade of Criminal Clowns. Click through for the other seven.

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