Please pardon my brevity.  After yesterday, I’m exhausted, and the muggy heat has returned.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:31 (average 5:12).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Real Time Channel): F**k Mars

I agree that Mars cannot save us from climate change, and our resources are far better spent in rehabilitating earth. However, e3xploring our solar system is still necessary, not as a place to live, but as a source of raw materials to use here. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Full Frontal Channel): Web Extra: A Brief History Of Florida’s Felon Voting Ban

Here in Oregon, prisoners with outside addresses can register to vote as part of the prerelease program, and have their ballots mailed to those addresses, allowing them to vote the day after release. Oregon leads the way! The best way to encourage felons to commit more crimes is to tell them they have no stake in the community. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: The health-care bill passed by House Republicans earlier this month offers no coverage for injuries suffered as a result of body slamming, according to a report issued on Thursday.

The report, released by the nonpartisan Center for Comprehensive Health Coverage, warns of sharp increases in health-care costs for the nation’s body-slamming sufferers.

Costs associated with body slamming, such as X-rays to the elbow and other injured body parts, would have to be paid for out of pocket under the G.O.P. plan, the report says.

In a separate finding, the report indicates that the Republican health-care bill’s vision-care option does not offer replacement eyewear in the case of glasses being smashed or otherwise demolished in an unprovoked body-slamming incident.

Dang Andy! And Montana is a state of rabid fools too! RESIST!!

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Trump won’t be.

I have a short time to write before I have to break to dress for my Prosthetics appointment, and I shall append this before I return.

My appointment with Amanda went quite well.  She adjusted George and took an impression of my foot for new diabetic shoes.  I'll set an appointment to return in about three weeks.  TriMet, on the other hand, was horrible.  The got me to my appointment an hour early, so i had a long wait.  My return driver went to the wrong location and reported that I was not there.  At the end of my window, I called to see where my ride was.  Dispatch implied that I was not being truthful that I was there, and told me I had to wait several hours for another ride.  I asked for customer service to complain.  She was skeptical, but said they have software that takes a picture of every no show, and she would download the picture.  When she came back, she had changed her tune, because the picture proved me right.  She said that the software almost always proves the driver was right and apologized.  She sent a free to pick me up at their expense, but I still returned home over two hours late.  ARGH!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today's took me 4:31 (average 5:58).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): 40 Shady Things We Now Know About Trump and Russia | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

We know enough to realize that there is treason afoot. The problem is that Republicans have become the Know Nothing Party. RESIST!!

From Fox News: …Ben Jacobs of The Guardian — walked into the room with a voice recorder, put it up to Gianforte's face and began asking if he had a response to the newly released Congressional Budget Office report on the American Health Care Act. Gianforte told him he would get to him later. Jacobs persisted with his question. Gianforte told him to talk to his press guy, Shane Scanlon.

At that point, Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him. Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the reporter. As Gianforte moved on top of Jacobs, he began yelling something to the effect of, "I'm sick and tired of this!"

Jacobs scrambled to his knees and said something about his glasses being broken. He asked Faith, Keith and myself for our names. In shock, we did not answer. Jacobs then said he wanted the police called and went to leave. Gianforte looked at the three of us and repeatedly apologized. At that point, I told him and Scanlon, who was now present, that we needed a moment. The men then left.

I bet you never thought I would ever post a Faux Noise piece, but they were the only ones there.  It clearly demonstrates that Gianforte's version of what happened is a lie. He said, they said? If anyone would be biased in favor of the Republican, it's Faux. Furthermore, on the air, Faux is hyping Gianforte's lies and ignoring their own reporters. The pig has been charged with assault. Republicans love violence. RESIST!!

From Think Progress: Israel is altering how it shares intelligence with the United States after President Donald Trump shared classified information with Russia in the Oval Office two weeks ago.

Trump, who was meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Kislyak, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington, told both men about a believed threat from ISIS involving bombs buried inside of laptops. That information, the New York Times reported, came from Israel — something that was unconfirmed officially until Trump himself seemingly let it slip while speaking in Israel on Monday, ironically while attempting to defend himself on the issue to the media.

“I never mentioned the word or the name ‘Israel’. Never mentioned during that conversation,” Trump said. “They’re all saying I did, so you have another story wrong. Never mentioned the word ‘Israel.’”

But Israeli officials seem concerned less about being named as the intelligence source and more about the information leaking in general. Intelligence officials reportedly shouted at their U.S. counterparts over the leak, worried that a vital source might have been compromised to Russia — notably an ally of Israel’s regional foe, Iran. Now, the country is taking steps to ensure that the problem doesn’t happen in future.

This is a terrible development for US intelligence. As much as I have opposed Israel's horrid policies toward Palestinians and shall continue to do so, Israel has been our best source of middle eastern intelligence. Where we have only SigInt, Israel has HumInt. Trump has made us all less safe. RESIST.

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We have a couple days of cool weather, and they couldn't have come soon enough for me.  I expect Store to Door to deliver my groceries between now (12:15) and 3:00 PM.  This evening Wendy will be here, and has plenty of stink to remove from the heat-waved TomCat.  Please expect no more than a Personal Update tomorrow, as I have an an appointment with a new Prosthetist.  My old one moved out of town, so the new one will need to familiarize herself with George, Stumpy and me in order to get approval for my annual upgrades.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today's took me 2:54 (average 4:45).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): So, What About Those Oval Office Tapes? | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

For us, the best option may be impeachment in 2019, if we can take the House. Presenting Trump's agenda is a less difficult win that stopping the same agenda under Pence. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Donald J. Trump’s foreign trip hit a snag on Tuesday, when the remaining countries on his itinerary announced that they would rather “wait a month” and meet with the next President instead.

“It makes no sense for us to roll out the red carpet for Trump when there is going to be a completely different guy in the White House in a month,” Hendrik van der Valde, a travel minister for the Belgian government, said. “We very much look forward to hosting the next U.S. President, be it Mike Pence or Paul Ryan or whoever.”

Citing the exorbitant costs of hosting a President, the Belgian said it “would be insane” to spend such sums on someone who “only has a few weeks left” in office.

LOL Andy! Those foreigners sure are smarter than we are! RESIST!!

From CNN: Conditions are right for a major Democratic wave to sweep out the House Republican majority next fall, according to Nathan Gonzales, who runs the "Inside Elections" campaign tipsheet.

"The midterm elections are still nearly a year and a half away, and the political dynamics could yet change, but we shouldn't ignore the fact that history and the current environment are merging together for a potentially great set of elections for Democrats in November 2018," writes Gonzales in a piece published Wednesday morning.

God knows we need it! RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Republicans still don't believe it.

It’s another hot humid day, and I did not get much sleep last night.  Tomorrow and Wednesday will be cooler, but it will take a day or too for the excess heat in the interior hallways and bathrooms of the building to moderate.  After my morning Trump making on the throne at 5:45 AM, I had to change my shirt, as the one I had on was wet.  I have a reason for not covering the Manchester Arena attack.  I had MSNBC on for three hours last night through Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and Lawrence O’Donnell, and none of them covered any other news.  They repeated mostly the same information over and over and over again.  I would never downplay the tragic loss suffered by the dead, the injured, the traumatized and their families.  They have been in my thoughts and prayers.  However the losses from that one incident cannot begin to compare to the tragic losses of both life and human suffering that the policies Republicans have wanted for many years will bring.  Therefore, I’ll cover other things that need covering.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:07 (average 5:15).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): This is How Low the Trump Apologists Will Stoop | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

Republicans could not be more desperate to project their Fuhrer’s treason away. One cannot stoop lower than fronting the story with Scumbag Sean and Newtered. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Because he never stops being an entitled jackass:

President Trump’s first major budget proposal on Tuesday will include massive cuts to Medicaid and call for changes to anti-poverty programs that would give states new power to limit a range of benefits …

… The White House also is expected to propose changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, though precise details couldn’t be learned. SNAP is the modern version of food stamps …

Every penny spent to provide for the needs of sick seniors or hungry children is a penny Republicans can’t give to a billionaire. RESIST!!

From NY Times: The Trump administration, in a significant escalation of its clash with the government’s top ethics watchdog, has moved to block an effort to disclose the names of former lobbyists who have been granted waivers to work in the White House or federal agencies.

The latest conflict came in recent days when the White House, in a highly unusual move, sent a letter to Walter M. Shaub Jr., the head of the Office of Government Ethics, asking him to withdraw a request he had sent to every federal agency for copies of the waivers. In the letter, the administration challenged his legal authority to demand the information.

Mr. Shaub returned a scalding, 10-page response to the White House late Monday, unlike just about any correspondence in the history of the office, created after the Nixon Watergate scandal.

“O.G.E. declines your request to suspend its ethics inquiry and reiterates its expectation that agencies will fully comply with its directive,” Mr. Shaub wrote in a letter he also sent to every federal agency ethics officer, six members of Congress who oversee government operations and the inspector generals from agencies governmentwide. “Public confidence in the integrity of government decision making demands no less.”

Kudos to Schaub and O.G.E. RESIST!!

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