Politics Plus

I’m running quite late, as today was a long day for Wendy.  Dang!!  She certainly is a good worker.  I let her go a half hour early, as I couldn’t find anything else for her to do.  She polished and shined the TomCat, did the dreaded task, changed the sheets, cleaned the countertops, swept and mopped the floors, dusted, and reorganized the kitchen drawers and cabinets.  The place is so clean I’m afraid to pass gas!!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:37 (average 6:12).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

In the Mail:

Yesterday I received a gift from a friend, who shall remain nameless.  Here it is.

Here it is again in a more appealing environment.

Thanks Nameless!!

Short Takes:

From The Southern Illonoisan: U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth outraised Illinois Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk for the sixth consecutive quarter, giving her a multimillion-dollar cash advantage in a race that could help determine whether Democrats retake control of the Senate.

Kirk’s campaign said late Friday he raised more than $1 million between April and June, finishing with $3.1 million in his campaign fund.

Duckworth raised $2.7 million during the same period and ended the second quarter with $5.5 million cash on hand, her campaign said earlier this week.

Sad as this is, fundraising is more predictive that polling this early in the race. Go Tammy Go!!

From Vox: On Saturday morning, Hillary Clinton released a new health care policy proposal that emphasized several major progressive priorities, including a public option and increased funding for community health centers.

In the proposal, Clinton pledged:

• To give Americans in every state a "public option" health insurance plan
• To let Americans as young as 55 years old opt in to Medicare
• And to double funding for primary care services at community health centers

Now, these aren’t really new ideas for Clinton. She said at a campaign event in May that she supported "the public option, so that people can buy into Medicare at a certain age." And she’s long supported community health centers.

But the fact that she’s formally backing these progressive priorities at this moment — rather than pivoting to more centrist ideas as the general election contest approaches — is a testament to the influence of Bernie Sanders’s campaign. And it may be a prelude to an endorsement from Sanders as soon as next week.

Sanders: "The Clinton campaign and our campaign are coming closer and closer together"

That’s encouraging.  All three are steps in the right direction.

From PoliticusUSA: Megyn Kelly, sometimes the voice of reason on Fox News, switched into full-blown stupid mode again Friday by saying that “Especially in the days of iPhones…and social media where, you know, every encounter gets caught on camera. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s happening more.”

She appeared with racist Ex-LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman, who is frequently trotted out by Fox News to cover racially-charged events, like when Freddie Gray was shot in Baltimore and Fuhrman (again appearing with Kelly) called blacks “these people,” and was told by liberal guest Richard Fowler that “I really think you live in an alternate universe.”

Well, hello, Fox News.

Watch the most recent alternate reality segment from Friday’s The Kelly File, courtesy of Media Matters for America:

Barf Bag Alert!!

Not all people that support Black Lives Matter think that all cops are racist. I for one have said many times that the majority of police are professionals just doing their jobs. Here, these racists from the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, are conflating all Black Lives Matter protestors with the Dallas murderer.  How vile!

Cartoon:

Please pardon my brevity.  I’m just all the way tired out.  I heard from Julie yesterday.  She hit the road here in Portland on late Tuesday morning and drove all the way across the country to WV in just three days.  I can only surmise that she must have let Killer Dawg drive.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:19 (average 4:22).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Raw Story: Michael Strickland, the right-wing agitator and Trump supporter seen in this video brandishing a gun at a peaceful Black Lives Matter rally, has been charged with two class A felonies after being arrested and initially released Friday morning on his own recognizance without bail.

At his arraignment today at the Multnomah County Courthouse in downtown Portland Strickland was hit with two felony counts of “unlawful use of a weapon,” as well as misdemeanor charges of menacing and disorderly conduct.

The hearing took place on the same block where Strickland pulled a Glock 27, swept the gun at the crowd while yelling “Get the hell back!” He subsequently outfitted the gun with a large capacity magazine.

At the scene, Strickland said he was only armed in self-defense. But the Multnomah County District Attorney revealed in court that Strickland had six magazines of ammunition on him… [emphasis added]

Sadly, there are even Republicans like this Trump Humper here in Portland. I think that releasing him OR was a very stupid move by authorities. Kudos to the peaceful protestors who kept the situation from escalating, while waiting for police to intervene.

From Politico: Sen. Bernie Sanders has claimed victory in the fight for $15.

The Democrats’ platform committee late Friday approved an amendment that formalizes the party’s commitment to a $15 minimum wage, with indexing for inflation.

The language of the position reads: “We should raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour over time and index it, give all Americans the ability to join a union regardless of where they work, and create new ways for workers to have power in the economy so every worker can earn at least $15 an hour.”

Thank you Bernie for helping to change the Democratic Party the ONLY way it can be changed: one issue at a time from within.

From Alternet: The mainstream media in the U.S. and abroad badly botched the reporting of the Dallas police shooting that killed five officers Thursday, egged on by speculation by police sources that a team of snipers was bent on avenging the killing of two black men in Minnesota and Louisiana by white cops the day before.

Even after the Dallas Morning News changed its headline Friday afternoon to read, “Dallas sniper was loner, Army vet with stash of arms, bomb parts at home,” the article’s second paragraph said, “Four Dallas police officers and a DART officer were shot and killed in a coordinated sniper attack that followed a Thursday night protest."

The incorrect sniper meme was repeated internationally, such as this headline from the British Mirror, “Dallas police shooting: ‘Black Power group’ claims responsibility for police killings and warns of more assassinations to come.”

Yesterday, I repeated the false report that there were a team of snipers working together. I was wrong not to assume that Dallas Police Chief Brown was playing fast and loose with the facts, as I should have expected from a Republican appointee. Apologies!! When I’m wrong, I say so.

Cartoon:

I started the day very tired, because of my exertions for the last two days, and because my sleep has been intermittent due to muggy weather.  The day did not begin well.  My vision stinks, so I broke an egg on the floor.  For someone in a wheelchair, that's a very difficult cleanup, as all I have is a grab stick, paper towels and a foot.  Twenty minutes later, I finished cleaning and immediately broke ANOTHER egg on the floor.  ARGH!!  Cooking and eating breakfast took over two hours!.  I'm leaving for an appointment with Courtney, my Physical Terrorist, in about an hour, so I'll finish this when I return, and this is today's only article.

Later:  My Lift bus was an hour late, so I'm late getting this up.  The PT session went well, except that Georges new ankle went wobbly again, do I have to go bath to Sarah, my Prosthetist. 

Jig  Zone Puzzle:

Today's took me 3:56 (average 5:01).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Many are going to miss seeing political humorist Jessica Williams on The Daily Show. Her ‘Williness” has delighted audiences for years, first beginning with Jon Stewart and then Trevor Noah. Williams has tackled homophobia, racism, and other social issues, while bringing us a laugh or two to help audiences stomach some of the most ridiculous American culture.

For her last segment, Williams asked a group of Bernie Sanders supporters who say they are voting for Donald Trump — how they can go from supporting a Left socialist like Bernie Sanders to a Right racist like Republican nominee Donald Trump. One young man started off saying , “Trump has diarrhea of the mouth, but a lot of what he says are what a lot of people might think.” Williams retorts, “You mean “racist things?” He says, “Yeah.”

Dang! If only I had realized Hillary is a Leprechaun!! Scheesh!! Did Jessica show them for what they are, or what?  Those regressives, who put their hatred for Hillary above all else, are idiots!!

From NY Times: At least one sniper, who said he wanted to shoot white police officers, killed five officers and wounded seven others in a coordinated ambush at a demonstration in Dallas on Thursday night against police shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana, officials said. The sniper was killed, and three other people are in custody, officials said.

During an hourslong standoff after the attack, in which two civilians were also wounded, one suspect told police negotiators that “he was upset about Black Lives Matter,” the Dallas police chief, David O. Brown, said on Friday.

“He said he was upset about the recent police shootings,” Chief Brown said. “The suspect said he was upset at white people. The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.”

The police killed that suspect using an explosive delivered by a robot, he said, and arrested three other people. The chief said the snipers had worked together, firing rifles from triangulated positions, some of them looking down from elevated posts in downtown buildings… [emphasis added]

We shouldn't be surprised. This was bound to happen because Black after Black have been murdered by police, and the criminal cops have walked away unpunished. This, however, is not the answer. As easy as it is to understand why, the surviving Dallas shooters should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, except for the death penalty.

Correction 7/9: There were no other shooters.  The Chief's statement about multple snipes triangulating targets was not honest.

From Crooks and Liars:

Shame on Matt Drudge for that headline when no one knows yet who committed the horrible crimes in Dallas last night. Shame on him for assuming the shooters were Black people when there are no reports yet as to the race or even genders of the suspects. [There weren't then, but there are now.]

But the real walk of shame belongs to former Representative and Deadbeat Dad Joe Walsh, who tweeted threats to the President of the United States along with a stream of racist hate.

Republicans are going to have a field day misrepresenting this incident. I'm surprised I haven't seen any regressive lefties blaming it on Hillary.

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