I had a pretty good night's sleep last night, after Wendy left, but I'm still quite tired.  Sometime today the pest control people will be here to inspect my place, and do some baiting for roaches as needed.  I have my own bait injector, so even though there are roaches in the bathrooms and some other people's rooms, I don't have a problem here.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today's took me 3:19 (average 5:55).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): The Travesties Done in Your Name and Mine | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

I trust that, if they heard this at all, some traditional Republicans, would be very upset at it. Others would make excuses and hide their heads in the sand, not wanting to know the truth. The Fuhrer, his associates, and the rabid base would rejoice at the opportunity to kill another potential Muslim for Republican Supply-side Jesus (The exact opposite of the real Jesus). RESIST!!

From The Rachel Maddow Show: Schumer: Democratic bulwark will hold on Trump SCOTUS pick

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer assures Rachel Maddow that despite reports of defections, Democratic Senators will filibuster Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch.

I hope the only useless piece of crap to break ranks and vote to break the filibuster against Whoresuch is Joe Manchin (DINO-WV). RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: The Senate’s confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary means that immigrants will be the nation’s only reliable source of educated people going forward, education experts said on Tuesday.

Under DeVos, according to Davis Logsdon, the dean of the University of Minnesota’s School of Education, the U.S. will have to “drastically increase its inflow of immigrants” if it wants people capable of performing even the simplest tasks.

“Most of our industries require people who can read, write, and do arithmetic, even in a rudimentary way,” he said. “The Senate just shot that to hell.”

With DeVos running the Department of Education, Logsdon said, millions of American students “will graduate from high school each year without mastering any useful skills—in other words, much like DeVos herself.”

Dang!! I miss the days, when Andy did satire. RESIST!!

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I expect Wendy to arrive shortly to degrease the foul TomCat and help with some light housekeeping.  Then I have to make a run to the bank, so this is my only article today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:09 (average 5:38).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: An expert on Russia and an intelligence expert expressed the sad reality of how Russia and Vladimir Putin are playing Donald Trump for a fool. Vladimir Putin has been playing Donald Trump for some time and as explained by these two experts, the folks in Russia know it and are laughing at America.

The host asked Professor of International Affairs at The New School Nina Khrushcheva in this excerpted video if Trump was playing into Putin’s hands. The responses from both the professor and the intelligence expert were probative.

"He’s been playing into Putin’s hands for over a year now," replied Professor Khrushcheva. "So it is not more than he has done already."

The host said that many people have the picture of Putin sitting back and just saying ‘Oh yes.’

"And you know what," Khrushcheva continued. "This is such a correct picture. … Because I was just in Moscow and the Russians are saying, ‘Look at those fools. Look at their democracy. Absolutely, how can America lecture us on any development institutions, human rights, democracy rhetoric when they just elected Donald Trump. He is such a fool. He is such a bully. That is what America deserves. And we are going to take advantage of it.’ And that’s how Russians feel about it. And now it’s taking shape with letters from Vladimir Putin to Donald Trump with their exchange of potential nuclear armament and what not. So I think this is going to be a very interesting world to unfold in the next four years."… [emphasis added]

The Tangerine Traitor a Russian Rectum Reich!! Resist!!

From NY Times: …This downtown [Philadelphia] church [Arch Street United Methodist Church] is one of 450 houses of worship in the United States that have offered to provide sanctuary or other assistance to undocumented immigrants, according to leaders of the Sanctuary Movement. (Few congregations have the space and fortitude to risk harboring immigrants indefinitely, so others are lining up to contribute money, legal aid, food, child care or transportation.) The congregations joining this network have more than doubled since the election of Donald J. Trump — a rapid rebuttal to Mr. Trump’s postelection promise to deport two million to three million unauthorized immigrants who he said have been convicted of crimes.

Protecting immigrants is shaping up to be a priority of the religious left, an amorphous collection of people and groups reflecting many faiths and ethnicities. It has been jolted into action by Mr. Trump’s victory and his selection of an attorney general nominee who supports a crackdown on immigrants.

Kudos to the Religious Left. Here we see the difference between authentic Christians and Republican Rectum Reich pseudo-Christians, whose actions are the exact opposite of what Jesus taught. Resist!!

From The Rachel Maddow Show: Trump can launch a nuclear weapon within four minutes

Ploughshares Fund President Joe Cirincione talks with Ari Melber about widespread fear of Trump’s imminent takeover of "the most capable death machine on the planet" — America’s nuclear arsenal.

God help us! Resist!!

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Contrary to Republican lies, this was NOT handed down from the founding fathers.

I’m somewhat rushed today, because Wendy just left.  After she scrubbed and polished the filthy TomCat, we did the dreaded task, cleaned floors and counters, pad bills, organized paperwork and had French toast for brunch.  Tomorrow, I have a podiatrist appointment for routine diabetic foot care, so please expect no more than a Personal Update.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:57 (average 4:58).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (SNL Channel): Donald Trump Prepares Cold Open

I wish Fuhrer Drumphenfarten were going to scrap all those things! Fat chance!

From Common Dreams: As members of vulnerable communities and their allies gear up for threats the upcoming Donald Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress could unleash, the top legal officers in at least five states are also preparing, announcing they are ready to be "the first line of defense" to block any constitutional violations.

Reuters reports that the statements come from the state attorneys general in Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, and Washington. They are all Democrats.

Kudos! I hope many more join them.

From Politico: Keith Ellison, an early favorite to become the next Democratic National Committee chairman, has hit his first roadblock. The Minnesota congressman and Bernie Sanders ally is facing growing resistance to the idea of electing another party chair who is a sitting member of Congress.

On the heels of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s troubled tenure as DNC chief, the issue of whether Ellison will commit full-time to the job poses a threat to his candidacy — even as he enjoys significant support in his bid to become DNC chair.

Wasserman Schultz drew criticism in party circles for how she handled the two demanding roles, and Democrats privately grumbled that she sought to leverage her position as party chairman to give her congressional donors plum spots at DNC fundraisers with President Barack Obama and solicited DNC donors for contributions to her campaign.

“I think we all watched at DNC meetings a chair trying to do both and both is a matter of the amount of time being taken but also if you are a sitting officeholder there’s potentially some separation between your interests and the interests of the national party," said Ohio Democratic Party chairman David Pepper.

Already, two of Ellison’s opponents for the top DNC job — former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Jaime Harrison — have made the point that congressional responsibilities would dramatically undercut ability of the next chairman to do the job effectively.

I disagree. The last thing we need for the DNC are former lobbyists and Blue Dogs. If they want to insist on an unemployed politician, they can tap Alan Grayson.

From Right Wing Watch: Religious Right leaders were some of Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters in the presidential election—offering dozens of religious justifications for backing Trump in spite of his evident arrogance, dishonesty, mistreatment of women, and other character flaws. Telling the supremely narcissistic Trump that he has God’s special backing seems to be pouring gasoline on the fire, and that’s what Religious Right leaders have been doing since Election Day. “The Lord did this!” exulted former Rep. Michele Bachmann on the night of the election. Televangelist and End Times huckster Jim Bakker called Trump’s victory “the greatest miracle I have ever seen.”

George Barna, an evangelical pollster and Religious Right activist, appeared after the election on “Stand in the Gap [pseudo-Christians delinked],” a radio program hosted by the American Pastors Network’s Sam Rohrer. Barna gushed that voter turnout among SAGE (Spiritually Active Governance Engaged) Christians—his term for “real Christians” who attend church often and are politically active—was “astounding.” He said SAGE Christians were “the single most united and strongest segment backing Donald Trump.”

But Barna went beyond that to say that God had specifically acted to make Trump president. “I’ve witnessed a major miracle,” said Barna. “What has happened is that God has intervened in our reality and changed that reality more to His liking than what would have happened if He’d left us to our own devices.”

I want to puke!! Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians are the exact opposite of authentic Christians. Unlike Jesus, these satanic Republicans hate love and love hate.

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I’m very tired and running behind, because I have lots of chores today.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:27 (average 4:56).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: Let’s take a break from the presidential debates and non-stop media coverage of the November 2016 election and deal with a particularly urgent matter — whether or it’s legal or not to hunt for the elusive Bigfoot.

Don’t try Bigfoot hunting in California – it could result in your arrest and conviction, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).

On May 11, 2012, the CDFW issued a statement in response to media reports about a Texas wildlife official proclaiming that bigfoot hunting is legal in the long horn state.

“The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department says that in theory, it would be legal to hunt Bigfoot in their state,” stated a CDFW facebook post. “Not so in California!”

Now, considering her progressive political views, it’s easy to understand why Texans would hunt our beloved Sasquatch, and she would be safer in blue California. But in the end, only one thing matters. Is Bigfoot hunting legal in BC?

From NY Times: When Jen Hatmaker speaks to stadiums full of Christian women, she regales them with stories about her five children and her garden back in Austin, Tex. — and stays away from politics. But recently she took to Facebook and Instagram to blast Donald J. Trump as a “national disgrace,” and remind her legions of followers that there are other names on the ballot in November.

“Trump has consistently normalized violence, sexual deviance, bigotry and hate speech,” she said in an email interview. “I wouldn’t accept this from my seventh-grade son, much less from a potential leader of the free world.”

In the nearly four decades since Jerry Falwell Sr. founded a group called the Moral Majority, evangelical Christians have been the Republican Party’s most unified and reliable voting bloc in November presidential elections. The leaders of what came to be known as the religious right were kingmakers and household names, like Pat Robertson, James C. Dobson, Ralph Reed.

But this year, Ms. Hatmaker’s outraged post was one small sign of the splintering of the evangelical bloc and a possible portent of the changes ahead. While most of the religious right’s aging old guard has chosen to stand by Mr. Trump, its judgment and authority are being challenged by an increasingly assertive crop of younger leaders, minorities and women such as Ms. Hatmaker.

I’m glad to see a splinter in the evangelical camp, and I have been willing to respect the belief of and coexist with folks with different beliefs, even Republican Supply-side Pseudo-Christians, if they are also willing to respect my beliefs and coexist with me. To date, that has been the problem with pseudo-Christians.

From YouTube: "Dangerous"

I endorse Katie McGinty for the US Senate. Flush Toomey in his frack-water!

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