It’s another busy day.  I overslept and got a late start.  I met with the Community Services Manager here to put in an application for a room in the Alder, a building in the neighborhood that is finishing a complete remodel like the one starting here.  If one of their units will fit my size needs, and their handicapped shower will fit my disability needs, I should know next week and can plan to move in late April or May.  What a pain!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:47 (average 5:34).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Dobbs calls for purges of non-Trump loyalists in DOJ/FBI

Barf Bag Alert!!

Dobbs is getting even more disgusting as time passes! RESIST!!

From YouTube (Inequality Media Channel): Welcome to Class! In Focus: How to Ignite Social Change

The Reich on the left is Right! Everybody in the US needs to see this. Please spread it around. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Amid reports that Donald Trump might soon be summoned to appear before Robert Mueller, the White House doctor wrote a note on Wednesday indicating that Trump was too sick to talk to the special counsel.

“Donald Trump is not well,” Dr. Ronny Jackson wrote.

The doctor’s note offered a laundry list of ailments afflicting Trump, including flu-like symptoms, upset stomach, headaches, dizziness, confusion, and what Jackson called a “wartime foot injury that appears to be acting up.”

Jackson acknowledged in the note that his current assessment of Trump’s health was at odds with the robust picture he painted last week, but added, “Every patient is entitled to a second opinion, and this is mine.”

Dang Andy! Do you think it’s a case of Raving Bullshititis? RESIST!!

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It’s a very busy day.  Store to Door delivered groceries, which I unpacked and put away.  I got a haircut.  I was so shaggy that I’m temped to act like a Sheeple and say BA-A-A-A-A-A!  Wendy is coming this evening to de-stink the TomCat and help with chores.  Carrie’s husband Barry is improving.  His kidneys are working again.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:43 (average 5:09).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Parody Project Channel): STORMY (DANIELS) – A parody of "Stormy"

I wonder if Stormy rained on Putin’s Piddle Puppet. RESIST!!

From Washington Post: Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) sought to defend himself against an accusation of sexual harassment Tuesday, saying he “developed an affection” for a decades-younger staffer he considered his “soul mate” but never sought a romantic or sexual relationship with her.

I don’t buy it.  The only souls Republican Congress critters have are the souls they are: ass-souls! RESIST!!

From Think Progress: There’s never been a ballot measure asking voters to weigh funding for the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Medicaid expansion until Oregon’s. On Tuesday, voters statewide were asked to decide whether to keep taxing insurance companies and hospitals to pay for health insurance or tell the state legislature to return to the drawing board and think of something else. They chose the former.

Expanding Medicaid coverage to all people living in poverty has been a decades-long priority for Oregon. But covering everyone — not just pregnant women, kids, seniors, and adults with disabilities — who lives 100 percent below the federal poverty level led to some budget setbacks over the years. So when the federal government agreed to pay for 100 percent of the costs associated, at least for a few years, Oregon opted to further expand Medicaid coverage to people living up to 138 percent of poverty.

Now 94 percent of Oregonians have health insurance — one of the nation’s highest insured rates.

Last year, states needed to start pitching in financially; per the health law, the federal government’s financial share fell to 95 percent in 2017 and will fall to 90 percent by 2020. How Oregon intends to pay for its share is on Tuesday’s ballot.

By voting yes to Measure 101, voters upheld temporary taxes passed by the state legislature and okay-ed by the governor last year. (Three Republican state legislators who opposed the taxes petitioned to get the bill on the ballot.) The 1.5 percent tax on some insurers and managed care organizations and 0.7 percent tax on large hospitals would raise anywhere between $210 to $320 million over the next two years. (Due to a federal labor law, states can’t tax self-insured plans.) The measure also raises revenue for the state’s reinsurance program, which helps lower premiums for plans offered on the Obamacare marketplace.

This actually costs me money, because the Insurance Network, Providence, that offers my Medicare Advantage plan is one paying the tax, and my income is barely above the level required for the benefit. Nevertheless, I was proud to vote for it. Oregon leads the way!  RESIST!!

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It’s been a hectic day.  Management let me know several months ago that they are doing a major remodel on this building and all residents will have to move in late Spring or early Summer.  They will find me a suitable location in one of their other buildings and pay for professional movers to make the move.  Nevertheless, the prep work and move itself will be horrid.  This week, it’s starting, and we’re doing needs analysis.  UGH!  Please Remember Carrie B, whom most of you know from Care2, and her husband Barry in your thoughts and prayers.  Barry was just admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of kidney failure.  Thank you.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:03 (average 6:16).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Media Matters Channel): Women’s March 2018

To be fair, the Women’s March happened concurrently with the Republican Shutdown, and with those media outlets that did not ignore the protests by design, they fell through the cracks for coverage. That was still wrong, bit not intentional.  RESIST!!

From Washington Post: FBI Director Christopher A. Wray has been resisting pressure from Attorney General Jeff Sessions to replace the bureau’s deputy director, Andrew McCabe, a frequent target of criticism from President Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.

You can bet that came from the Fuhrer! RESIST!!

From Common Dreams: Pennsylvania’s high court on Monday ruled that the state’s gerrymandered congressional map "clearly, plainly, and palpably" violates the state constitution and ordered the state to draw up a new map to be used in the primary.

"The Pennsylvania Supreme Court today ruled in favor of voters choosing politicians rather than politicians choosing voters, and that is major victory for all Pennsylvanians," said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, which filed an amicus brief in the case. "The court order will result in new maps in time for the 2018 election so that voters will not be forced to face a fourth congressional election under these unconstitutionally gerrymandered congressional districts."

The split decision is the result of a lawsuit brought forth by the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters and 17 individual voters who argued (pdf) that the current map, drawn in 2011 by the GOP-controlled legislature, "was the product of a national movement by the Republican Party to entrench its own representatives in power by utilizing the latest advances in mapmaking technologies and big data to gerrymander districts more effectively than ever before."

Reuters notes that "[e]xperts have long held up Pennsylvania as one of the most extreme examples of partisan gerrymandering."

Kudos!! I understand that Democrats should pick up at least five HR seats because of this, alone. RESIST!!

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Issues to under consideration may change from year to year, but the imbalance of the Republican negotiating stance is always the same.

It’s another muggy, sticky day, so I’m going to be as brief as possible.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:18 (average 4:16).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Washington Post: The United States will open its embassy in Jerusalem next year, Vice President Pence said Monday, accelerating plans to move the mission in line with the Trump administration’s controversial decision to recognize the city as Israel’s capital.

Claiming support for Israel, Pence and the Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians are trying to board their freight train to Armageddon, where they believe they can enjoy seeing all but 144,000 Jews fried into crispy critters. RESIST!!

From SI Live: Global temperatures in 2017 were the second warmest on record since 1880, according to NASA.

Last year’s temperatures were second only to 2016, which holds the record for the hottest year since 1880, when global estimates first started.

Earth’s average temperatures in 2017 were 1.62 degrees warmer than the 1951 to 1990 mean, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

Ladies, get out your bikinis. Soon the Alaskan Riviera will be open for tropical fun. RESIST!!

From Washington Post: These are the Democratic heroes that voted against the foolish cave-in.

Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)
Cory Booker (D-N.J.)
Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.)
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.)
Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii)
Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.)
Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.)
Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)
Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)
Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)
Jon Tester (D-Mont.)
Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

The rest intended well and were trying to negotiate in good faith, but when has a promise from Bought Bitch Mitch ever been worth more than paper, after you wipe your ass with it.

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