Store to Door just delivered groceries, and I put then away.  Wendy is coming this evening.  I seem to be coming down with a cold, so please pardon my brevity.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:37 (average 5:42).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Guess Who Celebrated Election Night With Trump

May the Fuhrer be Saterized. RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Donald Trump has accomplished little or nothing in his final year as President, a new poll finds.

According to the poll, a majority of Americans believe that Trump has made no progress on the economy, terrorism, or other key issues in his Presidency’s dwindling final days.

More troubling for Trump, the poll shows that Americans have lost confidence in his ability to salvage his Presidency before his imminent departure from the White House.

Davis Logsdon, a history professor at the University of Minnesota, said that Trump’s failure to accomplish anything of substance during his last year in office is a problem that has plagued other lame-duck Presidents.

From Andy’s keyboard to God’s eyes! RESIST!!

From NY Times: When the world looks at the United States, it sees a land of exceptions: a time-tested if noisy democracy, a crusader in foreign policy, an exporter of beloved music and film.

But there is one quirk that consistently puzzles America’s fans and critics alike. Why, they ask, does it experience so many mass shootings?

Perhaps, some speculate, it is because American society is unusually violent. Or its racial divisions have frayed the bonds of society. Or its citizens lack proper mental care under a health care system that draws frequent derision abroad.

These explanations share one thing in common: Though seemingly sensible, all have been debunked by research on shootings elsewhere in the world. Instead, an ever-growing body of research consistently reaches the same conclusion.

The only variable that can explain the high rate of mass shootings in America is its astronomical number of guns.

Click Through for much more. Although the number of guns is skyrocketing, the number of gun-owning households remains constant. That shows that Republican Ammosexuals are compiling arsenals. Given their propensity for "2nd Amendment Solutions", that trend threatens us all. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

I’m on an unusual schedule this morning.  I woke up, like usual, at 5:00.  I had a bad case of Republicosis, so I dressed, got out of bed, and motored down to the bathroom in record time.  I almost didn’t make.  I’ve been back three more times and taken two doses ode Immodium AD.  I feel like going back to bed, but I dare not do so, before the Imodium kicks in.  So I’ll do all my blogging early and hope I can lie down later.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:43 (average 5:27).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Fantasy Football Report:

Here’s the latest from our own fantasy football league, Lefty Blog Friends.

Scores:

I would not have won, were I playing an attended team.

Standings:

Seth, Vivian and I lead the league.  Jack, who appears to be AWOL, is in the cellar.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Trump is Lying About Russia

Of course Trump is both lying and guilty. We’re just waiting for the shoe to drop and to see who does what about it. RESIST!!

From Addicting Info: In his infamous dossier, former British spy Michael Steele alleged that Trump had paid prostitutes to come up to his room and urinate on one another on a bed that Barack and Michelle Obama once shared. Steele claimed at the time that the incident was filmed and would be used by the Kremlin as “kompromat” (compromising material).

Award-winning British journalist Paul Wood reports for The Spectator that not only do multiple witnesses confirm the pee pee tape, but there are more extreme recordings of Donald Trump than just a couple of Russian girls urinating:

I heard of Russian kompromat — compromising material — on Trump from two sources months before the Steele dossier came to light.

There are, though, reports of witnesses in the hotel who corroborate Steele’s reporting. These include an American who’s said to have seen a row with the hotel security over whether the hookers would be allowed up to Trump’s suite. The dossier’s account of hookers in a Moscow hotel room was the subject of gossip among politicians and intelligence people for months before it was published.

“Now claims are circulating of more tapes showing more extreme behavior. Expect these allegations to emerge in due course,” Wood says cryptically.  [emphasis added]

I have no desire to see Putin’s Piddle Puppet on the pee-pee tapes myself, but I want them on display for everyone to see.  I want then on the news, and I want them on a wide-screen outside every Republican Supply-side pseudo-Church in the country. RESIST!!

From YouTube (MSNBC Channel): Photo Finish In Race For Virginia

See Cartoon, please. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

Wendy is due in forty minutes, and my Broncos start playing in 130 minutes, so I’m in a big hurry.  I’ll publish after the game is over.

Wendy Left and my Broncos are getting clobbered so bad that they took the game off TV.  Oh my POOR butt!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:17 (average 5:32).  To do it click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (SNL Channel): Paul Manafort’s House Cold Open

With that Airplane Trump, Melania will get the best sex she has had, since before her wedding day. RESIST!!

From Daily Kos: Donald Trump is hoping to keep his gross treatment of women out of court. The women who’ve come forward to tell their stories of being groped, kissed, and grabbed by Trump over the years are hoping that a lawsuit brought by one of them, former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos, will at least mean that their experiences are heard and taken as seriously as those of Harvey Weinstein’s victims. Or Bill Cosby’s. Or Kevin Spacey’s. Or Mark Halperin’s.

Not that any of those accusers got justice, even in the court of public opinion, quickly—but they didn’t have to watch their harassers or rapists be inaugurated president, either. The White House press secretary didn’t call them liars on national television. And it’s that response that’s at the center of the lawsuit that Trump’s victims hope will let them be fully heard

There is no excuse not to prosecute Trump. Upchuckabee-Sanders should be sued for defamation. RESIST!!

From Prisoner of the Census: The way the Census Bureau counts people in prison creates significant problems for democracy and for our nation’s future. It leads to a dramatic distortion of representation at local and state levels, and creates an inaccurate picture of community populations for research and planning purposes.

The Bureau counts incarcerated people as residents of the towns where they are confined, though they are barred from voting in 48 states and return to their homes after being released. The practice also defies most state constitutions and statutes, which explicitly state that incarceration does not change a residence.

The Bureau’s approach to counting incarcerated people dates back to the beginning of the census, when it was important only to count the number of people in each state to ensure equal representation in Congress. Congressional apportionment relied on the comparative populations of the states, not where people were relative to each other within each state. Now that Census data are used for redistricting at all levels of government, the specific location of populations is critical. The prison population has risen exponentially in the past couple of decades; counting the people in prison in the wrong place now undermines the Supreme Court’s requirement that political power be apportioned on the basis of population. The process of drawing fair and equal districts fails when the underlying data are flawed.

Click through for more info on this deplorable form of making some districts disproportionately powerful. Prisoners should be counted where they will return after serving their sentences, because those communities will need the resources to help reintegrate the prisoners. RESIST!!

Cartoon: