Nov 012017
 

Here are the results of our “Old White Terrorist” poll.  Politics Plus Polls are not scientific, because those who respond are not balanced according to demographic categories.   Therefore, we do not accurately reflect the makeup of the US population.  Nevertheless, our polls are usually factually accurate, and more often than not, they reflect thinking of the majority of those who actually do think.

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Since our polling site no longer enables us to copy and paste your poll comments, you may read them here.

I voted No.  Had the terrorist been Black, Latino, or Muslim, Trump and the Republicans would not be calling it an attack by a lone insane person.  They would be using it to act against an entire ethnic group, just as they are today.

The new poll is up.  Please vote, before you

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

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Nov 012017
 

I have a very busy day today.  In addition to my normal research and writing I need to change the poll.  I also need to make the graphics and collect the data for Friday’s Monthly Report.  I’m waiting for a grocery delivery from Store to Door and need to but the food away.  Tonight Wendy is coming to destink the TomCat.  Tomorrow, please expect only a Personal Update.  I have an appointment with Amanda, my Prosthetist, to finish getting George’s adjustments and replacement parts for the year.  Thoughts and prayers for all harmed in or because of the terrorist attack.  Remember that both this terrorist and the more common Republican terrorists are right wing religious extremists who would force their hatred, control and dogma on others.  The only difference is which religion they abuse and misrepresent.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:09 (average 5:01).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Did Trump Spot the Indictment’s Most Damning Phrase?

 

Tick… Tick… Tick… RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: Calling it a story “too hot for the other cable-news networks to handle,” Fox News Channel announced on Tuesday that it would begin airing twenty-four-hour coverage of Bill Clinton’s 1998–99 impeachment.

Fox anchor Sean Hannity announced the programming change, telling viewers that Fox would devote all its resources to reporting the Clinton impeachment to the exclusion of all other news stories.

“This story has everything: sex, lies, and misdeeds at the highest levels of our government,” Hannity said. “We are planning to flood the zone to bring it to you.”

Dang Andy! You mean they are going to change from their coverage of Hillary Clinton’s impeachment? RESIST!!

From Robert Reich: The robbers are the American oligarchs who bankroll the Republican Party, and who are plotting the biggest heist in American history – a massive tax cut estimated to be up to 5.8 trillion dollars.

Around 80 percent of it will benefit the richest 1 percent, according to the Tax Policy Center.

Trump is busily distracting America with his explosive tweets and incendiary tantrums – blasting Republican senators Jeff Flake and Bob Corker, NFL players who take the knee, Dreamers, refugees, immigrants, transgender people, the media, “rocket man,” Hillary Clinton, Obama, NAFTA, Muslims.

The Trump bomb is hugely damaging – unleashing hate, threatening democratic institutions, isolating America in the world. 

But none of this seems to bother Republicans in Congress, except for a handful of Senators who won’t be running again. That’s because congressional Republicans are concentrating their efforts on pulling off the giant heist for their rich patrons.

Click through for the rest. The Reich on the left could not be more right. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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Turn Left!

 Posted by at 1:26 pm  Politics
Oct 312017
 

With the recent turns in the Mueller investigation, many of us are celebrating what may be the earliest beginning of the end of the cooperative take over of our government by Russians , Banksters, pseudo-Christians, Nazis and other Republicans.  Some of us may think that with so much corruption and scandal from the Republicans, Democrats can walk in and take over.  The past shows clearly how mistaken that is.  Unless we offer something worth having, any victories we enjoy will be temporary at best.  To prevent that, we need to turn left!

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A new poll shows most Democratic voters want their party to move left, with new people in charge. In other words, they want a political revolution.

They’ve got the right idea.

If the party establishment thinks Robert Mueller’s investigation will save it, it’s probably wrong. After President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew were both removed from office for malfeasance, Jimmy Carter barely eked out a win in 1976. Four years later, Ronald Reagan’s victory ushered in 12 years of Republican leadership in the White House.

That’s a lesson for today’s Democrats. High crimes and misdemeanors don’t automatically translate into enthusiasm for the other party, especially in today’s murky political environment.  Corruption is more likely to lead to cynicism than to citizen involvement, unless voters are given something to believe in.

A Left Majority Led By Women and People of Color

Democratic voters apparently know what they believe in. In the latest Harvard-Harris poll, a sample of the party’s base voters was asked: “Do you support or oppose movements within the Democratic Party to take it even further to the left and oppose the current Democratic leaders?”

52 percent of those polled said they support those movements, while 48 percent said they oppose them. That’s a call to political insurrection. These voters want to change the party’s ideology. They “oppose” (that’s a strong word, “oppose”) the people who have been running it for decades.

If the implications for the party’s upcoming races seem clear, the long-term implications are even more stark:  69 percent of voters aged 18 to 34 said they support those insurrectionary movements.

Among other things, the Harvard-Harris poll disproves the “Bernie Bros” canard so beloved by the party’s establishment. Democratic insiders have repeatedly insisted that the party’s left is dominated by white males. The implication is that the left is somehow sexist and/or racist.

But the poll shows that support for the left is greater among female voters (55 percent), Hispanic voters (65 percent), and African-American voters (55 percent) than it is among whites (46 percent) or men (49 percent)… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Our Future>

This a very long and detailed article, so I urge you to click through and read it in its entirety

Turning left is the very best way to

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

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Oct 312017
 

Let me apologize in advance if I’m short or make typos today.  Between going out yesterday, trying to keep track of the news, and watching last night’s religious tragedy, I’m feeling very wiped out, but there’s work here that needs to be done.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 5:07 (average 9:21).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Agony:

1030Broncos19-Chiefs29

Worthless stinking Orb!

Fantasy Football Report:

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

Scores:

8Scores

Woooo Hoooo!!

Standings:

8Standings

Congrats to Seth, Vivian and I, the leaders among active players.  Condolences to Jack, who is buried in Sasquatch toe jams.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): We Have Indictments! Has Christmas Come Early?

 

When I wrote yesterday’s lead, I said that it would be outdated, before I published it. Woooo Hoooo!! RESIST!!

From YouTube (Trae Crowder Channel):

Dayyum!! RESIST!!

From NY Times: A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked a White House policy barring military service by transgender troops, ruling that it was based on “disapproval of transgender people generally.”

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia found the administration’s justification for the ban, which was set to take effect in March 2018, to be suspect and likely unconstitutional. She ruled that the military’s current policy should remain in place.

“There is absolutely no support for the claim that the ongoing service of transgender people would have any negative effective on the military at all,” the judge wrote in a strongly worded, 76-page ruling. “In fact, there is considerable evidence that it is the discharge and banning of such individuals that would have such effects.”

Kudos to the judge!  RESIST!!

Cartoon:

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Every year it gets harder to clean the coal dust from my white patches

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Pithy Progressive #9

 Posted by at 12:26 pm  Politics
Oct 312017
 

I made a comment on the Bill Maher lead article Saturday that I agree the way we are tring to appeal to large groups of voters isn’t working well, but I disagree with what we need to do about it.  My feeling is less exposition and more story is what we need.  This email from Elizabeth Warren perfectly illustrates how powerful story can be.

One of my heroes is running for Congress

Almost 20 years ago — early in the fall term of 1999 — I’d been covering an especially tough topic in my bankruptcy class.

You know that deer-in-the-headlights look on a CEO’s face when they can’t answer a question in a Senate hearing? That was my whole room of students that day.

A few students had looked a little shaken when they left class, so I wasn’t surprised when one of them stopped by my office later in the day. “Hi, I’m Katie Porter. You were really hard on me today.” I thought she was about to start complaining about how tough the work was, but she didn’t pause a beat. Instead, she said, “and I just wanted to come by to say please keep it up. I want to learn this, so don’t let up on me.”

I didn’t let up — and neither did Katie. Katie became an expert in the complex law of bankruptcy, and we worked together for years studying why millions of American families were in so much financial trouble. She became a law professor herself out in California — and in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, California Attorney General Kamala Harris appointed her to be California’s top consumer watchdog — fighting to hold the big banks accountable and help Californians who lost their homes.

Several months ago, I had breakfast with Katie. We were all still reeling from the election. After talking about her kids, Katie said, “This is terrible. The banks, they’re gonna let them go at it again. They’ll roll back the regulations on pollution, poison our children.” And then she said, “Elizabeth, I’m thinking about running for office.” And I said exactly one thing in return, “If you run, I will be there every step of the way.”

Katie lives in Orange County, California — in a district that Hillary Clinton won by five points last November. The Republican Congresswoman who holds that seat has voted with Donald Trump 97.8% of the time this year — including votes to repeal health care for millions of Americans, defund Planned Parenthood, and gut the rules on Wall Street.

Sending Katie to Congress in this winnable district would put us one seat closer to taking back the House in 2018. And Katie will give us another powerful voice in Washington who will stand up to the big banks and powerful corporations and fight for women, students, seniors, immigrants, and working people in her district and all across this country.

I’ve seen Katie’s commitment and grit up close and personal. I’ve seen her determination to tell the story of a rigged game. And I’ve seen her put it all on the line to fight for what she believes in.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth

Doesn’t this just make you want to run out and vote for Katie?

Cross posted to Care2 HERE.

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Manafarted!

 Posted by at 12:17 pm  Politics
Oct 302017
 

Here is some news that millions of us have awaited since the day Robert Mueller began his investigation into how Trump helped Putin hand him the White House and related Republican crimes.  He has issued first two indictments, both with multiple severe counts.  One is against Paul Manafart.  The other is against his principle aide.  TC is doing a one-legged happy dance.

1030Manafart

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime business partner Rick Gates have been charged in a 12-count indictment with conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money and making false statements.

It marked the first criminal allegations to come from Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 election.

Gates did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Jason Maloni, a spokesman for Manafort. Manafort was spotted walking into the FBI’s Washington Field Office Monday morning.

[Read the Manafort and Gates indictment]…

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Here’s a video clip from MSNBC:

The only disappointing factor is that there are no charges directly related to the Trump Campaign, but there is enough that is indirectly related that I think Manafart will save himself many years in prison by testifying against the Fuhrer, his foul brood, and his Reich.

This will be out of date before it is published.

RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!

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Oct 302017
 

I’m in a big hurry to get my writing done before I leave.  May the Holy Ellipsoid Orb bless my Broncos tonight.  Back!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:52 (average 6:08).  To do it, click here.  How did you do.

Short Takes:

From YouTube (Jeff Merkley Channel): Senator Merkley Slams GOP Efforts to Kneecap Consumer Rights

 

Note that both Jeff Flake and Bob Corker voted FOR the legislation that Jeff is speaking against. Oregon leads the way. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Senator Jeff Flake’s decision to abandon his 2018 re-election campaign in Arizona has thrown open the Senate race there, exposing deep fissures not only on the Republican side where a nationalist insurgency is gunning for the party establishment but also among Democrats contending with a rising left.

Establishment Democrats have high hopes for Representative Kyrsten Sinema, a centrist who recently dined in the Blue Room of the White House with President Trump, teaches a bipartisan spin class in the House gym and has broken ranks with her own party on key votes. She was one of only seven House Democrats, for example, who voted to create a select committee to investigate the 2012 attack on the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

But those impulses toward bipartisanship have soured Arizona progressives against the candidacy of a woman who rose to prominence on a biography that included time as a homeless child and an identity that includes being the first open bisexual in Congress.

“There are issues, murmurs within grass-roots groups and the progressive community, the environmental community and others, including immigration advocates,” said Representative Raúl M. Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona and a co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who is withholding his endorsement of her.

Establishment Republicans, meanwhile, are scrambling to find a candidate to replace Mr. Flake and wage a primary challenge against Kelli Ward, a former state senator who aligns herself with Mr. Trump. Ms. Ward, derided by critics as a fringe candidate and a conspiracy theorist, was beaten badly by the senior senator from Arizona, John McCain, in a 2016 primary, and party leaders fear she would lose to Ms. Sinema in the general election.

I certainly prefer a more progressive alternative to Sinema, but a DINO is better than a Republican, especially Kelli Ward. RESIST!!

From NBC News: Given all of the focus on President Trump’s political base — and how he’s still holding on to it – our new NBC/WSJ poll sheds light on a less-discussed development: Trump is losing ground with the middle of the country.

Just 34 percent of independents approve of Trump’s job performance, while 57 percent disapprove (-23). That’s a decline from September, when 41 percent of independents approved and 48 percent disapproved (-7). As for self-described moderates, only 27 percent approve of Trump’s job, versus 68 percent who disapprove (-41). The president’s overall job-approval rating stands at 38 percent — his lowest yet in the NBC/WSJ poll.

What’s more, independents prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress over a Republican-controlled one in next year’s midterm elections by 6 points, 39 percent to 33 percent, while moderates want a Dem-controlled Congress by 32 points, 60 percent to 28 percent.

That might be barely enough to flip the House. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

1030Cartoon

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