There is absolutely nothing ambiguous here.
Day: July 18, 2018
Coyote Ugly
Today is the final day of serving as the tour guide for our out-of-town visitors. When we headed out to Golden Gate Park to walk our dog and to show off one of the nation’s greatest city parks, they got a little freaked out when we passed this sign.
“There are coyotes in this park?” One of our visitors asked. “Have you ever seen one?”
“Many times,” I answered. “But they typically keep to themselves, so it’s not an issue. We just have to keep our dog on the leash so she won’t go running after them. That would not be good.”
I could tell that our guests were a little uncomfortable at the possibility of coming across wild coyotes. Every time they spotted a German Shepherd one of them would point at it and ask if it was a coyote. So I decided that perhaps it was time to take them to a “safer” tourist destination and we headed over to Alcatraz Island. 
I’ve yet to see a coyote at Alcatraz.
Sleep Well, America
Donald Trump just announced that Russia is no longer targeting the United States. And then he pointed out that no other president has ever been tougher on Russia than he has.
So no worries, America. Your president has successfully denuclearized North Korea (not), he has solved the immigration problem (not), and now he has assured us that we are no longer being targeted by Russia (not).
So you can now sleep well, America (not).
And the Beat Goes On
Even after what happened in Helsinki on Monday, the gutless, spineless, self-serving Republican senators continue to stand behind their treasonous traitor-in-chief. Today the Senate voted 51-48 to confirm Brian Benczkowski to lead the Justice Department’s criminal division on a near party-line vote. Only one Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted to confirm Benczkowski.
Benczkowski’s nomination was controversial because of his work as an attorney representing Alfa Bank, a Russian bank that first caught the attention of the FBI in 2016 when a group of computer scientists raised concerns about internet records showing that Alfa Bank servers repeatedly looked up the unique internet address of a Trump Organization computer server in the U.S.
Benczkowski was also a former lead staffer to Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the Senate and a Trump transition official. He said that he would not recuse himself from matters involving the ongoing Mueller probe despite that not doing so would be a glaring conflict of interest.
Democrats strongly opposed the nomination because of his Russian ties and because Benczkowski does not have enough experience in federal courtrooms to run the DOJ’s criminal division. But since when does Trump care if his nominees have any relevant experience for the positions to which he’s nominated them?
Sadly, the beat goes on. Does anyone need any more proof that the Republicans in Congress put party over country?
Vote those fuckers out of office in November.
One-Liner Wednesday — Would or Wouldn’t
“I don’t see any reason why it would be Russia.”
Donald Trump in Helsinki on July 16, 2018
Donald Trump now claims to have misspoken on Monday at the press conference after his one-on-one meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. When asked by a journalist about whether he thought that Russia had interfered with the U.S. presidential election in 2016, what Trump actually said was, “I don’t see any reason why it would be Russia.”
But when he returned Monday from the summit, Trump said that he “realized there is some need for clarification” about his remarks on Russian interference in the election.
“In a key sentence in my remarks” Trump pointed out, “I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t.’”
“The sentence should have been: ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia,’” he said. “Sort of a double negative.”
And that sort of reminded me of another mix-up of the words would and wouldn’t Trump previously made, which mix-up was perfectly captured in this Facebook post I came across:
Written for Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt.
This, That, and the Other 