Welcome Back to Pottersville: May 2019

Friday, May 31, 2019

Gotham City Digest

(In which we swear we don't have to wear football helmets 18 hours a day)

Neocons are dusting off Eisenhower's old playbook and are now courting the Shah's son with the intention of installing another pro-corporate puppet in Tehran.

Steve Bannon: Trump will lose supporters when they discover he’s just another non-billionaire scumbag.

Fucking A, call his bluff, Mueller.

Even Thad Cochran's death is all about me, Me, ME with Trumpie the Klown.

There is absolutely no end to this gargoyle's pettiness.

"RACISM IS ALIVE AND WELL!!" In Mississippi, of all places?! Well, I'm just shocked!

New Hampshire just got rid of the death penalty and overrode the Governor's veto. Fuck Christopher Sununu.

Just when you think Trump can't get any pettier. The NY Times:

"A Navy service member based on Yokosuka said that all of the American warships in the harbor were invited to send 60 to 70 sailors to hear Mr. Trump’s address, with the exception of the McCain. When several sailors from the McCain showed up anyway, wearing their uniforms with the ship’s insignia, they were turned away, the service member said."

Two words, Douchewitz-Ken Starr.

So, it's not pollution as long as you call it "molecules of freedom." Did MiniEn just become part of MiniTru?

Remember when he was stumbling on the campaign trail, Trump assured the goobers he wouldn't cut their Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare? Uh, yeah, about that...

Typical Trumper- Fuck the law. Laws are for Democrats to obey. Then when they get hit with breaking the law, it's "political retribution."

I don't fault a political candidate for trying to gobble up the early money. What I AM concerned about is where that money comes from.

So much winning.

Mueller's about-face on how Bill Barr brought out his own report is a stunning act of hypocrisy for those of us who thought he was a straight shooter.

"GOP backlash"?! Who puts whom in office? To quote V for Vendetta: "People shouldn't be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."

If I believed in God, I'd pray for RBG every day.

I utterly fail to see how Trump's supporters can still defend this asshole even after his golf outings at his own golf clubs have cost us over $100,000,000. You'd think the optics of a so-called billionaire leader costing us so much for a silly game while he's finding endless ways to make life more difficult for them wouldn't be lost on them. But these are Trumpanzees we're talking about here.

Killing Roe vs Wade is just the start of the war on women and the privacy of Americans in general.

They pointedly didn't apologize for smearing Ocasio-Cortez but for taking attention away from veterans. So the Grizzlies are either fucking idiots for airing Republican propaganda without viewing it or they're lying through their teeth.

This is the moron Trump chose to head a panel on climate change. He likened calls to combat climate change to “the demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler” after telling a Jewish reporter to "shut up."

As you can expect, Trump's Wikipedia page is a war zone.

I usually don't have much respect for police unions but in this case I think they're standing on firm ground in demanding this asshole's resignation.

The nerve of them. Have they so soon forgotten why the GOP broke every rule in the book to shoehorn them into the court?

Get this: The guy who'd taken out full-page ads calling for the execution of the unconvicted Central Park 5 (who were later found not guilty) is railing against Biden for his support of the Crime Bill. Hypocrisy's a rotting corpse. Rachel Maddow said years ago that hypocrisy's the one crime in DC for which there's no punishment.

Jason Stanley tries to define fascism.

Good on MacKenzie Bezos. Yet it still doesn't change the fact that taxation is better than philanthropy that get massive tax write-offs. Charity can't solve wealth inequality. Never has. Never will. And philanthropy tends to benefit organizations, not individuals.

If Trump held a rally in Madison Square Garden, this is exactly what it would be like.

Apologies if I'm reposting this especially as this came out two years ago but this is such a cool idea.

I honestly don't know why all towns and cities don't do this for their veterans.

No shit. You don't need to be a legal expert to see THAT.

Interesting. I've been closely following the UFO phenomenon for well over a decade. And I'm more than convinced the government's been hiding the truth from us since the 40's. I'm glad to see the Navy's taking it more seriously.

More rack and ruin from this endlessly pathetic screaming Kabuki play of an administration- This is the largest cutting of civil service positions in a decade.

Sure, Toronto, elect another Ford since the last one worked out so fucking well.

Well, if anyone would know the definition of treason, it would be the spawn of Dick Cheney.

Stable genius, huh? He can't even spell Biden's name correctly.

How nice is it to be the "president's" son in law and to get a nearly billion dollar loan backed by the government? Well, about as nice as your lawyer defending you with an ethics agreement that's kept secret from the public. Here's the problem:

Ethics agreements with Senate-confirmed appointees, of which Kushner is NOT, are historically made available to the public.

This is the glamor puff piece Maggie Haberman wrote about Hope Hicks a week ago that got her slammed. Hicks lied to everybody, including Mueller's team. None of this was mentioned in Haberman's article. And, just for the record, Maggie, one doesn't get to "decide" whether or not to obey a Congressional subpoena. When Congress calls, you go, period.

Forgive disabled vets' student loan debt? Betsy DeVos? Ha ha ha! Surely you jest.

Apparently, the trick to a black man in the south getting away with threatening white Democrats is to run as a Republican.

Another trial, another pharmaceutical company, another bribe to make the charges go away, another day of business in America.

And you people thought I was jumping the gun by demanding impeachment for the Orange Traitor.

Remember that Klan rally on the 25th in Ohio that we were so worried about? Yee-ah. It consisted of nine racists. 350 cops and $650,000 for that shit.

These are the people Trump's so frightened about.

I've admired Naomi Wolf for nearly 15 years. Therefore it is with significant pain when I say I am so glad I'm not Naomi Wolf these days.

Corruption. It's all of a piece. Those who need to get audited the most are spared from them so the IRS can go after low-hanging fruit like struggling people with student loans.

"The Gabbard campaign has thus far declined comment."
Oh, I'm sure they HAVE.

What, no Stockholm Syndrome?

Perhaps the episode would have been more suitable for Alabama had Mr. Ratburn married his first cousin. And finally...

No good can possibly come of this. Absolutely none. A week ago, we reached a new turning point. Trump turned a corner from which he will never come back. He gave the press a death list of people he'd like to see executed for treason, undermined his entire intelligence community by handing over state secrets to a right wing hack like Barr for the purpose of investigating the very people who'd investigated him for collusion & obstruction.

Meanwhile, Pelosi's wringing her bony hands at the thought of impeachment even as Trump turns the presidency he stole into a dictatorship and this country into an undeclared fascist state.

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Sucking Up

     To anyone with not even a refined but just a rudimentary sensibility, the sight of Donald Trump on the world stage, treated like an equal by actual heads of state, must be a cringe-worthy and nauseating experience. It's impossible to remember or imagine a "man", for want of a better word, more manifestly unfit to be president than Donald Trump, a person so vastly unsuited for the role of statesman of, ostensibly, the most powerful nation of earth that it comes dangerously close to defying words themselves.
     Indeed, even the most unrefined and uneducated Middle American or Appalachian with a rudimentary sense of morality and critical faculties can see in Donald Trump all the world's worst qualities that humanity can offer wrapped up in one distended bag of skin: He's a pedophile, a serial adulterer, a tax cheat, a welcher who has thrust countless numbers of contractors out of business because he doesn't like paying his bills, he's a narcissist, a megalomaniac, a sociopath (or psychopath, depending on your rubric and perceptions) and that's just the start of the laundry list of things that should have made Donald Trump a footnote in American history.
     The spectacle of what happened in Japan was just the latest in a never ending series of gaffes in which Trump embarrassed us before the world. Japan's Shinzo Abe was the prime enabler, in sucking up to Trump and his bloated ego to avoid retaliatory tariffs that have been levied against China and many of our allies. Shinzo even arranged it so that Trump would be fed a steady diet of hamburgers made from American beef and his favorite ice cream. Because God forbid Donald Trump should show respect for a host country by at least sampling its cuisine.
     It continued when the Trump White House (not Trump, as he was quick to say on his Twitter perch) had instructed the Navy to hide the USS John S. McCain from Trump's sight, even to the point of hiding the name on its aft section with a tarp and parking a tugboat behind it. The captain of the McCain said the ship was not hidden as it's undergoing repairs and couldn't be moved. Yet, while 60-70 sailors from all the other ships were invited to attend Trump's speech, a few sailors from the McCain who tried to attend and had the McCain's insignia on their uniforms were actually turned away and told to leave.
     You know, as if they weren't Americans who swore to give their lives to defend our nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
     Threats such as Donald Trump. for instance.
     The McCain's captain aside, the entire chain of command from the White House down to the officers at Yokosuka Naval Base hopped to hide all traces of the McCain, named not just after Sen. McCain but his admiral father and grandfather, from the petulant man-child masquerading as an actual head of state.
     In trying to honor the wishes of a paper-skinned tyrant, the United States Navy, my former employers, did a grave disservice to the man who'd endured nearly five years of torture at the hands of the Viet Cong and refused early release because McCain had repeatedly run afoul of said man-child's graces.
     But it really started with Trump, who early in his campaign took a pot shot at Sen. McCain by saying he wasn't a hero and was only considered one because he was captured. "I like people who weren't captured," he truculently added to a chorus of boos. What's dispiriting to realize was that those boos were virtually the last ones that Trump would ever have to hear.
     Yet, still, for the sake of party, McCain, a former Republican presidential nominee, gave his endorsement to Trump. Then Trump continued talking until McCain had gotten so fed up with his anti-military bullshit that he did the unthinkable and, just weeks before the election, took his endorsement back.
     That was a slight Trump never forgot. In spite of all the evils he has inflicted on the world, he cannot stand the thought of being ridiculed, slighted or insulted in any way. That is simply because Donald Trump is a seven year-old governed entirely by his Id, a second grader trapped in the bloated body of an old man.
     Then in the twilight of his career, McCain ran afoul of the Emperor's graces yet again when, in a theatrical, Romanesque gesture that was Capitol Hill's version of Gladiator, McCain turned his thumb down at the Obamacare repeal. One suspects McCain did so not because he wished to continue giving Americans the same level of health care that he'd been receiving during his cancer treatment but to spite Trump. When the senator passed away last November, Trump was pointedly not invited to the services. Another slight. If he'd been permitted to speak, he plainly would have made it a campaign speech and would've found some way to denigrate Senator McCain at his own funeral.
     We saw it again just today when Trump responded to the death of former Mississippi senator Thad Cochran, by referring to him as a "real senator" who'd voted to repeal Obamacare. Trump is still dwelling on McCain foiling his plans to rob tens of millions of Americans of their health care.
     If you go back to the earliest posts of this blog, which was started in July of 2008 during the end of the primary season, you'll note that I heaped tons of ridicule on McCain and his ridiculous campaign. But that was then and this is now. Since the senator's cancer diagnosis and especially after his death, I have not said one unkind word about John McCain, which is a lot more than can be said for the imposter squatting in the West Wing.
   His supporters still sing his praises in spite of the countless moral failings and his political failures. Racists love him as long as he's obsessed with the wall. Evangelicals love him because they see him as an actuator of the End of Days for which they've been slavering for centuries. The poor white trash still love him as long as he keeps hurting the right people. And the human military wallpaper behind him keep smiling and nodding their heads even as he inevitably turns solemn occasions into campaign speeches even as he blows off his own Secretary of the Air Force who'd had the effrontery to publicly ridicule his Space Force.
     It speaks volumes of the moral rot and the cravenness upon which that rot depends that John McCain's own former employers in the United States Navy and the federal government are willing to dishonor his memory, even going as far as to hide a destroyer with McCain's name on it, in order to appease the easily-slighted man-child who was put in power by a hostile nation with the intention of weakening us.
     But our own government's willingness to dishonor one of our greatest heroes to smooth the ruffled feathers of a latter-day Nero shows that morally we're vastly weaker than Putin even knew.

Monday, May 27, 2019

It's Just as Well

(By American Zen's Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari)

It's just as well that Trump's getting fellated in Japan, a nation that fears Trump will impose tariffs on them if his incessant Fox feed is interrupted for a second. He won't be around for Memorial Day, again, leaving Mike Pence to once more robotically leave a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier while secretly worrying whether or not the soldier was gay or not a Catholic.

The lead image above that I'd chosen for this article pretty much is indicative of Trump's entire attitude toward the military. As Cadet Bone Spurs makes his way past these soldiers, he cannot even look them in the eye. He knows all too well that he was never one of them, never wanted to be, and then had the nerve to equate his reckless sex life in the 80's to the ultimate sacrifices made by over 58,000 men and women in Vietnam.

Trump punctuated that by adding he felt he deserved the Congressional Medal of Honor.

This was a guy who gladly accepted a Purple Heart from an obviously misguided veteran who'd earned it then said afterward, “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.” That's the Trump Way- Easier is better. Gut instincts instead of reading policy manuals written by experts, governing by Executive Order, not going to an American military cemetery in France on the 100th anniversary of the Armistice because the weatherman called for rain.

So, it's just as well he's not here to honor the fallen from the Revolutionary War to the ongoing and neverending war in Afghanistan. Trump's the kind of guy who doesn't appreciate weakness which includes even death and, in the late Sen. John McCain's case, capture after one's plane gets shot out of the sky.

Memorial Day is one of those very rare days in which Mike Pence has some relevance and is at least willing to go through the motions of respecting the war dead he helped make by voting for the Iraq War that Trump only pretended to oppose. After all, going to Arlington actually requires some effort beyond moving one's thumbs on a Blackberry while on Twitter.

That's because a self-absorbed sociopath like Donald Trump would never understand the pragmatic compassion that went behind a Kansas City suburb that refused to allow their living veterans to live on the streets and had built for them, free of charge, a little village where they could live in dignity. He also would never understand the simple but poetic tribute that Fort Bragg is having for the boots on the ground who lost their lives with boots on the ground.

Donald Trump, like so many other casual monsters that had come before him and surely will succeed him, simply doesn't give a shit about the troops until he needs them in one sabre-rattling episode or another. Or when he needs them as window dressing in a manufactured show of support even as he's attempting to steal personnel funds for his medieval border wall or sending them to the southern border in an idiotic display of cockwanding plainly in violation of Posse Comitatus that was stopped by four Governors.

It's just as well he's not here because it's not as if he's ever truly there for the troops except when he pardons war criminals. So let us leave with this image taken at Fort Snelling that will endure long after we've at last been spared the nauseating spectacle of US Marines having to salute that psychopath every time he steps on Marine One after getting his ridiculous comb over destroyed by its rotor wash.

On the Hazards of Ignoring Hazlitt

     This Guardian article is better than 16 years-old. It concerns William Hazlitt, the English-Irish polemicist who, like Charles Lamb, Leigh Hunt and Charles Hamilton Reynolds, decades ago provided merely a marginal presence in my youthful studies in the 70's & 80's in the life & work of John Keats that accounted for the bulk of my English literature scholarship in my late teens-early 20's. Reading this old article from 16+ years ago was, in a way, almost like a homecoming for me. Like a tragically huge number of us, I'd neglected Hazlitt whose star has faded in proximity to the brilliance of Keats' own.
     In other words, Hazlitt had been relegated by me and many others as a mere supporting player loitering in the peripheries of the continually tragic parlor play of Keats' own short life. But back in his day, Hazlitt was certainly a major mover and shaker in political polemics and was, for just reasons, simultaneously attacked and feared by the far right wing extremists of his own day (Think of Michael Moore being pilloried by Breitbart and you'll get the picture). While his famous friend Keats was not overly concerned with politics, the two men and those in their social circle certainly shared the same political sensibilities and instincts.
      This article reacquainted me with Hazlitt's work and what he'd stood for his entire life. Along with Shelley, he was one of the arch liberals of his day, an unapologetic and often savage critic of the powerful and pompous, the Hunter S. Thompson of his day and age. Hazlitt, it's very safe to say (He famously thought British social reformer and fellow Unitarian Jeremy Bentham, on hearing he'd been translated into French, should've also been translated into English), would've had a field day with Trump.

Exactly 200 years ago in 1819, the same year as his friend Keats' annus mirabilis, Hazlitt published the simply-titled Political Essays (available on Amazon for a mere .99¢- I have a copy on my Kindle device) and in it (at 39% in) is a rare, neglected gem that has recently and thankfully been resurrected, “The Times: On the Connexion between Toad-Eaters and Tyrants.”
Speaking of the great essayist Edmund Burke, who'd inveighed against the French Revolution that Hazlitt and his Romantic circle adored as much they had the Renaissance, this is what Hazlitt wrote that is eerily reminiscent of what we're seeing today (edits and emphasis mine):

(H)e succeeded, because there were others like himself, ready to sacrifice every manly and generous principle to the morbid, sickly, effeminate, little, selfish, irritable, dirty spirit of authorship. Not only did such persons, according to Mr. Coleridge’s valuable and competent testimony... make the distinction between Atheism and Religion a mere stalking-horse for the indulgence of their idle vanity, but they made the other questions of Liberty and Slavery, of the Rights of Man, or the Divine Right of Kings to rule millions of men as their Slaves for ever, they made these vital and paramount questions (which whoever wilfully and knowingly compromises, is a traitor to himself and his species), subordinate to the low, whiffling, contemptible gratification of their literary jealousy. We shall not go over the painful list of instances; neither can we forget them. But they all or almost all contrived to sneak over one by one to the side on which “empty praise or solid pudding” was to be got; they could not live without the smiles of the great (not they), nor provide for an increasing establishment without a loss of character... (T)hey chose rather to prostitute their pens to the mock-heroic defence of the most bare-faced of all mummeries, the pretended alliance of kings and people! We told them how it would be, if they succeeded; it has turned out just as we said; and a pretty figure do these companions of Ulysses... these gaping converts to despotism, these well-fed victims of the charms of the Bourbons, now make, nestling under their laurels in the stye of Corruption, and sunk in torpid repose... in lazy sinecures and good warm births! Such is the history and mystery of literary patriotism and prostitution for the last twenty years.—Power is subject to none of these disadvantages. It is one and indivisible; it is self-centered, self-willed, incorrigible, inaccessible to temptation or entreaty; interest is on its side, passion is on its side, prejudice is on its side, the name of religion is on its side...

     The Times, it ought to be noted for those of you who aren't English literary scholars, was the biggest right wing organ of its time, the early 19th century's version of Fox "News" that never saw a Tory politician or policy it didn't grovel to extol. Hazlitt himself was a favorite target of the Times. And Hazlitt was the kind of guy who led with his chin and welcomed a fight and the chance to defend his principles.
     One does not have to squint very hard to see parallels to what passes for the political literary set these days, especially on the seedy side of the tracks and toad-eaters in Trump's own rapidly shriveling inner circle, the hood ornament issues of religion and atheism by the politically opportunistic. And indeed, we've seen countless instances of hacks in the fields of jurisprudence, economics, journalism, etc. being given sinecures that used to be important positions, hacks who are legendarily, vastly and ludicrously unsuited to these positions that now serve but one single, painfully simple purpose- Protecting the despot now squatting in the Oval Office and enacting his corporate-friendly agenda.
     Hazlitt's essay not only brilliantly deconstructs the authoritarian mindset that worships early 19th century power regardless of how corrupt it is, it stands up very well to the pitiless test of time in explaining Trump's inexplicably (to those of us in the sanity-based community) enduring popularity even as he nudges America closer to full-throated fascism, a socio-political concept the English essayist and political polemicist would've at once recognized and loathed as well as found mystifying. Hazlitt is indeed an indispensable requisite in the study of the English Romantic movement of the early 19th century. And we continue to ignore him at our peril.

Friday, May 24, 2019

Gotham City Digest: May Day! edition

(In which we promise to never shit on the seat of British power.)

After three fucked up attempts to jam Brexit down the throats of UK residents like Harry Reems with Linda Lovelace, Theresa May finally called it quits this morning. She won't be missed by either Labour or the Tories.

Failed movie mogul and foreclosure king Mnuchin would be perfectly at home in MiniTru.

Donald Trump is a seven year-old's idea of what a president should sound like.

Come on, you don't think Betsy DeVos got that job on her looks, did you?

More compassionate conservatism inaction. Rep. Chip Roy. If you live in Texas, remember that name on election day.

Jerry Nadler was rushed to the hospital today after fainting. Let's hope for a speedy recovery.

How is Mitch McConnell a traitor? Let us count the ways...

Good for New Mexico. Screw the Electoral College.

Trump's presser yesterday was really a masterpiece of insanity. Read his full answer to the question of treason carrying with it the death penalty.

Even an aid package costing more than an aircraft carrier is just a Bandaid, a pitiful bribe that barely addresses the devastation that Trump is causing in the heartland.

Oh, THIS is auspicious. Trump is sharing state secrets with Barr so he can investigate the investigators.

For years, Fox's official Uncle Tom Charles Payne has been a pain in the ass of the body politic.

Professor Anita Hill has some potent advice for Democrats for the 2020 elections. I say we should listen to her. Closely.

It's good to have friends in high places.

Geniuses.

When he sees a red wall, he just wants to paint it black.

Gee, who could've guessed that most Trump voters thought emancipation was a bad idea?

Irish author given a prestigious literary award by the same college she cleans as a janitor. This is pathetically ironic.

Maine coon cat with a human face or pygmy werewolf? You be the judge.

Opportunistic delusion, The shit's real.

#1, Assange is no journalist. He's a political saboteur and terrorist. #2, any man that helped Trump get elected, through Wikileaks or anywhere else, deserves to get hit with the Espionage Act.

In case you were curious, these were the biggest corporate deadbeats in America (besides Trump). The list includes Amazon, Netflix, Chevron, Whirlpool, JetBlue, Delta, Goodyear, Halliburton and other tax-dodging scumbag corporations.

Combined, these 60 corporations earned $79,027,000,000. Even factoring in the lowered tax rate of 21%, these scumbag corporations should've kicked in close to $17 billion last year in corporate taxes. How much education could that have provided? How much infrastructure rebuilding? How much in alternative energy research? How much in medical research?

An "intervention"? Yeah, that'll happen, Pelosi. They're at least as nuts as he is.

From a corporate standpoint, there's no such thing as campaign contributions. There are only bribes. Look at the $800,000 given to Lindsey Graham by a Russian crook and the million bucks given to Mitch McConnell by another. Graham's accepted bribe, plus the stolen emails, marked the exact moment Graham went from being a Trump critic to a spittle-flecked attack dog for him.

$1.57 billion for 1.7 miles of fencing. That comes out to nearly a billion dollars a mile. Yeah, no corruption here, folks.

Jerry Falwell, Jr bought into a flophouse with... a pool boy. That would be the very same Jerry Falwell, Jr of the questionable photographs. Something you'd like to share with tyhe rest of your homophobic congregation, Jerry?

From the Blast From the Past files: It's good to be the King but it's also good to be the Princess.

John Schindler of The Observer wrote this bombshell of an article almost two years ago to the day. Why didn't it become national if not international news and why hasn't Admiral Rogers testified before Congress about this? Once again, this was May 2017, the same month the Mueller probe began. Did Rogers even talk to Mueller's team?

I don't know why Forbes is characterizing Medicare For All as a threat even though Forbes is infamously right wing. When Bernie advocates for Medicare For All he's fulfilling a promise he made long ago to the American people. That's a good thing. When you threaten, you're holding out the possibility you may do something bad.

Riddle: What's the difference between cops and serial killers?
A- Serial killers tend to prey on their own ethnicity.

Hey, remember that 200 million dollar aluminum plant that's gonna be stuck in Mitch McConnell's state? Guess who Oleg's lobbyist was? The husband of the same woman who was made a federal judge for life just five weeks later, thanks to McConnell. And finally...

A sixth migrant child had died in US custody after they shuttled her around like a lost piece of luggage around three different hospitals in three different states.

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Gotham City Digest

(Signs? We don't need no stinkin' signs!)

“Speaker Pelosi said something terrible today and accused me of a cover-up.” He then went to the Rose Garden to eat worms.

Light dawns on Marblehead. It's about time they started talking about impeachment.

Oh, this sucks. We shouldn't have to strike a deal with Republicans. The law's on the Democrats' side. At least the subpoena remains in effect, and will be enforced if the DoJ fails to comply.

Now I've seen everything. Fredo got a book deal that'll be fast-tracked for this year. What'll it be called, The Son Never Rises?

Family values Republicans: "Mississippi lawmaker punched his wife because she undressed too slowly for sex."

Court filings show Michael Cohen exchanged nearly 1000 messages with the cousin of a Russian oligarch. I'd like to say I'm shocked but I can't.

Looks as if Donnie Dumbo has a Mini Me in the Democratic Party.

Pro life, huh? Pro-lifers: Birth begins at conception then ends at birth.

For every Alex Jones Facebook bans, there are literally 1000 cases like this where they usually side with the alt-right and other fascists who squeal like stuck pigs and secretly report those who had bested them like a cat shitting behind a couch.

What a wonderful idea! To hell with pesticides. Just let nature do the work.

"The American Left Can Learn a Lesson From Israel." A good article and very well worth reading.

This is one of our own, Ayanna Pressley, from MA-07, grilling Ben Carson, who appeared to be talking in his sleep.

Seriously, this is what a sitting member of the United States Congress had to put on her Twitter account yesterday. IDIOCRACY, are we there, yet? Fuck, yeah! It's already in the rear view mirror.

Meanwhile, in the bloated salt lick of Utah, home of the Chadwicks, it's another wonderful day in Mr. Trump's neighborhood.

I don't know why NBC is reporting this as news since they themselves say they can't absolutely authenticate these documents. But if they're real, it's troubling to see how far the Russians are willing to go to destroy America. Here's a sample:

"The documents contained proposals... to further exacerbate racial discord in the future, including a suggestion to recruit African Americans and transport them to camps in Africa 'for combat prep and training in sabotage.' Those recruits would then be sent back to America to foment violence and work to establish a pan-African state in the South, particularly in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana."

Karma. That shit's real.

President until he's 90? So, the 22nd amendment was just a dream?

These Republican nut bags were relieved that Buttigieg didn't want to have Jefferson “stricken from the history books.” Which is exactly what the Texas Board of Education did nine years ago when they did their own mass purge of history.

Hoard books, by all means. But not living creatures far beyond your capacity to care for them.

These psychopath Trump voters are what's truly frightening. This reminds me of something else I'd read a few months ago when one Trump voter was complaining that his policies were hurting her. "He's not hurting the people he's supposed to be hurting." As long as Trump is cruel and sadistic they'll always love him and never leave him. The mindset of these people are indistinguishable from that of Germans who voted for Hitler 87 years ago. They don't want a compassionate, Democratically-elected leader- They want a dictatorial strongman as long as he doesn't hurt them. And they never seem to realize that their vote does not make them immune from the horrible policies of those strongmen.

The busted dyke in Dutch folklore started with a tiny crack.

Another federal judge in four days has smacked down Donald Trump and his ridiculous efforts to obstruct justice, this time involving his financials.

In case you needed more evidence of right wing hypocrisy. A fifth child has died in Border Patrol Custody and "pro-lifers" are silent.

Again, something a totally innocent man would do.

These are large chunks from Rachel Maddow's show from last Friday the 17th. It contains some real eye openers regarding the Flynn and Stone cases, Judges Sullivan's and Jackson's rulings. Adam Schiff's looming showdown with the DOJ and Trump's own financial disclosures proving he indeed made those hush money payouts to two women through Michael Cohen. If you have 28 minutes to spare, these videos are well worth your time.

Oops. Looks as if even the IRS run by one of Trump's goons thinks Congress should get his tax returns.

Not racial, my ass. In North Carolina, it takes 9 cops and three visits to enforce a noise pollution ordinance on a Muslim black woman?!

So much winning. "Ford to Cut 7000 jobs by August."

Oh, that's rich. Profile in Courage Award for a centrist who got the dry heaves at impeaching Bush & now Trump.

Last Monday, the Supreme Court just ruled in favor of Native American rights in a 5-4 ruling in a case out of Wyoming. The court held that hunting rights for the Crow tribe under a 19th Century treaty did not expire when Wyoming became a state. Neil Gorsuch, the sole Westerner on the High Court, was the swing vote.

Even though he's not my guy for 2020, it makes no sense to attack Pete Buttigieg for appearing on Fox's Town Hall Sunday night. After all, Bernie did the same thing last month and he won big time. And Mayor Pete acquitted himself nicely, I think.

This is tragic beyond words. God, I hope her two kids pull through.

It appears as if homemade historian Bill O'Reilly is partly responsible for the Poway synagogue shooting.

Oh, I'll bet Trump's dreading it. And for good reason.

Because Romney has such great insight into human character. I am so ashamed this carpetbagging asshole was ever my Governor.

You can't possibly tell me Republicans aren't sadists.

Deutsche Bank anti money laundering specialists flagged several suspicious transactions in Trump & Kushner accounts... then failed to file them with the government.

Non-compete clauses are essentially the return of indentured servitude.

Next time you walk into a mall jewelry store and see the woman behind the counter, think of this horrifying article.

Now I know why Hunter S. Thompson once said Joe Biden looked like "a rabid weasel on speed." This is Senator Hair Plugs viciously fighting tooth & nail for Clinton's odious crime bill. Note all the racist tropes that he used. He's not even close to apologizing for the legislation that put hundreds of thousands if not millions of black men in prison for nonviolent crimes.

Gene Simmons recently held a press conference in the virtually abandoned Pentagon Press Briefing Room. Yes that Gene Simmons. I can now no longer distinguish my country from The Onion. Seriously, I can't.

So, 101% voted on Barr?

God only knows why Trump is so enamored of the military to the point of pardoning war criminals considering he's avoided being part of it his whole life.

And speaking of which... Uh, NO. Guess again, asshole.

Biker clubs feed migrants with 30,000 meals. Very cool thing to do.

Here's where we're at now:

Justin Amash wants to impeach Trump. That's REPUBLICAN Rep. Justin Amash. A Republican wants to impeach Trump yet Pelosi doesn't. All of you still defending this witch deserve what she does to this country.

Trump's 2020 campaign posters are made in China. I guess we should consider ourselves fortunate they're not made in Moscow and are written in Cyrillic. Maybe they should be, At least they'd be in line with the truth in advertising laws.

According to Yahoo Finance, AOC is paying her entry-level staffers $52,000 a year. That's a good way to reduce the burden on the social safety net- Pay people what they're worth.

I guaran-fucking-tee you those hacked Florida counties were Democratic strongholds. If they were Republican, the Republicans wouldn't be so furtive and secretive about it. They knew the Russians would hack Democratic counties & they gladly held the door open for them.

You ever heard of a money pit? They actually exist. And this Trump scam cost one family $400,000.

A member of Congress tried to commit obstruction of justice & Michael Flynn has the tape. This just got a whole lot bigger.

Texas: "First Amendment? You don't need no steenkin' first amendment!"

Meanwhile, in Lunch Lady Land: This is what happens when you outsource jobs once provided by districts to cold-blooded corporate assholes.

Trump's looking for a major nuclear deal with Russia and China. You know, since the last one with NoKo went so swimmingly. THIS will end well. And finally...

Is there a slimier, more hypocritical right wing fuck on the planet than Glen Casada, TN House Speaker? No, no there isn't.

Friday, May 17, 2019

Gotham City Digest: Save the Fetuses Then Don't Vaccinate Them edition

(Welcome to the United States of Gilead)

Alabama, as usual, proudly advances into the 13th century.

This is the fascist anti Semitic little runt whom Trump was praising at the WH last Monday for "keeping his country safe. " Sure he is. Safe from any opposing ideas or academic and intellectual freedom.

Oh, speaking of Orban. the poor man's Bela Lugosi: White nationalist teams up with anti Semitic fascist. Who could've seen THIS coming?

Just in case you needed another reason to not vote for Biden next year. It would be impossible to imagine Bernie doing this or even going to a big money fundraiser.

There you go, Donnie Dumbo. Close your eyes. Problem solved. No more poor people.

I used to like Politico & still do from time to time. But their anti Sanders bias is getting a bit too creepy for my taste.

More right wing scumbaggery. This is the only way Republican scum can get their rancid agenda passed- Through stealth legislation like this.

War is peace. Ignorance is strength. Orwell had assholes like this pegged over seven decades ago.

Organized religion was never any great shakes to begin with. It gave us crusades, purges, holocausts, genocide, income inequality, kidnapping and brutal acculturation. But religion these days, especially the three religions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, have gotten markedly more strident and deadlier in the second half of the 20th century.
A warped, sociopathic view of Christianity is what gave us the neonazis and white supremacist movement. A warped view of Judaism morphed into Zionism that's carrying out a slow motion holocaust of the Palestinians. And a warped view of Islam in the hands of a few hardline clerics and other believers gave us terrorism on a global scale.

     Why more sensible people have not wrenched these religions from clearly insane hardliners and placed back in the hands of more level-headed people is a mystery to me. But perhaps the answer as to why religion is so easily perverted by murderous dogmatists may be found in a passing remark made by the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley to a friend.
     Shelley once remarked it was a shame that no one had once ever based a religion on charity instead of faith. Shelley, don't forget, was the arch atheist and liberal of the early 19th century. Whether or not he realized it, he 'd put his finger squarely on the problem of why religion is so easily perverted.
     Once you abjure the human kindness of charity and altruism, you're automatically replacing it with a system that demands blind, unconditional faith, which is antithetical to the compassion most of us feel for others less fortunate. It's vastly easier to pervert even the nominal benefits of a well-meaning religion and turn it into one geared exclusively toward one of self-enrichment or bigotry or a right wing political bias.
     Unfortunately, religion isn't going away anytime soon. We humans are too feeble-minded a species to continue our intellectual and spiritual journey without the crutch of religion. Yet, if we MUST have it, it would be vastly easier to tolerate it in our midst if we finally, as a species, wrench the power of these religions out of the wrong hands and to place it into the right ones.

Republicans are reaching out to women and people of color? Oh, this will end well...

One of my rules of thumb- Anything that makes Sean Hannity lose his shit is nothing but good for America & the world.

As usual, Bernie Sanders is a regular gushing fountain of depressing statistics. But we need to know them if we're going to be an informed citizenry.

Police look for Young Black Man, see Young Black Man, beat the shit out of Young Black Man. Who cares of it's the wrong Young Black Man?

OK, one more time and, yes, I'm looking at you, CNN- Nations don't pay tariffs. Consumers do.

Not that I have any great compassion for any corporation and Wall Street in general, but Trump's needless trade war with China, resulting in them raising tariffs on $60,000,000,000 of US products, so far has resulted in the Dow losing 600 points last Monday. More importantly, it's also costing us jobs here at home already. And now, with China's retaliatory tariffs, it's going to cost us more jobs as Chinese manufacturers will be buying fewer American products. And I have no confidence that that moron Trump will be in a position to fix anything at next month's G20 summit in Japan, where he will surely embarrass us yet again.

The spirit of Elmer Gantry still lives, I see. Most depressingly, one of its victims is still a true believer. This, after she was booted from the program and news began to spread of mass firings, no job placements and booze parties in Trump Tower Chicago.

I'll give you three guess how they tore through their $1.5 million state grant that was engineered by right wing con man Joe Manchin.

Gee, look who else is courting lucrative business deals while working for Donald Trump. Why, it's Rudy Giuliani! Shocking, I know.

This is the reason why #LindseyGrahamResign was trending last Tuesday. He's nakedly abdicating the role of the US Senate to act as a check & balance on the WH. He's simply a traitor and needs to go.

In fact, Graham's so unhinged these days, Ana Navarro and Joe Manchin actually had an intervention for him last Monday on CNN.

Yeah, Jerry. It's the Southern Baptist Deep State out to get you. You got 'em. Good job. Go have a cookie.

From the All Executives Are All Psychopaths files: "Chairman Werner Wenning told shareholders at Bayer's annual general meeting in Bonn last month that company leaders 'very much regret' falls in its share price."

But not the cancer they're giving people.

Whatsapp was recently breached. Gee, isn't that the same Whatsapp that Jared Kushner uses for official White House business? Fancy that.

Some nightmare fuel from my old pal and fellow Bay Stater Charlie Pierce.

The black lady who landed five clean shots to this racist's face is my new favorite superhero.

There are probably states more corrupt than Georgia. But right now, I can't think of any.

     Imagine this:
     12 y/o child stalked.
     12 y/o child raped.
     12 y/o child gets pregnant.
     The law refuses child an abortion.
     Rapist of child gets joint custody of child's child.
     Child grows up having forced connection to her rapist.
     Child grows up with father rapist.
     12 y/o child doesn't have to imagine it because this is her life.

From the You Can't Make This Shit Up Files:To combat drug-smuggling immigrants, Trump sends to the border security staff of Transportation Department run by a woman whose father's ship was caught smuggling drugs.

WaPo reporter David Fahrenthold revealed that he’s found two Trump properties that are thriving.

Here's what they have in common: Neither property has Trump’s name on them.

Mendacious cocksuckers, every Goddamned one of them.

Again, something a totally innocent man would do.

DEAD COPS, WHAT A SHAME, YADA YADA. Now it's time for ME, ME, ME.

Because to white southern cops, all black people really do look alike.

"What does raise eyebrows is the timing of the release of the counsel’s memo—a timing so egregious that it almost makes you wonder if Trump’s appointees to the NLRB have shares in Uber that they’re frantically trying to unload. In the Anything-Goes presidential administration of Donald Trump, the egregious has become so normalized and stupidity so commonplace that the board’s action not only stinks to high heaven but should be investigated by House Democrats.”

Christians don't rape their own little girls. My cat can put on roller skates but that don't make him a train.

This is Trump's idea of putting America first: Don't Buy American.

Another day, another redneck state, another fucking anti-abortion bill.

What Pelosi is essentially saying here is that she plans on using impeachment to justify the means to an end that DOESN'T actually involve impeachment. I will never forgive her for not aggressively pursuing impeachment.

Another gift to Putin and just months after walking away from the INF Treaty.

Trtmp wants to concentrate 7500 migrants in camps along the border.

That is, the ones that aren't being "disappeared" in privately owned black sites in Louisiana and elsewhere.

So, this is the way it works, kiddies: Write hagiography, get pardon from subject of hagiography.

Three words: Devin fucking Nunes.

I'll make y'all a deal. How about y'all first get the fuck over getting your fat asses kicked in the Civil War? Then take down your traitors' statues and your Stars and Bars. THEN y'all can tell Jews to get the fuck over the Holocaust.

What's there not to trust about a two-headed coin hawked on TV for $45 by a jailbird? (Note: Not lergal tender for paying off porn stars, Playboy bunnies or victims of child molestation.)

Recently, 183 Republicans voted against lowering drug prices and strengthening protections for consumers. It seems obvious by now that Republicans are out to kill us so they can make their unofficial bosses rich beyond their wildest dreams of avarice.

House Democrats today have officially pushed Republicans on the wrong side of history. Note not a single Democrat voted against the LGBTQ Civil Rights Act while 173 Republican scumbags DID. And finally...

Great idea, unless your kid gets shot in the chest or the head. But thank God we had the intestinal fortitude to resist actively protecting our children with the tyranny of safer schools through the evil of gun control.