Welcome Back to Pottersville: October 2019

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Gotham City Digest: Happy Halloween edition

(Aaaaallll aboard... or not.)

Great moments in journalism.

I'll bet right about now Bryce Harper is thanking his lucky stars he was smart enough to sign with Philly.

The whistleblower's name has allegedly been released and all the search results lead to right wing media. I won't mention the name, of course, but the reaction from their lawyers shows they're pretty pissed about it. Things are about to get dirty real fast. The right wing is trying its best to get this poor bastard killed.

Bribery, corruption. It's in the Republican party's DNA. But this is the only way Trump can get the enduring loyalty of Republican scum in the Senate.

Machine Democrats fret that former Republican who calls herself a "capitalist" and was a corporate lawyer is too far to the left to beat Trump. And people wonder why I left that fucking party. (Tip o' the tinpoil hat to Constant Reader CC.)

I'll tell you why- They've hitched their wagons so firmly to Trump's that they know if he falls, they follow. Look what happened after Watergate.

She said he was all over her "like ugly on an ape." And I'd bet Trump thinks this piece is about him.

For just the 4th time in the 232 years since we adopted our Constitution, we have held a vote like this. These rules are fairer to Trump than anything Andrew Johnson, Nixon or Clinton received. Naturally, the WH issued a childish litany of lies claiming the so-called "president" was not given any means to defend himself. Every single Republican scumbag voted against the adoption of the rules and two of us jumped ship and voted with them and here they are. Look at their demographics.

Minutes after the rules were adopted, Trump had the press office release this bloated Twitter whine. I'd say Trump wrote this in the third person but all the words are spelled correctly.

Good for them. Fuck right wingers that bought it. Six in one day quit. May Deadspin become just another right wing rag that goes under.

Meme intermission.

Oh, she did not just compare her father to Jefferson! Yes, yes she did.

Fucking A. That first "whistleblower" was no hero.

Another Fox boo bird flies the coop.

Looks like someone's been avoiding the nice nurse with the paper cup.

And yet, despite this Senate Intelligence Committee report, 50 of the 53 Republicans in the Senate voted for Graham's anti-impeachment bill. Think about that for a minute. How can anyone not come to the conclusion that Senate Republicans are siding with Russia and its stooge in the Oval Office?

Yes, right wingers are this stupid & ignorant. Ann Coulter actually put this on Twitter minutes after finding out Tulsi Gabbard voted for the impeachment rules.

Perhaps it's no coincidence that Republicans are acting exactly like domestic terrorists. They actually left moving boxes in front of the offices of Congressional Democrats who voted for the impeachment rules.

Looks as if escaped nursing home resident Don Young found a use for his head besides growing hair on it.

If Katie Hill had to go down, at least she went down swinging. Good on her. Not a single feckless cunt in the entire Democratic Party applauded her words.

Even he's aware enough to know the walls are closing in.

“They’re trying to impeach us. We represent a third of the country!” Otherwise known as a minority. So shut the fuck up. And finally...

Trump's been trying like a one-nut on his wedding night to get Ken Coochie Coochie installed in DHS. despite federal law, and the Republican Senate, saying it's illegal.

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Trumplandia is a Rabid Cerberus

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

Think of Trumplandia as a rabid Cerberus. Except, as opposed to the famed mythological three-headed dog, this one has many, many heads. Some wear red hats, others don't. But it doesn't matter whether or not they sport over-priced headgear- What matters is what's between their ears.

Now, by that I mean there's actually something to parse there. Right wing journalist Charlie Sykes wrote yesterday on Bulwark about "the Trumpian smear reflex" that seems to take over what passes for the frontal lobe of True Believer Republicans (Let's just call them "Ever Trumpers"). These are the kind of people who would defend this so-called "president" even if he raped then strangled a Mexican kid on the Resolute Desk on live TV then called their deported parents to tell them what he'd just done in as graphic a detail as his announcement of the death of al-Baghdadi.

"Well, personally, I wouldn't have done that," Sean Hannity would say on Fox, "but the president is always exuberant in his love for children. And while liberal naysayers would disagree, the parents had the right to know of the loving in their final moments the president had shown to their daughter." Sean Duffy would opine on CNN that "the president's fornication technique was all-American and that he'd made the child's final moments almost painless and quick."

Come on, you know they would.

     The Republican Party and, up to a point, the Democrats until last month, have given this budding tyrant one pass after another, giving him a sense of his own impunity. I think we in the reality-based community can all agree that Donald Trump never once for a nanosecond ever considered himself a public servant answerable to Congress, the Constitution or the will of the people. He is an autocrat of the lowest, crudest order so it would follow that his most rabid fan base would fervently respond to such crudities that spew like a toxic fire hose from his Twitter account seven days a week.
     But the more intellectual of the right wing in both the media and the political arena, the George Wills, the Jennifer Rubins, the Justin Amashes, et al, have of late been reaching their fill. The first major test of their loyalties came when Trump abruptly announced he was pulling out of northeast Syria (without once notifying his commanders on the ground or even the Pentagon) and abandoning our Kurdish allies to the not so tender mercies of the Turks and their allied forces.
     That was the political Third Rail we knew Trump would piss on that would eventually make the GOP break ranks with him. The GOP had invested way too much political capital (capital they absolutely should have invested along with the Democrats) inveighing in the strongest terms against ISIS and al-Baghdadi's caliphate. They'd invested so much, in fact, it was long past being politically feasible to stand by Trump in the hour of his greatest and most infamous treachery that will surely go down in US history as the biggest foreign policy blunder since Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.
     But then on Twitter Trump went after Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a bona fide war hero and patriot and, for the second time within a month, Republicans, who'd invested as much if not more political capital into their seeming reverence for the military, were forced to draw another line in the sand. He called Vindman a "Never Trumper" and insisted he couldn't have sat in on his "perfect phone call" with Zelensky that he'd nonetheless took the pains to hide in a N.I.C.E. server. He tried to drag Lt. Col. Vindman down to his level by claiming his motivations for testifying before Congress under subpoena were politically motivated. Which is almost ironic since his political motivations for making that infamous July 25th phone call is what got him in this impeachment mess in the first place.

The Tongues of Dull, Fat Cerberus

Of course, it wasn't just Cadet Bone Spurs who went after a guy who actually earned his Purple Heart instead of having one handed to him by a doddering veteran who didn't know any better. Laura Ingraham last Monday night accused Lt. Col. Vindman of being more loyal to his birthland of Ukraine than the United States. Completely lost on the alt-right's de facto sex symbol was the irony of doing this in defense of a guy born in Jamaica, Queens who has from Day One, in insulting his own generals, intelligence and diplomatic corps and members of Congress, shown more loyalty and patriotic allegiance to Russia than that selfsame United States.
Ingraham's fast, loose and completely baseless allegations were essentially brought out because. as Ingraham actually admitted, Vindman chose to defend the nation's interests over that of Trump's. In fact, this is literally what Ingraham said on her show the night before Vindman's testimony (emphasis mine):

Here we have a U.S. national security official who is advising Ukraine while working inside the White House apparently against the president’s interests and usually they spoke in English. Isn’t that kind of an interesting angle on this story?

Crushed child testicles enthusiast John Yoo openly floated the idea that Vindman was committing "espionage." Also lost on Ingraham was the irony that Trump's "interests" were, as usual, purely partisan and selfishly motivated- Strong-arming Zelensky into carrying out an investigation into the Bidens, having Zelensky announcing it on CNN and essentially using the Ukrainian president as a terrorist hostage reading off a cue card before a video camera. Then and only then, it was understood both in Kiev and Foggy Bottom, would he get his military aid.

Then yesterday, it was the right wing's answer to Howdy Doody, CNN's new Special Needs Affirmative Action hire Sean Duffy, to open his maw. Duffy said,

“It seems very clear that [Vindman] is incredibly concerned about Ukrainian defense. I don’t know about his concern [for] American policy, but his main mission was to make sure the Ukraine got those weapons. I understand it: We all have an affinity to our homeland where we came from.”

       Well, all except Donald Trump, obviously, a man who is so bought and sold by the Russians he might as well have a permanent front window display in Russia's GUM department stores.
       With the betrayal of the Kurds and Trump essentially committing libel against a decorated war hero, the Republican Party has finally rediscovered its gag reflex, the tip of the cock against the tonsils, the part where the body politic finally expels that foreign, toxic organism called Donald Trump. So far, we've gotten just a couple of dry heaves. But often, those dry heaves presage a far more cathartic purge.
         Keep in mind- Lindsey Graham's anti-impeachment bill was shot out of the water by nine Republican senators. One doesn't have to be a tea leaf reader to see in that a serious erosion in the firewall that will literally prove to be the only thing keeping Trump from being expelled from office.

Gotham City Digest

(Nobody puts Baby in a corner... except Pelosi, Schiff, Nadler, etc.)

AOC vs Lt. Commander Data. It didn't end well for the artificial person.

No more racist, vote-shopping,right wing gerrymandering in NC, ever!

Unsurprisingly, this, also had Rudy's grubby fingerprints all over it. Gulen, it should be restated, was the guy Michael Flynn was bribed to the tune of $15,000,000 to kidnap and extraordinarily rendition back to Turkey.

I don't always agree with Amanda Marcotte but I see her point here. Where her own outrage fails is in not raking the spineless Democrats over the coals just as long and as merciless as she does the Republicans. The Democrats' insistence on investigating Katie Hill for a relationship that, while unconventional, was not unethical or illegal in any way (the Congressional rules forbidding relationships with subordinates does not apply to campaign staff), is typical, craven and just what one would expect of the so-called "Democrats." This is like Al Franken all over again only worse. These dickless, feckless cunts in the Democratic Party waited years to impeach Trump because they were afraid of looking "too partisan" without once realizing that that's why they were put in Congress in the first place. So, when real sexual assault is credibly alleged of a fellow Republican (Yes, I'm looking right at you, Trump and Kavanaugh), the GOP circles the wagons and slut shames the women making the allegations. The Democrats? At the first whiff of sexual impropriety, the Democrats eagerly throw their own to the wolves in a disingenuous show of moral rectitude.

Which, considering their own sexual scandals over the decades, is risible at best, despicable at worst.

So, add price-gouging to the list of crimes committed by this so-called administration.

G/O, the right wing nut bag outfit that now owns Deadspin and a bunch of former Gawker sites, told their editorial staff in a memo leaked today to the Daily Beast that they were to cover just sports. Well, this is what Ray Ratto of Deadspin had to say about THAT today.

This is the next phase of fascism, ladies and gentlemen- The chilling of political thought in the media.

Oh no, this Katie Hill thing wasn't politically motivated AT ALL. You know what other California Congresscritter is also embroiled in a sex scandal? White male Duncan Hunter who, unlike Katie Hill, was using campaign funds to carry out multiple affairs, including with a lobbyist and one of his own staffers. He's also facing a criminal trial in January.

Another way he also differs from Katie Hill: He was never investigated by the same Ethics Committee that immediately went after Hill. Fancy that.

Hey, look at my African American over there!

Not a bad day's work considering he probably Tivoed the fucking thing while he was on the golf course. He sounded like a 13 year-old giving a book report on the first Mack Bolan novel he ever read.

With Biden fading and sure to lose, desperate Democrats look for other past losers to field.

Study: Fox lies 60% of the time. In the age of Trump, that's probably shot up to 80%.

DOJ bagged telling more lies.

A truly great moment in signage.

Ever wonder what the birth of a binary star system looks like? Wonder no more.

"Acting House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y, told NBC News she found Vindman’s remarks 'extremely, extremely, extremely disturbing' as she left the deposition. Maloney refused to answer any other questions about Vindman’s testimony." NBC News.

Vindman was one of several people who listened in on Trump's "perfect" July 25th phone call to Zelensky.

Speaking of Alexander Vindman, on the eve of his testimony, Laura Ingraham actually accused him of committing espionage to the smiling agreement of torture enthusiast John Yoo and "Democrat" Alan Douchewitz. Yes, we've sunk to this.

Remember when Trump "joked" that he wasn't allowed to kill migrants seeking asylum at legal ports of entry? Apparently, he wasn't kidding and last February he gave himself the right to do just that. This is a violation of virtually every human rights law on the books as well as a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.

Meme intermission.

It seems Commie pinko leftists will never learn the lessons of history and are doomed to repeat them.

Yesterday, AOC blasted Republicans for being driven to distraction by Vindman's testimony in the basement. Alex Mooney already got thrown out after trying to crash the hearing. Yes, Republicans are now literally basement dwellers.

We ran a postbellum concentration camp for freed slaves in Mississippi. It was called the Devil's Punchbowl and many people, starting with those in Natchez, would like to make you forget that.

Here come the judge, here come the judge. Unfortunately, the judge's name is Dredd. Don't know who Judge Dredd is? Look it up.

And we thought Katie Hill put a new spin on the old adage of politics making for strange bedfellows. Look who's running for her House seat- Jailbird George Papadopoulos, the moron who got drunk at a bar and told the Australian ambassador about the hacked Clinton emails that would be released on Wikileaks.

Things are getting so crazy on Bullshit Mountain, Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC called Fox "News" "chickenshit" on live national TV.

Now you know why Trump was going full tilt painting-the-wall-with-his-feces batshit crazy on Twitter yesterday morning. He knew that Vindman would verify what we already know- That the call transcript was very heavily censored. What we DIDN'T know (and what Trump obviously did) was that Trump mentioned having audiotapes of Joe Biden. Here's the money shot:

"The rough transcript also contains ellipses at three points where Mr. Trump is speaking. Colonel Vindman told investigators that at the point of the transcript where the third set of ellipses appears, Mr. Trump said there were tapes of Mr. Biden."

So much for second-hand information in secret hearings.

We heard from one hero on Capitol Hill yesterday. Here's another one. This was a damned nice thing for Mr. Sinise and his Snowball foundation to do. Obviously, this won't take away the pain of losing their parents. But the five free days of fun and magic will go a long way toward reminding them that the whole world isn't such a dark, ugly place.

Right winger Jennifer Rubin will never turn into Molly Ivins. But she makes a good point when she says character assassination must have repercussions.

Apparently, the Republican fetish for transparency only applies to Democrats.

Dr. Baden said Epstein was murdered. Duh.

Right wing journalist Charlie Sykes perfectly delineates the "Trumpian smear reflex." Sean Duffy, who seems bound and determined to become the briefest hire in CNN's history, went down the same ugly, Nativist road as Trump did 2 1/2 years ago with Judge Curiel, who ruled against his Muslim ban. Trump said he couldn't be trusted because he was of Mexican descent. Duffy and white nationalist Laura Ingraham each said that Lt. Col. Vindman couldn't be trusted because he was born in Ukraine. Duffy is a mini Trump- Just another Nativist reality TV political hack.

Christopher Anderson is also testifying on the Hill today. In his opening statement, he revealed a bombshell. I'll let him say it in his own words from his opening statements:

"On November 25, 2018, Russia escalated the conflict further when its forces openly attacked and seized Ukrainian military vessels heading to a Ukrainian port in the Sea of Azov. While my colleagues at the State Department quickly prepared a statement condemning Russia for its escalation, senior officials in the White House blocked it from being issued."

Betsy DeVos just admitted that test scores under her "leadership" have cratered. Her plan? More of the same, including, predictably, carpet-bombing the nation with more for-profit charter schools even as she admits her plan's not working.

In his testimony yesterday, Lt. Col. Vindman also exposed how Trump is actively trying to get Russia off the hook for hacking the US election by blaming it on Ukraine. This is part of the WH coverup that should be folded into the impeachment inquiry.

A shelter kicking out the homeless in 10 degree weather? There is absolutely no excuse for this. NONE.

Republicans have been pissing and moaning that they don't have a seat at the table. Well, this is what happens when they DO have a seat: They get up and leave in a huff like the manbabies they are when they don't get their way. No war on women, my ass. This is what the GOP REALLY thinks of women and our military.

This is a live Youtube feed of the fire that firefighters are battling in the Simi Valley near LA. I don't recall Trump ever once mentioning these fires that are turning LA County into a crisp.

That's because Trump isn't interested in doing anything that doesn't have some legal or moral larceny embedded within it. And finally...

"Katie Hill is not being held accountable for having an alleged sexual relationship with a subordinate. She is being thrown upon the pyre because she is a woman who has consensual sex outside of society’s rigid expectations for her gender. She is being castigated in order to make men feel a little more comfortable in the quickly evolving world in which they find themselves getting away with far less while those who do not look like them gain ever more power. Men are exemplified; women are made examples."

Spot on.

Monday, October 28, 2019

Gotham City Digest

(Fuckin' A, get to work, ladies.)

Yeah, LET'S talk about corruption and nepotism, Donnie Oranges.

"Mr. Cornstein is open about his closeness to Mr. Orban. He tells how, on the flight back to Budapest after the White House meeting, the two men — exhausted from a long day — stripped to their underwear and napped and chatted on couches in the back of Mr. Orban’s plane."

How this wasn't the lede in this NY Times article is a mystery to me.

All paid for by a podcast that hasn't even launched, eh?

So says our "press secretary" who'd never once held a presser. Does anyone even know what this woman's voice sounds like? The WH is essentially a Nazi bunker in April 1945 Germany.

Garry Trudeau is a prophet. This strip ran almost exactly 20 years ago to the day.

Yeah, LET'S talk about ending endless wars and bringing the troops home.

Corpora tions and the executives who run them are ruining virtually everything on the planet. Look what Disney-Fox are doing to their own catalogue.

I can see him doing this.

In other words, these tents do everything that would be outlawed or heavily-taxed in the United States.

More right wing number-fondling. The dumbing down of America has been happening since Nixon and really ramped up under Reagan. Who needs a nation of smart, informed voters when it's much more profitable to doom them to low-paying jobs so they spend the rest of their lives paying down debt they shouldn't have?

John Pavlovitz lowers the boom on professional Christians, deplorables & other right wing hypocrites.

For those of you who may think I'm being too hard on Markie Mark and unfairly charging him with turning Fuckbook into a right wing sewer, take a gander at this article. Breitbart, the official organ of the alt-right, is now considered a "high quality" news outlet here.

I never imagined I'd be linking to Fox, of all places, but even that network can't ignore the senseless carnage that's happening in northeastern Syria. Of course, if you're a psychopath like Erdogan or Trump, then "Operation Peace Spring" is going swimmingly. Not so much if you're a Kurd.

As if the rat race isn't crowded enough as it is.

No shadow government, my ass. The only satisfying aspect of this story is knowing they wasted all that money to defeat Obama and failed miserably.

In short, Trump was playing golf when the raid began. So they staged a fake photo op to Trump "watching the raid" in real time. Trump didn't even notify the House about the raid while Putin was kept in the loop.

Of course this is a competition to him, the moron.

I want to go this island. Who else does?

Pure class. That's always defined Trump. He thanked the Russians first before our own Special Forces operators. Then he seemed to go out of his way to piss off ISIS more than they already are.

So what did he get for his obseqiousness to the Russians? They jeered him on State TV and said al-Baghdadi may not be dead, after all.

"President* Trump’s abrupt decision to pull forces from northern Syria disrupted planning for the raid and forced the Pentagon to press ahead with a risky night operation, military officials said."

Meme intermission.

By now, you may have heard of the saga of "Swing Set Susan." Susan, real name Samantha Eley, chased a bunch of Hispanic kids off a playground and tried to impersonate a cop. Samantha already had an outstanding warrant for domestic violence and is a convicted drunk driver. I think we all know who Samantha voted for in 2016 and odds are just as good she'll be his next Director of Homeland Security.

Poor little insecure manbaby, still competing with Obama.

It's not often you see a legislator with both a powerful and nimble intellect. But then again, there aren't many Katie Porters in Congress. And speaking of Katies in Congress...

Yeah, she made an error in judgment before getting elected to Congress. And she said she was leaving an abusive marriage. That abusive half of the relationship released nude pictures of her in a revenge porn scheme. The right wing rag that released those pictures has been empowered more than they had a right to be. Red State has a scalp of a member of Congress to put on their belt which gives undue legitimacy to both them and the tactic of revenge porn.

And Congress helped the right wing agenda by going after her as viciously as it went after Al Franken in the Senate because they're so uptight about appearances. Meanwhile, it took that same legislative body HOW many fucking years to even launch impeachment inquiries against a pedophile and rapist who is the most corrupt individual to ever occupy the White House?

I don't claim to be an expert in British politics. I'll leave that to my more politically-minded friends across the pond. But I've been looking at this Brexit debacle from all angles and I've come to one conclusion after all these years- The only benefit that could possibly come of this will be enjoyed by 1% scumbags who want to legally dodge their taxes and corporations who demand to liberated from onerous regulations and standards. This whole Brexit clusterfuck began with the EU'S decision to close a tax loophole back in Cameron's day. Now tell me I'm wrong about this.

So, President Hatbox Head made the mistake of going to the ballpark for the World Series and got roundly booed. Later, Fox Sports captured a "Veterans for Impeachment" sign.

Not the smartest thing to do with your tits, ladies, when the Gropenfuhrer's in the house.

Steve Bannon's out at Breitfart... again. And on the way out the door, he admitted Pelosi was winning in her impeachment battle.

Ending endless wars, eh? The NY Times begs to disagree.

"German officials bucked the question of whether it was ethical to ignore the fact that many of the artworks had probably been looted from museums or Holocaust victims, stating that this was not germane to their predicament. They pointed out in a shockingly tone-deaf manner—echoing the views of many enablers of the Nazis—that their behavior was legally proper. Its morality was irrelevant."

I guess some things about the Germans will never change.

I'm not bragging but stating as fact that in my new trilogy, I haven't made any of these mistakes. It takes place in contemporary Eastern Wisconsin so my novels feature a lot of Native Americans and, I'm glad to say, avoids the usual cringe-inducing pitfalls such as stereotyping and mere tokenism for its own sake.

Oh, I'm sure they are! But that doesn't change the fact these right wing scumbags had zero problem at the time with accepting cash from Soviet-born crooks.

Another elder black statesman has died. It's a shame Conyers tarnished his reputation with the sexual harassment and payoffs.

“We’re keeping the oil. Remember that, I’ve always said that — keep the oil. We want to keep the oil, $45 million a month, keep the oil. We’ve secured the oil.”

So, there you go, in stark, unambiguous & simple terms- We WILL fight endless wars and risk US lives to that end, as long as it's for oil. Witness Trump redeploying our troops from Kurdish NE Syria to the oil fields in the3 west, deploying 1800 or more of our troops to protect the Saudi oil facilities that apparently they can't defend despite having bought billions in destructive toys from us.
Considering last night's chants of "Lock him up!" during the World Series, maybe Donnie Dumbo going someplace where there are a lot of cops wasn't such a smart idea. For good measure, he also insulted their Chief of Police for not being there.

Another right winger bites the dust.

"Give us Hell, Trump!"

God, cops nowadays are stupid, hateful, racist cretins.

If you live in Washington state, please be on the outlook for this missing native woman, Kaylee Mae Nelson-Jerry, and share this.Sh3e's been missing for three weeks and this is unusual for her. And, speaking of which...

Some horror stories of Nome, Alaska. Nome is a city of just 4000 but have had an epidemic of rape that the police are disinterested in investigating because most of the victims are Native women.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Gotham City Digest

(¡Viva ~~New~~ Mexico!)

Tell you what: When 200 women and a 13 year-old girl accuse Rep. Katie Hill of sexual assault, then I'll listen. Until then, shut the fuck up. Interesting, though, isn't it that Hill was placed under investigation faster than the mostly male scumbag Republicans who blatantly sabotaged closed door testimony in a secure hearing room?

This is the letter the Trump misadministration sent Laura Cooper. Obviously, since she'd testified despite this and the Republican short busers attempt to hijack the proceedings, she basically told Trump to take a flying leap. Between Cooper, Laura Hill and Marie Yovanovich, it'll, fittingly, be women who will take down this stubby-fingered rapist.

We are back in the McCarthy era. And don't think for a minute that any Republican that matters is going to whisper a word of protest about this actual witch hunt. And going after the investigators is a sure fire way to make Trump look even guiltier than he already is.

And Trump loses in court yet AGAIN. These assclowns he's installed in his Cabinet are just a lawless bunch of 5th columnists who hold the law and court orders in complete and utter contempt.

I can only imagine the mental gymnastics that'll be required of Fox's viewers to decry this as fake news.

So much for not wanting endless wars. We can defend the oil fields but not the Kurds. It's about the oil, people. It's always been about the fucking oil.

In light of this news item, maybe insulting Bolton after firing him wasn't the greatest tactic.

Trump is losing his grip on a government and its officials who are genuinely alarmed by his actions, inactions and misactions.

Remember watching file footage of the Hindenberg crashing? That was Lance Gooden on CNN today.

Who else thinks Kellyanne Conway came off sounding like a low-rent, leg-breaking Jersey thug to that reporter? If she wanted the conversation off the record, then she should've gotten that straight with the second reporter that she eventually called and threatened. This is what right wing ideologues are like when they sense the walls closing in on them. Her marriage is crashing and burning as is this so-called administration. I cannot wait until Crack Whore Barbie is finally out of the public eye and ear.

Giuliani "looks for corruption wherever he goes"? Well, he certainly found it when he went to the White House.

Trump thinks about tapping woman he bribed with $25,000 to drop Trump University lawsuit to help him with his own bribery case.

Another red letter day for Moscow Mitch.

"Why won't you lying scumbags love me?!"

At last! A little transparency.

Trump vs the entire US Congress? I'm liking Congress's chances more and more.

People are objecting to them "making so much money"? Well, yeah. Now they're trying to sell it because it's a white elephant and a political liability. What #2 son seems to forget is that Daddy Warbucks already made millions off it and had violated the Emoluments Clause countless times with just this one property. Selling it now that the walls are closing in won't make a damned bit of difference.

Mizz Lindsey got blindsided by the right on his anti-impeachment resolution. Last I heard, nine Republican senators opposed the measure, including Mitt Romney (R-Pierre Delecto), Susan Collins & Lisa Murkowski.

Barr vs Mueller. Who told the truth?

A New Mexico cop quits his job after being investigated for assaulting and injuring an 11 year-old black girl. Her crime?

She took too much milk from the cafeteria. WTF are we turning into?

Speaking of New Mexico, the city of Albuquerque just slapped Trump with a bill for $211,000. Let's see if he stiffs them like he did El Paso for over half a million.

They'd damn well BETTER worry.

Digby's still got it.

Strictly a happy coincidence, I'm sure, that the Russians have had a stake in Syria's oil for over two years now.

God, these right wingers are painfully stupid. Occasionally, though, they do provide comic relief.

Sorry, I'm on the bear's side. And kicking it in the head is not a good way to make an already enraged ursine less angry.

"Inadequate tracking system"?! The government had NONE. That was the whole idea. It was a massive kidnapping scheme from the start. Now American families are adopting these kids without the deported parents being notified. We threw out the parents and kept their kids. That should meet any international definition of kidnapping.

Meme intermission.

Dear God, I'm really starting to like this man. Please, Rudy, butt-dial some more networks, please, you fucking clown.

"He makes his living off other peoples' taxes", indeed. Why can't I get Steve Miller's "Take the Money and Run" out of my head today? No, not THAT Steve Miller.

Let us talk of cabbages and kings and human scum.

Yes, the Republican Party has been so completely and thoroughly subsumed by the Russian government that a right wing nut job Congressman out of Kentucky is actually defending a self-confessed Russian spy.

You wanna know who hatched the right wing conspiracy theory about Democrats colluding with the Ukrainians to throw the 2016 election? Look no further than John fucking Solomon, schlockmeister for The Hill.

Trump blocks all but seven students from speech at a black college, tells almost completely white crowd of allies, "the best is yet to come" for the African American community.

Jane Fonda got arrested again, this time with Ted Danson. That's the second time in as many weeks. The old gal's on a roll.

This was written a month ago but despite all the revelations since then, it's still as relevant now as it was on September 26th. Serwer lays out in simple terms not just the Republican Party's corruption but the reasons behind it.

Five days ago, a right wing Virginia candidate proposed ankle bracelets to monitor pregnant women to prevent abortion & yesterday Mollie Hemingway of the Federalist made the argument that if Trump gets voted out of office, it’s a coup because the will of the people shouldn’t supersede Trump. This is horrifying.

This is the United States of Gilead.

First comes the subpoena, then the arrest warrant.

Remember when Attorneys General actually did their jobs?

The bombshell was Maddow announcing NBC Universal was releasing women from their "non-disparagement (and NDA) provision in the separation agreement" if they but ask the parent company.

Unmentioned by Raw Story or anyone else is my realization this would also include any woman who ever appeared on THE APPRENTICE.

This is about what you can expect of a dictator who holds the laws and long-established mechanisms of our government in contempt.

"When a judge rules against their party, that jurist is by definition a liberal 'robed tyrant.' Reporting they don’t like is fake news contrived by dishonest journalists bent on destroying their movement. When a Democrat wins an election, it can only be a result of voter fraud. And when Democrats win the House in a landslide and exercise their Constitutional power, it is a coup."

In other words, whiny babymen snowflakes are running our country.

Rather than hundreds of thousands, I predict this will attract millions. The right wing nutters will try to arrange counter protests and their much smaller numbers will be laughed at and a good time will be had by all.

#11: Amazon was bidding on a $10 billion cloud contract with the DoD and Trump told Mattis to scuttle it. Jeff fucking Bezos is the last person I'd want having a cloud contract of any size but Trump directing Mattis to sabotage it is plainly an impeachable offense, according to Jake Tapper. I agree.

If you wonder why I hate right wing scum the way I do, read these comments from Daily Mail readers reacting to the 39 corpses found in that truck in the UK. I wish we could find a planet for such misanthropic douchebags and send them there, preferably one that doesn't support human life.

Tarzan gets ass kicked by Jane, film at 11. And finally...

What MAGA really means. In Nigeria, of all places.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Gothan City Digest: Stockholm Syndrome edition

(We don't take prisoners.)

The day before yesterday, Ambassador Bill Taylor may have taken down three men: Sondland, Giuliani, and Trump himself.

In this day and age, when prosecuting, convicting and jailing some of the worst criminals is unthinkable, it's really a treat to see the law actually being enforced on the right people for a change.

I can see Trump pulling a dick move like this in a last desperate attempt to save himself.

Florida Man, the world's worst superhero.

You know how when terrorists take someone hostage and they threaten them with something until they read propaganda from cue cards about their enemies? This is precisely how Trump wanted to use Zelensky, according to Bill Taylor.

This is the guy who's challenging Matt Gaetz (R-DUI) for his seat in FL-1 next year. Give Phil some love.

41 Republicans essentially hijacked Congress yesterday just before Laura Cooper's testimony. That's a lot of Republicans to fit on a short bus.

Donald Trump began yesterday morning asking, "Where's the whistleblower?" Later that day, one of his lawyers argued in New York that Trump really could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and not get arrested. Oh well, then. Why don't we just anoint him as King, then?

Bar bars Barr.

Woman fired from last job and berated by male boss invited to "Most Powerful Women" summit. What, weren't any of Harvey Weinstein's casting couch victims available?

MLB umpire Rob Drake threatens to go on mass shooting spree with AR-15 if Trump is impeached.

0-300+. Canada's not a good place to be if you goosestep and celebrate every April 20th.

Less than 1% of the world's population owns nearly 44% of its wealth. So- Heinz 57 or A1?

Yeah, sure, Judy, since a New York billionaire worked out so swimmingly the last time.

Lt. Commander Data was back on Capitol Hill today while Republicans were hijacking the rest of Congress. AOC tore into him. It wasn't a pretty sight. Synthetic white blood and diodes were everywhere.

Russia, are you listening?

Meme intermission.

Who gives a shit about you, asshole?

Sure she will;. She said the same thing about Kavanaugh before voting for him.

The day after hijacking Congress, Matt Gaetz (R-Stockholm) hijacks an MSNBC show, issues demands, among them a helicopter to Moscow.

It turns out 13 of the 41 Republicans who'd hijacked a hearing yesterday were actually allowed into it yet they chose this publicity stunt instead. Jim Jordan (R-Where's my jacket?) on the Oversight Committee is one of them.

What happened? They took away your Sharpie?

The WSJ actually using the Fredo rationale Mueller used with Don Jr: That Donald Trump is too stupid to impeach.

Pompous Maximus is back in Kansas and went off on a local journalist who asked him about our betrayal of the Kurds.

As I predicted in my blog post yesterday, Laura Cooper's testimony backed up what Bill Taylor said on Tuesday... and then some.

And so it begins...

NBC's Richard Engel cannot believe the stupidity of Trump's last tweet about the Kurds.

I'm not a huge fan of Steny Hoyer. If you needed an actor to play an undistinguished windbag politician, he's what central casting would send over. However, during Elijah Cummings' memorial service at the Capitol yesterday, he delivered a beautiful & erudite address that was also an oblique jab at the Trump maladministration.

"Ron Vara" claims we don't have a right to know if Trump used quid pro quo on the Chinese. So, yeah, LET'S talk about transparency, GOP.

From last May but, wow, I never knew this. We spend more on energy subsidies than on defense, which is saying something since we spent $600 billion on defense in 2015 alone. And finally...

Yeah, no shit we need the real story.