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Friday, July 26, 2024

Pottersville Digest

When fact checking doesn't stand up to fact checking. My theory: Vance is running for vice president only because he wants to get his hands on those sexy couches in the Oval Office.

Oh, really, tough guy? Piano wire and blow torches? Do you think you're some Eastern European gangster in a John Wick movie? Where do these fucking idiots come from?

I'm still in favor of packing the court. After all, it's not as if the Supreme Court has always had nine justices. But setting 18 year term limits would be a nice compromise and Vice President Harris should lean into this on the campaign trail, especially since SCOTUS reform is deeply popular with the American electorate.

I always suspected that Gavin Newsom was secretly a right wing asshole.

Some of you may have heard about this steaming pile of horse shit cooked up by Kevin Roberts, the right wing asshole who runs the Heritage Foundation that's trying to foist off Project 2025 on us. This is an archived version of the original Amazon product page. Nowadays, it says, "Taking Back Washington." But back in the day, it read, "BURNING Down Washington."

Btw, this is the same book for which JD Vance wrote the foreword.

Black woman calls in a possible intruder, gets fatally shot in the face by a white cop because she was near a pot of boiling water. Then, in typical cop fashion, he lied his fat ass off and claimed she came at him with the boiling water when his partner's body cam footage (his was turned off) clearly showed she did not. Then he claimed her bullet wounds were self-inflicted. The pig is up on murder one charges because he announced he was going to shoot her in the face right before he did, proving premeditation.

ABC News later found out he'd been kicked out of the Army for disciplinary reasons and worked for six departments in four years. If ABC could vet this guy on the fly, then why couldn't his own department?

Yes, the right wing idiots on the Ohio Supreme Court chose to hear this case so they could make this moronic ruling.

She's a dime a dozen politician, a typical, hidebound Republican asshat. Let us forget her.

For those who don't speak the official language of the GOP, this means that JD Vance has been shit canned by his German publisher.

Meme intermission.

You can literally see the flop sweat dripping off this.

This is an excerpt from Fred Trump III's book, All in the Family. He describes his uncle saying that disabled people with COVID should just die, knowing his nephew had a son with disabilities. This is consistent with if not identical to the attitude of the Nazis. They looked at the disabled through the exact same lens and even called them "eaters". It was this attitude that brought about the notorious T4 eugenics program, or the systematic execution of the disabled in Nazi Germany.

(You all should see the shit storm I started on Twitter when I put up that jpeg. I've been blocked by dozens of right wing accounts who have nothing but ignorant, furious denials and denunciations. I guess what's driving them crazy is that my tweet raced beyond 7000 views in a matter of hours.)

This is what Republicans really think of their own base.

OK, channeling my inner Jeremy Corbyn:

"Old girl, have a listen to yourself! You were in Number 10 so briefly, you hadn't had time to change your knickers! The minute you got into #10, you began yammering about tax cuts, which sent the economy into a fucking tailspin. It's failed leadership from bloody Tory wankers like you that resulted in the most thorough rogering in your party's recent history. Good show, old girl, now do have a seat, enjoy your retirement and watch Kamala Harris show you how it's done. Off you go now."

Yes, he actually called himself a "fine and brilliant young man".

“They are not going to need me one bit.” Oh no, one less ambulance chaser. What will she do? And finally...

If Trump ever finds the balls to debate Harris (which he obviously can't), it won't be so much a debate as a prosecutor cross-examining a criminal defendant.

Thursday, July 25, 2024

God Plays Darts

It started out like any other day, only a little better. I woke up, had my coffee, jumped into the shower, got dressed. Between the coffee and hot shower, I felt invigorated and full of energy. And, even though I rarely take or post selfies online, I thought I'd make an exception and took a one quarter one for a friend of mine in the Philippines. As it turned out, it was the last picture I'd ever take of the tree just beyond my patio while it was still upright.

Phoenix has its monsoon season every year at this time (July-August). The residents had been balefully warning me about it since I arrived in early-mid April. Prior to last night, I could literally count all the rain storms we've had since then on the fingers of one hand. Last night made up for lost time. Because just a few hours after that selfie was taken, the world turned Biblical.

The weather "experts" really dropped the ball on this one. Prior to last night's monsoon, they were predicting wind gusts of no more than 35 miles an hour. And when it began blowing up outside, the patio was too dangerous so I went out the front door and watched the storm from the courtyard. It was obvious that the wind I was witnessing was a helluva lot more than 35 mph. The trees were rocking and rolling in a way I've never seen trees move before.

I heard a crash later so I went out to the patio and saw the pine tree just outside had snapped like a twig, right at ground level. I took the second picture you see then went down to see what it looked like at ground level and it looked even uglier (third picture).

It was a good, sturdy tree, about 50-60 feet high so it was probably even older than me. Birds had made their nests in that tree. Because of that tree, I'd gotten a couple of visits from tiny hummingbirds that would get to within 6-7 feet of me, look at me then zip off. One morning, I got a visit from a mourning dove, which are more common around here than pigeons.

This is the aftermath of last night's monsoon. Management had called in a tree removal company and they worked all morning with chain saws and wood chippers to get the carnage down to more manageable dimensions. I did a survey of the building last night before the storm had left Phoenix. That tree, the one closest to me of all the trees in Phoenix, was the only one that fell last night as far as the eye could see. When it fell, it took out part of the car port and even mangled the wrought iron security fencing with its immense weight.

Like I said, it was a good, sturdy tree and that proved to be its undoing. It literally stood its ground and valiantly made a go of it before coming up against a more powerful force. Again, the tree was snapped at just above ground level as if it was a matchstick. 35 mph winds, my ass. More like 100 or more. And its strength and initial inflexibility was what ultimately killed it. Off in the distance, there are palm trees, much more slender but their flexibility and ability to bend with the wind was what had saved them.

And again, it hasn't been lost on me that out of all the countless trees in Phoenix, this one was the closest to me and was the only one in the neighborhood that got knocked down. Kind of makes you think. I know it makes me think. I traveled 3100 miles out west just to have this happen right outside my patio. If the wind had been blowing in from the west, that tree would've gone right through the patio window.

The birds around here look confused. That tree had been their home, their pit stop, their community center. A few minutes ago, I saw a mourning dove perch on the car port and look down wondering what had happened. Where's my home? Yeah, I can sympathize, even empathize. I still can't get used to seeing that blank spot when I look out the window, when I go out on the patio.

That poor tree literally stood its ground and paid the ultimate price for it. It's what they do. What choice do they have? They can't just pull up stakes and leave when things get unpleasant. They have no choice but to stay where they are and stick it out the best they can, regardless of the potential outcome.

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

The Cheer That Made Milwaukee Famous

Earlier today, Vice President Harris delivered a barnburner of a speech in, yes, Milwaukee, the city that hosted the RNC clown show last week. The contrast between her and Biden is, I have to admit, stark, dramatic and refreshing. Plus, the new Reuters poll puts her up two points on Trump and five points when you throw right wing conspiracy theorist RFK Jr into the mix. She'd begun doing exactly what I'd hoped she'd do.

She went straight to a battleground state and into Wisconsin's largest city, the site of the RNC convention. She hammered home the need for reproductive rights and to strengthen our democracy. Pretty boilerplate stuff, stuff we've all heard before. Here's the difference:

Even watching the tail end of her speech, one could sense something... different.

Granted, her audience in Milwaukee was the stereotypical choir. I'm sure they were all vetted and cleared by the Secret Service so there'd be no chance of heckling. Kamala Harris suddenly appearing on a stage and giving a barnburner speech campaigning for president had the appearance of someone jumping from the bushes and running the last few hundred yards of a marathon. It just didn't look right.

And yet...

Even digitally, one could sense of the excitement from the crowd. And not only that, but the excitement of hope. I hadn't seen anything like it since Obama first ran for president in '08. That year, Obama ran against another old guy with a previously obscure lunatic for a running mate.

One of the most extraordinary things about Harris' fledgling campaign is that she's able to generate so much excitement without a running mate of her own. So much so, in fact, that if it carries over until next month's convention, she may even be able to get away with naming as her running mate a walking snooze fest like Mark Kelly.

Now, I'm nothing if not a pragmatist. You won't see me putting up ridiculous Photoshopped images of Harris as Wonder Woman or Supergirl like every other Democrat on social media. I'm not going to pretend as if I forgot about the shitty things she did as DA of San Francisco or the AG of California. Kamala Harris is no more a blushing liberal than Joe Biden or Mark Kelly.

And, as much as I hate being given the choice between vanilla and vanilla bean ice cream every four years by the two monolithic parties, one fact is inescapably clear: As with 2020, this election may be the most important one in US history. One of the biggest reasons beyond actual appeal that Joe Biden got over 81,000,000 votes was the fear of a second Trump term.

But this time around, largely through conspicuous relief, Harris injected the Democratic Party with some desperately-needed energy. And one could derive from Milwaukee the type of energy and passion that's been sorely lacking for years. One could sense that Milwaukee was a mere synecdoche of the energy flowing in the other 49 states beyond Wisconsin.

I'm not going to go overboard and say I'm as excited as the attendees in Milwaukee today. Let's just say that, as all auguries are of good fortune, I'm cautiously optimistic that Harris' candidacy is the shot in the arm that the Democratic Party needs to pull this out yet again.

Monday, July 22, 2024

What Now?

Let's recap what's happened in the little more than 24 hours since Joe Biden dropped out of the race:

A newly-energized Democratic Party immediately rallied around Kamala Harris. She's racking up endorsements like kids collecting candy on Halloween. And donors shoved $81,000,000 in her pocket (and that doesn't include today's haul). That pretty much makes Biden's tweet the single biggest crowdsourcing effort in Twitter history.

Vice President Harris has also gotten endorsements from 31 senators, 156 congressmen and 16 governors. Trump? 40 of 44 of his own Cabinet members have refused endorsing him, not including Mike Pence.

Yeah, no wonder Republicans are screaming their heads off, why they're scared shitless of Harris. Mike Johnson is spearheading an effort to render Biden's withdrawal illegitimate and even illegal through a lawsuit. (As if Trump beating Biden was a lock, which it most certainly wasn't.)

So, with one tweet, Biden put nearly $100,000,000 into Harris' war chest, made Trump the old man in the race, rendered redundant most of their opposition research, made their shit show of a convention more irrelevant than it already was and put Trump on his back foot.

I'm surprised Elon Musk, who'd pledged $45,000,000 a month to Trump's doomed effort to get back the White House, didn't remove Biden's tweet for "violating Twitter standards".

Now, the likes of Stephen Miller are screaming their heads off over Harris' campaign. It must be like what things were like in the bunker in the last week of WW II. Now, Trump is making unreasonable demands for September's debate, such as having it moderated by Fox talking heads and broadcast on Fox. But if Trump finds the balls to debate Harris anywhere, it'll be less of a debate as it will be a prosecutor cross-examining a criminal defendant. Trump is almost literally the poster child for white collar criminals. A debate opponent like Trump is tailor-made for a former prosecutor like Harris.

Tell me who's the old man now?

So, now what?

To put it simply, Kamala Harris has to go on a whirlwind tour of the country, especially swing states such as Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. She needs to reach out to voters and not just the choir, to try to win hearts and minds of voters who either wouldn't have voted or wouldn't have voted for Biden. Just as in 2020, one of Trump's biggest mistakes this time around is to not reach out to new voters and to concentrate on those who are already swilling the Koolaid. Harris can pick up a tremendous amount of ground on him just in trying to appeal to new voters.

She also needs to make a solid round of appearances on all the news networks. Obviously, any of them would love to have her and she could use them for free campaign advertising and to tell American voters what she stands for. Just as when she was running for DA of San Francisco or California's Attorney General, pinning down Harris for her policy positions has been akin to the search for the Holy Grail. If she wants to bring in the parishioners, she needs to tell them what she stands for and then stick to those positions.

She's not going to win this with a Rose Garden campaign. She simply has to get out there and actually connect with voters. Otherwise, that $81,000,000 and all those endorsemenths won't make a lick of difference.

Sunday, July 21, 2024

Land of Confusion.

It started with the Supreme Court ruling on July 1st, the last day of their session, that Trump essentially had blanket immunity and could essentially act like the dictator he promised he'd be. Then the day before the convention, Aileen Cannon, predictably, shitcanned Trump's documents case. Then, he got shot (which in itself gave us more questions than answers). Then today, Biden dropped out of the presidential race. The psychological sideshow of the RNC convention was actually the most normal thing we've seen politically this month and we're still just three weeks into July. As Politico reporter Kyle Cheney put it, "We’re living through one of the most unfathomably insane months in political history." Olivia Nuzzi put it even more succinctly: "The big lesson here? Bullying works."

The last time I saw anything even remotely like this was in 1968. And, as in '68, the Democratic National Convention in exactly a month will be in Chicago, the same convention that saw protesters getting brutally beaten by the Chicago PD. Even Dan Rather got cold-cocked on the convention floor.

Lyndon Johnson threw the Democratic Party and the entire presidential race into chaos when he announced early that year that he would not seek or accept renomination as president (The rumor was that Walter Cronkite's famous broadcast in February that year hastened Johnson's departure from the world stage, with Johnson allegedly saying, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America.").

1968 was marred by two actual assassinations, that of Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy. Vice President Hubert Humphrey was thrust into the limelight, without Johnson's endorsement, and a sinister Republican got elected.

Is past really prologue? For all our sakes, I hope not.

And this is where it pays to listen to the voice of experience, to those of us who'd lived through that turbulent and defining history. And in my 65 years on this planet, I've never seen such confusion and uncertainty. It's one thing to read about it in history books or in old articles archived on the internet. It's another to have actually lived it, to have been there to feel the emotional impact that these events had on one. My most indelible memory of 1968 was the morning after Bobby Kennedy was shot in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and my mother telling me he was shot and that "God had to claim his life."

And now, Biden has thrown the Democratic Party into a state akin to anarchy and, with it, another presidential election. Naturally, the biggest mouths in the emerging Fourth Reich wasted no time in dancing on Biden's political grave. Orange Julius Caesar announced it opened the door for MAGA's return to the White House. His ignored spawn, Don Jr, called for Biden to resign as president without apparently considering in his coke-addled brain that doing so would make a President Harris more difficult to beat as she would have the prestige of running as an incumbent president (Not to mention a merch headache as Trump is already selling shit calling himself the 47th president).

And those of us on the blue side of the radio dial, I would imagine, are divided into two camps: Those of us who are relieved that Biden is finally out of the way and those of us who feel betrayed after Biden's furious protestations denying that he would do exactly what he did this morning. On Capitol Hill, promises, denials and denunciations are more worthless than fallen cherry blossoms in May. But, considering our hopes and dreams that Biden would stave off fascism, considering our unconditional support of Biden's campaign in many ways, it still feels like a betrayal.

To people like me, it came as a shock but not a surprise.

So, now what?

Well, let's look at the pros and cons of a Harris presidential campaign:

One, as we all know, Vice President Harris is literally the only person on the planet who can make use of Biden's campaign funds. She inherits a war chest that at the very least rivals Trump's and maybe even surpasses it. As a woman, she's perfectly positioned to scream about the axing of Roe v Wade that Trump's still stupidly bragging about to this day. And, as a former prosecutor, she's also qualified to tell us exactly how much of a crook Trump is and that the only reason he's allowed to lurch around his countless golf courses is because of equally corrupt Republicans in the Senate and the federal judiciary.

She'd galvanize the female and African American vote in a way that even Biden couldn't. As a Gen X candidate, she'd get a significant share of the vote from that demographic. And, on a smaller scale, Harris could help lock in the swing Wisconsin vote on the strength of her being a former resident of Madison. Plus, with age and competence no longer a factor, she'd have the backing of the Biden administration and, hopefully, a newly-united Democratic Party.

Now, the cons:

Being vice president these last three and a half years means she's been relegated to the Naval Observatory and no one really knows what her policy positions are. Being vice president means your policy positions are the president's. And people will remember her lackluster campaign from 2020 when she regularly polled in single digits. Harris has three and a half months to tell us what she stands for. I don't envy her.

And, of course, the right wing will scream about her gender and race. Look for the Fourth Reich to call her "a DEI hire" and that women are too emotional to be president. In a way, it'll be like Hillary redux and it would be a delicious irony if Trump, a convicted rapist, gets beaten by a woman.

So, who should Harris pick as a running mate?

Well, virtually any prediction is destined to go down in flames but it would be smart for her to pick another woman, for instance, dare I say it? Hillary Clinton. Clinton has international visibility, government experience as a two term senator and Secretary of State and would help shore up the invaluable female vote. Most importantly, perhaps, Clinton would bring to the table a vast fundraising apparatus that could be reactivated on a dime. It's difficult to see Trump and Vance overcoming all that.

But, whomever she picks, Harris has four weeks at most to pick a running mate. Yeah, Harris is no blushing liberal. She did some pretty shitty things when she was DA in San Francisco and Attorney General of California. But, considering the stakes, I'm not going to die on my usual hill of political purity. If Vice President Harris is going to be our standard bearer, the only tactic that makes sense is to support her.

Because the alternative is absolutely unthinkable.

Saturday, July 20, 2024

Pottersville Digest

God help us. If Bobo becomes Secretary of the Interior, she'll make Ryan Zinke look like a blushing Greenpeace liberal.

Oh, they were "concerned." That's nice. Who's leading the Secret Service, Susan Collins?

Once a grifter, always a grifter.

Meme intermission.

Meanwhile, the new, kinder, more inclusive Republican party did this at the convention. (Tip o' the tinfoil hat to Constant Reader, CC)

I wonder if this ever happened in Nuremberg in the 1930s? Somehow, I doubt it.

Mark Wingfield didn't exactly pull his punches about Franklin Graham, not should he have.

Good on her. She should lean into it.

This guy's got them pegged. They're just a bunch of embittered incels living in Mommy's basement and are only good at scaring little girls.

She put in a cameo to see to her investment, nothing more.

Alexandria, shut the fuck up. You're not helping matters any. What other Democrat do you think has a chance at beating Trump in less than four months? Do you morons in the media and especially there at Raw Story ever think that far ahead when you write these shitty screeds?

If God was on your side, then plainly we need a new God. Because this one is assigning the guardian angels to the wrong people.

"Let's turn to 'the other woman' with the creepy Claymation lips for what her thoughts are on black women."

These are the enemies at the gates. And Trump is gingerly picking the lock to let them in. And finally...

Next up: Dr. Hannibal Lecter releases letter testifying that Jeffery Dahmer was a vegetarian.

Friday, July 19, 2024

We've Surpassed Peak Idiocracy

The last night of the pathetic spectacle that is the RNC convention featured a 70 year-old professional wrestler hoarsely screaming his head off then ripping off his shirt, a gimmick that was getting old back when he first started doing it over four decades ago.

You'd think, if the RNC had even a modicum of appreciation for optics, they would've relegated Hulk Hogan to the hasbeens, wannabes and also rans that they usually push out on the stage on the first night just to get them out of the way. And yet, some assclown, maybe Trump himself, thought it would be a good idea to put Hogan out there at the very end of the convention, just before Franklin Graham.

Elect a clown, as they say, expect a circus. Or, in this case, give a speaking slot to an aging wrestler, expect WWE trash-talking that changes nothing and rightly makes us look like idiots on the world stage.

You didn't see any of this in the UK after their July 4th elections or in France after the liberals and centrists defeated Neo-fascist Marine LePen yet again three days later. Yes, some showmanship and even a whiff of grease paint is to be expected in politics but serious politicians and parties know when to rein it in and get down to brass tacks.

Republicans here in the US have lost the ability to distinguish between the circus and the actual business that runs it. To them, the lunacy, the entertainment, the spectacle, is the point and is always the business at hand. In a way, we've come full circle as a race, back when wealthy politicians and wouldbe politicians in ancient Rome running for office would subsidize spectacles such as gladiatorial battles in order to curry favor with voters. It's even said the body count in Pompeii was partly attributable to local politicians telling the people to stay and vote for them because AD 79 was an election year (their campaign signage painted on the sides of buildings survives to this day).

We don't have the Colosseum or the Circus Maximus but we do have sports stadiums and convention centers that serve as very good substitutes. We don't have gladiators but we do have professional wrestlers who fill in quite nicely.

And that's where Idiocracy comes in.

Mike Judge's famous satire on the devolution of the human race keeps getting invoked time and again, especially by yours truly, since Trump came down that escalator nearly a decade ago. It would be tantamount to cultural and political heresy to not bring it up as an object lesson.

Since I don't personally know Mike Judge, I can't speak to what his motivations were for making the movie or what his actual agenda was. It may have been made as straight up political satire or not. But whatever his reasons, Judge has proven time and again to be a sharp observer of political and social conditions in this country. He's where he is today because he can unerringly recognize trends and where we're headed.

Idiocracy, of course, is a science fiction comedy in which a guy of perfectly average intelligence goes into a cryogenic chamber and wakes up in the future in which he's literally the smartest man on the planet. He wakes up in a United States in which we can no longer make ice or grow produce. It's a country in which the president of the United States is, yes, a former pro wrestler who fires off fully automatic machine guns at the State of the Union Address, news anchors are mostly nude and the country has transitioned to an energy drink/online porn/Carl's Jr-based economy.

We thought we'd reached peak Idiocracy when Trump's first pick for Labor Secretary was Andrew Puzder, the CEO of Hardee's, which includes, yes, Carl's Jr. But, obviously, that was just the beginning.

Energy drinks have indeed exploded in popularity. It started out with tiny cans of Red Bull and now you can buy cans of energy drinks the size of bricks. Who cares if they put you in cardiac arrest?

And the unthinkable happened on Election Night 2016- We "elected" a rapist, crook, con man, pedophile, tax cheat and draft dodger who was elected to the WWE Hall of Fame based entirely on a match in which he clothes-lined and shaved the head of Vince McMahon (whose wife Linda, Trump's former SBA Director, spoke at last night's convention).

And, whether we're talking about Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan) or Terry Crews (who played Camacho), this week's convention proved that we've turned into a nation of semi-functional morons elected to public office or elevated to positions of celebrity and wealth by other semi-functional morons. We've become the hideous apotheosis of what Charles Bukowski once famously observed: "The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence."

And why shouldn't the stupid be confident? Based entirely on a few stammers at a debate a few weeks ago, Democrat leadership are trying hard to pull Joe Biden off the stage like a failing vaudeville act getting caned. They issue letters, press releases, give interviews on TV and the radio scared out of their wits that Biden will drag them down in their own down ballot races without once realizing that no one in their party has any coattails to speak of and that, save for Vice President Harris, no one on the planet can make use of Biden's campaign funds.

That's a special kind of stupid, with a kicker of a complete lack of common sense.

Donald Trump, as usual, looked and sounded old and tired last night. But Trump isn't really the threat. It's what he represents- a Trojan horse who, if God forbid he gets back in the White House, will bring in the worst psychopaths this nation has ever produced, a virtual Pandora's Box of every right wing wet dream that's been percolating in the American heartland since Hitler was alive. You don't believe me? Just read a little of Project 2025's 922 page compendium of fascism.

And if you still wonder why we are where we are, how Donald Trump got into office, why we represent just 4% of the planet yet account for a quarter of the world's COVID deaths, consider that we're a nation that has to be told to wet our hair before using shampoo, that hot McDonald's coffee is hot, not to eat silica gel packets, not to stick metal objects into electrical outlets or not to shove gasoline nozzles up our asses or in our mouths.

Yes, the curtain finally fell last night on four days and nights of lunacy. It's up to us to ensure that the stage, the building and the entire country doesn't fall with it.

Thursday, July 18, 2024

Where Shamelessness Goes to Die

OK, you're not about to read anything stunningly insightful, original or brilliant in this post. You all have eyes and ears and, if you're reading this, I'll assume you're fellow travelers and that, at best, I'll be preaching to the choir. At most, one could almost accuse me of phoning it in.

Of course, I rarely if ever do that. But sometimes the obvious has to be stated just in case it's in danger of getting flushed down the Memory Hole. And, with Republican lunacy, there's a constant danger of that. After all, if the neo-Nazi wing of the Republican Party, which is to say the Republican Party, had its way, they'd have you forget all about the gutting of Roe v Wade and Project 2025 (aka the Enabling Act 2.0) until Election Day. Then, one way or the other, once the ballots are in on the evening of November 5th, they won't give a shit what you remember or not.

Among the two monolithic parties (that plainly have to go), Republicans were by far the shiftiest, most furtive. Historically, Republicans like to engage in their rat-fuckery in the cold and dark shadows, which is why, for over seven decades, they've been hostile to the very concept of a free press. We saw this in the wake of the last-minute language changes to the fascist USA PATRIOT Act in which Democrats literally didn't know what they were voting for until after the bill was passed.

But in the Glorious Age of Trump, all that changed in a hurry. They're like the zombie dogs in I Am Legend, slavering, twitching, muscles bunched, barely restrained by the thinning strip of sunlight. And pretty soon, that strip of sunlight will be gone and then there will be nothing between us and them.

They see in Trump a creaking, aging Trojan Horse that will let if not actually enable them to erect an agenda that's plainly right out of the Third Reich. Republicans have been shameless for a century but now they're wallowing in it like pigs in slop. The first day of the RNC convention, they nominated a convicted crook found guilty on 34 felony counts. We thought Republicans couldn't possibly get more shameless after they showed up to the courthouse wearing Trump/Dangerfield suits. Then, this week, they started putting fake bandages on their right ears.

The RNC convention has always been a place where shamelessness went to die. Now, it's not only being put to death, its throat is being slit on prime time, its carcass roasted and they're stringing the bones around their necks. It's like Carrie only without the pig's blood.

Predictably, any pretense to ethics, morality or respectability started circling the porcelain drain at warp speed 10. When Mike Johnson (R-Not Ready For Prime Time) tried to introduce a guest, the teleprompters failed, prompting the Dad tribute band they'd hired to play Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" for over 13 minutes while they tried to fix them.

Ironically, it took Johnson less time to leave the stage than Trump in Butler the day he was "shot".

And the crowd laughed at their own party's incompetence.

Things had already gone south long before Peter Navarro showed up on the convention floor, still smelling of the Salisbury steak they served in the prison cafeteria that day. Amazingly, he was allowed to give a speech in which of course he ranted and raved like the demented leprechaun he is and they treated him like a returning conquering hero.

It didn't take Paul Manafort long to worm his way onto the floor like a nattily-dressed silverfish. That's at least two jailbirds that were seen at the convention. And, of course, the man of the hour is also a convicted felon. For good measure, the "Law and Order" party also saw fit to put up on the stage Savannah Crisley, whose own parents are doing a lengthy stretch for fraud.

It's like a mug shot book come to life, a Thomas Nast cartoon turned into a four day-long movie. It's the world's longest pity party for a clown and buffoon who would turn on each and every single of them if he felt they were being insufficiently loyal. And all because his ear got nicked by a flying piece of glass. Now half the people at the convention center are wearing fake bandaids on their ears as if they, too, stared down an assassin's bullet.

And this fecklessness, this hypocrisy, this utter lack of shame is what we've come to expect from a democracy-loathing party like the GOP. We've seen nothing new, so far. What shocks us are these same qualities put on display by the mainstream media, especially CNN.

Granted, I don't own a TV. I have a laptop and internet access that offers the lunacy that those of us who are actually sane can take in just small doses. But I can still view short clips from the equally nauseating Fourth Estate giving free passes to the emerging Fourth Reich and focusing on Biden's age and the Democratic "leadership" trying to push Biden aside as if he's some drunk uncle who's old and in the way.

Not once have I heard them mention Trump's prominent place in the recently-released Epstein files and the rest of Katie Johnson's testimony in which she went into harrowing detail of the night Trump raped her in Jeffrey Epstein's townhouse when she was just 13. Or that the only reason Trump is a free man and allowed to run for president is because of a thoroughly corrupt federal judiciary and US Senate.

No. The poor man got shot so they give him a free pass for everything even as he dozes off during his own pity party.

This is their standard bearer, their vision of the future- A tired old fat man of 78 and convicted felon who's uniquely positioned to destroy what's left of the world already burning because of the machinations of a group of fifth columnists who loathe democracy as much as he.

And Democrats and the media are letting them get away with it. And the only thing standing between us and them is a largely unsupported, doddering man of 81.

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Pottersville Digest

Seen at the RNC convention. An AR 15 giveaway. No, not in poor taste at all.

These cartoon Nazis want to dominate the world yet they can't even get their teleprompters to work. The Beer Hall Putsch was a rousing success compared to this. And like the Titanic's band, the music played on and on.

Are they going to play croquet to see who has control over the free world?

Almost forgot this in the madness of the RNC convention. There is no rule of law, by the way.

This isn't 2024 Milwaukee. It's 1933 Nuremberg. If you think that's hyperbolic, just play the video and tell me that doesn't sound exactly like a Nazi rally in 1930s Germany.

But were they bribes or just tips? Let's ask the Supreme Court.

These basement dwellers sure are good at scaring little girls. They must be very dangerous.

Yeah, and this compassionate conservative once robbed a children's cancer charity for over $2,000,000.

They thought Thomas Crooks would be a good foot soldier. My God. This actually borders on the comical.

Nice to see we're still advancing in our evolution.

Yeah, I can see how he could so easily seduce underage girls to have sex with him.

This is exactly the kind of people they attract.

God, these people really live in an alternate dimension, don't they?

Typical Trump acolyte. They'll rip off anyone, anyhow, anytime.

I think now would be a good time to suggest that Adam Schiff drop out of the Senate race and make room for Katie Porter. Works both ways, booby. And finally...

So, Bannon knew Epstein was a pedophile yet he shot 15 hours of footage with the intention of rehabbing his public image? And these scumbags wonder who we accuse them of having no moral compass.

Sunday, July 14, 2024

Crooks and Liars

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

First off, there's no dancing, no champagne cork-popping, no snark. What happened near Butler, Pennsylvania yesterday was something that should never happen, anywhere, to anyone. Out of 46 presidents, four have been assassinated and several others, going back to Andrew Jackson, had had attempts made on their lives. That's a horrendous number and a shameful part of our history.

We now know that the shooter was one Thomas Matthew Crooks, a quiet 20 year-old nursing home kitchen worker who lived in the quiet town of Bethel Park, PA. He was a registered Republican, according to county records and, three years ago, donated $15 to Act Blue. He was fascinated by history and government.

What we don't have is a motive. When Trump was running for reelection in 2020, Crooks wasn't even remotely old enough to vote. Yet, this quiet, academically competent loner (They all seem to be quiet loners) somehow got his hands on an AR 15, the preferred weapon of choice among American mass shooters.

Two rally attendees were critically injured and a man, Corey Comperatore, a volunteer firefighter, was killed while trying to shield his family. After Crooks was killed, they tracked down his car and found what appeared to be incendiary devices. Considering the location of his sniper's nest, he'd planned this out in advance. Amazingly, it was the one roof on the grounds that the Secret Service didn't occupy.

Those are the who's, whats, wheres and whens. What we now need is a why. We're still waiting for the usual manifesto. Maybe this time, there won't be one.

Trump was shot at just two days before the start of the Republican National Convention, at which he will obviously be made the GOP presidential nominee. The timing cannot be ignored. It's possible that Crooks was alarmed at the thought of Trump getting back in the White House and, in his misguided way, elected himself to do something about that.

Don't forget, if he'd succeeded in killing Trump, it would've essentially handed the presidency to Joe Biden (which would've further bolstered the image in right wing circles that Biden is an illegitimate president). As Trump has yet to name a running mate, that means no one in the country would've been legally able to make use of his campaign funds. The RNC would've been forced into a brokered convention with no nominee and they would've been forced to nominate someone with no war chest at all.

But, as unforgivable as Crooks' actions were, what's at least as unforgivable if not moreso, are the Republican liars (pardon the tautology) who are eager to place this on the doorstep of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue like a flaming bag of dog shit on Halloween.

The Usual Suspects

Let's start with the usual suspects. There was the ultimate Junior, Don Jr., who went on Newsmax to say he didn't "want to hear another word about January 6th" and seemed to lay the blame for the shooting on Democrats (Again, Junior, the gunman was Republican and Republicans are the ones who've been feverishly trying to put AR 15s in the hands of everyone who wants one).

Then there are two Republican lawmakers from Georgia, Mike Collins and the always-dependable Marjorie Taylor Greene. Greene stated that "Democrats wanted this to happen" and VP suckup JD Vance wasn't too far behind in also blaming Democrats. In fact, Vance said, “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

Maybe someone should take the junior senator from Ohio aside and remind him of his boy's own rhetoric against Joe Biden.

Then there's Mike Collins, a typical product of white affirmative action one always sees in great abundance in the deep south, who'd literally accused Biden of ordering the hit on Trump. And then there was Tim Burchette, another right wing rodeo clown, who blamed the head of the Secret Service, calling her a "DEI initiative person". And, in the most insane conspiracy theory of all, Ron Johnson blamed Critical Race Theory for the shooting.

We'll be hearing more of the same from the right wing in the near future. What we won't be hearing are calls for meaningful gun control even when Trump actually is, for the first time in his life, a victim and a victim of gun violence. About the biggest change we'll see are fewer AR 15 flag lapel pins.

And then there are the grifters. Within 12 hours of the shooting, there were already souvenir tee shirts commemorating the assassination attempt. One asshole put out an NFT going for $30. This company, Proud Patriots, naturally puts forth an image of being, well, proud patriots, saying on their website,

"We won't stand by and let these crazy woke liberals destroy our country. We're a group of patriots just like you who love God, our family, and our country! Our collectibles are more than just items; they're symbols of our deep-rooted patriotism." And, of course, who can object to them making some coin on the side while fighting the woke liberals?

Of course, it wasn't a woke liberal who tried to blow Trump's head off with an AR 15, it wasn't Democrats who put that gun in that kid's hands and it's not the left who've been calling for Civil War.

Not to be outdone, and to the surprise of exactly no one, Trump wasted little time in fundraising off his own shooting. That fundraising actually began moments after he was shot at. Ever the opportunist, with a predatory genius for visuals, Trump grabbed his reverse Greg Stillson moment and tried to project strength and defiance before being helped down the steps and his waiting limo by four agents.