Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Jeff Flake Won't Run, Trump Gloats, and the Democrats are Doomed

We must never regard as normal the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals. We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country--the personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms, and institutions; the flagrant disregard for truth and dignity. 

Senator Jeff Flake, R-AZ speaking about Donald Trump


Flake also said this, "We must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in the executive branch are normal. They are not normal. Reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as, 'telling it like it is,' when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified."

Of course all this came not quite a year too late and during a speech on the Senate floor as Senator Flake was announcing he wouldn't be running for reelection in 2018. It was probably, as White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, said, "A good move." His opponent in the republican primary is a fire breathing Trumpist named Kelli Ward who came within 11 points, or so of knocking off John McCain last year.

And to paraphrase Lloyd Benson, Jeff Flake is no John McCain.

Yes, it would seem some of the rats are jumping ship. Well at least two of them since we already know Bob Corker, R-TN is also calling it quits. The same can't be said about the rest of the rodents. Those would be the ones who had lunch with The Big Orange Guy the other day so they could discuss tax cuts for the fabulously well to do. During the get together, according to one MSNBC account, Trump received three standing ovations.

Unsurprisingly, our man, Don T, celebrated the occasion by taking to Twitter. He wrote, "The meeting with republican senators yesterday, outside of Flake and Corker, was a love fest with standing ovations & great ideas for USA!"

He also took a shot at the retiring senators in another tweet, because--hey--that's what he does. It read, "The reason Flake and Corker dropped out of senate race is very simple, they had zero chance of being elected. Now act so hurt and wounded."

At this point the only surprising thing about the second tweet was it didn't end with, "Nah, Nah, Neeyah, Nah!," followed by an emoji face sticking out its tongue.

Meanwhile Steve Bannon is running about the countryside doing the jelly belly in front of crowds of potential donors who like their president to be, as Corker said on TV, "utterly untruthful." Mr. Bannon is promising to cleanse the congress of any republican who even hints he, or she might be uncomfortable with El Donald grabbing women by their pussies, much less opposing him on political issues.

Normally such savage infighting would lead to jubilation among the opposition party. However, at the moment anyway, the only people who have shown any signs of optimism about the mid term elections are the talking heads at MSNBC. You know--the people who won't have to run against trailer park fascists like Kelli Ward and the millions of dollars Steve Bannon will hand deliver to her and dozens of others.

Indeed, as entertaining as it might be watching Bannon ruthlessly cull the GOP herd the terrible truth remains the party of Franklin Roosevelt is doomed in 2018. A democratic majority in the House is completely unreachable thanks to some astute republican gerrymandering and the odds of taking over the senate are less than 50-50.

The situation is going to stay that way too. At least until the democratic party frees itself of a leadership which is increasingly moribund and irrelevant to middle America, then comes up with some meaningful alternatives to the toxic swill of jingoism and outright lies Donald J. Trump and Steve Bannon are selling.

Ladies and gentlemen, because we all know that's not going to happen any time soon, the bar is most definitely open.



10-25-17

DCCCL




Sunday, October 22, 2017

Donald Trump, Glass Sculptors, Alleged Arsonists, and Fake News

With all of The Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!

Donald John Trump on Twitter a couple of weeks ago.



That's right, root the evil fakers out, run them down in the streets like dogs, and confiscate their licenses.  After all, someone has to protect the voting public from their monstrous lies. Especially those vulnerable souls who need to have their core beliefs and biases not just confirmed, but validated on a daily basis.

Don was upset that morning because NBC had broken a story which made him look rather like a dim witted war monger. Honestly though, in his eyes, the report was just the latest in a long series of crimes perpetrated against him by a cabal of left wing propagandists at NBC, CNN, CBS, and ABC.

This would be unlike the news hounds at FOX and places like Breitbart, who write and broadcast the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help them God.

Well--sometimes.

On October 8th FOX ran with a heart warming story featuring John Garafalo. He had sculpted a large presidential seal made entirely of glass which he wanted to give, Mr. Trump. According to Garafalo and, as faithfully reported by FOX on the air and in social media, he was a veteran of the navy who had served in an ultra elite and secret SEAL unit during the Vietnam war. In addition he was the recipient of 22 commendations, including two Purple Hearts, which are awarded to service members who have been wounded in combat. In response to his tale a couple of the talking heads at FOX lavished him with praise for his service, bravery, and life long patriotism.

After seeing the story a fellow named Dan Shipley started to do a little digging. Mr. Shipley's current hobby is to expose a small, but distinct class of assholes who run around claiming to have served in Vietnam and other places under the most dire of circumstances.

Apparently Shipley is not only good at what he does, but, unlike FOX who presumably has more resources at hand, he's quick and thorough. On October 9th he contacted FOX and told the powers that be, John Garafalo was a complete fraud, or at least almost so. He also took his findings to the publication, The Navy Times.

The Times confirmed Garafalo served in the Navy from 1963 to 1967, but he was never in Vietnam and certainly wasn't a member of the SEALS. FOX sat on the revelation for 10 days without comment, or removing the story from its Facebook page. In fact the post wasn't touched until after Garafalo publicly confessed that his back story was a bizarre flight of fantasy he'd been telling for years. By then the Facebook report had 1.5 million views by the rubes who believe FOX is the only truthful news source in the land. The network finally posted a, "correction," on Thursday and promised to air a retraction on TV today.

Meanwhile, a week ago the Sonoma County, CA sheriff's office arrested Mr. Jesus Fabian Gonzalez in a local park. In addition to not being the brightest bulb in the chandelier, Gonzalez is an illegal immigrant who also happens to be homeless. He had built himself a campfire in the park where he usually sleeps in order to keep warm that night.

Breitbart picked up the story and immediately reported Gonzalez was not only illegally in the U.S, but had been arrested, "on suspicion of arson in the wine country fires that have killed at least 40 residents."

The report prompted, Tom Homan, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, to issue a statement saying the Sonoma County Sheriff had refused to answer federal requests about Gonzalez which is leaving Sonoma, "vulnerable to dangerous individuals and preventable crimes." In addition the statement said the Sheriff's lack of cooperation was, "especially troubling in the light of the massive wildfires already devastating the region."

Sonoma County Sheriff, Rob Giordano responded by saying, basically, both Breitbart and Homan were full of shit. Gonzalez's campfire, lit in a city park,  had been put out almost immediately and never threatened any person, or property. He went on to say his office has no reason to suspect Gonzalez of setting the fires that ravaged the area before he was arrested and in truth, they could have started any number of ways--besides, the idiots at Breitbart and ICE, not to mention their political agendas were taking up time he needed to be spending on more important things.

Yes, it appears there are a bunch of scurrilous bastards infesting the 21st media, just like The Big Orange Guy says. Unfortunately for us, as usual, Trump is accusing the wrong ones of acts which defy not just journalistic norms and integrity, but common decency.

But, hey, after nine months of being exposed to Donald J. Trump's huge, yet frangible, ego, what else should we expect?

Indeed.


10-22-17

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Don Trump Honors Dead Green Berets With a Round of Golf and Gregg Popovich Makes the Bedside List

If we know anything about Donald Trump it is his concepts of morality, decency, and the truth all dwell somewhere in a bottomless, pitch black, hole. That and they don't resemble anything even remotely human.

The latest proof went on display last week and then again yesterday.

On October 5th four members of the United States Army Special Forces, the Green Berets, were killed during an ambush in Niger. Mr. Trump--who has spent much of his time the last few weeks howling about NFL players kneeling, "disrespectfully," during the national anthem--honored the return of their remains to America by playing a round of golf.

A little over 24 hours ago a press conference of sorts was held on the White House grounds. In the middle of the proceedings he was asked why he hadn't publicly spoken about the deaths of the four men, or offered their families his personal condolences.

The Big Orange Guy didn't even pause before delivering a grotesque explanation. He was, he said, going to send the families letters which had been drafted over the weekend. Then he added, "If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn't make calls. (to the families of service members killed in action) A lot of them didn't make calls. I like to call when it's appropriate, when I think I am able to do it."

That's right, the President of the United States offered us nothing more than a variation of the old, I left my class assignment at home, besides no one else turned in theirs either, excuse.

His lie was so incredibly transparent, not to mention fetid, he was challenged only a scant few seconds later. El Don's next response was classic 21st century bullshit. He claimed he was only repeating what he had been told--which, ultimately, is just another way of saying he got his facts from reading Facebook. In the end he gave us a moment of song and dance and admitted, Obama and other presidents, "probably," did write letters and "sometimes," call.

That great bird of prey known as Twitter immediately took wing. Obama's former Deputy National Security Advisor, Ben Rhodes posted, "This is an outrageous and disrespectful lie even by Trump standards. Also: Obama never attacked a Gold Star Family."

Former Attorney General Eric Holder wrote, "Stop the damn lying--you're the president. I went to Dover AFB with 44 and saw him comfort the families of both the fallen military & DEA."

General Martin Dempsey (ret.) the 18th chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, tweeted, "POTUS 43 & 44 and first ladies cared deeply, worked tirelessly for the serving, the fallen, and their families. Not politics. Sacred Trust."

My personal favorite was written by Alyssa Mastromonaco, Obama's former Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. Her tweet described Trump and his statement this way. "That's a fucking lie. To say President Obama (or past presidents) didn't call the family members of soldiers KIA--he's a deranged beast."

Yes he is. He's also in charge.

Which, of course, is why the bar opens early these days.

It's also why the NBA's Gregg Popovich went off during an interview yesterday. Popovich, head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, told reporter Dave Zirin, "This man in the oval office is a soulless coward who thinks that he can only become large by belittling others."

One can assume Mr. Popovich just made the list Don Trump keeps on the bedside table and will soon be the subject of a series of savage predawn tweets. He shouldn't take them personally though. The way things are going, before long, we're all going to be right there with him.

   



sic vita est


10-17-17

Monday, October 9, 2017

Bob Corker Cops a Short Timer's Attitude

It all started when retiring republican Senator Bob Corker told some folks back home in Tennessee, "The president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability, nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate to be successful." He added that Trump's Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson--who reportedly described his boss as a, "fucking moron"-- along with Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis and White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, "Are those people that help separate our country from chaos."

Never one to let a slight go unanswered, Trump took to Twitter on Friday and wrote, "Strange statement by Bob Corker considering that he is constantly asking me whether or not he should run again in '18. Tennessee not happy!"

Over the weekend things, as they always do with Brother Donald, deteriorated into what amounts to playground taunts. In a series of tweets--because one will never do--Trump posted back, to back, to back messages which when run together read, "Senator Bob Corker 'begged' me to endorse him for re-election in Tennessee. I said 'NO' and he dropped out. (Said he could not win without my endorsement) He also wanted to be Secretary of State. I said, 'NO THANKS.' He is also largely responsible for the horrendous Iran deal. Hence I would fully expect Corker to be a negative voice and stand in the way of our great agenda. Didn't have the guts to run."

The tweets were pure Trump. His is a twisted world in which the press are outright liars and all the others--like Corker--are driven to the sins of treachery, envy, and jealousy because their slavish and pitiful  overtures were rejected by, yes, Donald John Trump. In other words he recognized they were not great, therefore they attacked him because he is.

Corker took to Twitter and wrote, "It is a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning."

The senator also gave a phone interview to the New York Times yesterday. He was quoted as saying, "I don't know why the president tweets out things that are not true. You know he does it, everyone knows he does it, but him."

According to the Times story Corker maintained Trump had urged him to run again on at least four separate occasions, the last one being just seven days ago. Corker said Trump had even volunteered multiple times to hold a rally in Tennessee on his behalf.

We can assume those offers are now out the window. We can also assume if Trump decertifies the Iran nuclear deal and demands the senate impose new sanctions he won't have Bob Corker, the chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in his corner. And it goes without saying if Trump does fire Tillerson, as has been speculated, he will have a bitch of a time getting a new nominee approved because the process must go through Corker.

The Times and other news outlets are saying Senator Corker's sudden outbursts of candor are due to his impending retirement in two years. In lay terms it is known as a short timer's attitude.

Well why not? Trump can't fire him and can't work to beat him in 2018. All of which leads us to wonder how many other GOP senators feel exactly the same way about Big Don, but won't admit it only because they're going to have to deal with the crazy bastard beyond two years.

Let's face it, the list of sitting republican senators Donald Trump has publicly savaged is impressive. Included on the roster are Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, John McCain, Jeff Flake, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and Lisa Murkowski.

If he loses just two of them, or their colleagues on any given vote, be it tax reform, or building the wall, Brother Trump's "great agenda," is fucked. It is a fact of life, The El Supremo doesn't seem to understand.

Meanwhile Bob Corker left us with this final assessment of the situation. "The president acts like he's doing, 'The Apprentice' or something. He concerns me. He would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation." Then finally, "I know for a fact that every single day at the White House, it's a situation of trying to contain him."

Nice.

Ladies and gentlemen, as you can guess, the bar is open.


sic vita est


10-9-17

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Nine to Eleven Minutes in Vegas

At a news conference last night in Las Vegas authorities told the media Stephen Paddock fired on the 22,000, or so people gathered below and across the street from his hotel room for nine to 11 minutes. Their estimate is based on the moment the first 911 call came into dispatch until converging police heard the last shots ring out from the 32nd floor suite at the Mandalay Bay.

If the second number is correct it means the sick twist murdered 58 human beings during what is approximately the same amount of time it takes to get from one ad to the next on a network television sitcom. To put it another way, his kill rate was over five people per minute.

While, at this moment, we still don't know why he did it--other than he was nuts--we certainly know how. Police found 23 different weapons in his hotel room. 12 of them were fitted with what is known as, "bump stocks," which allows a semi automatic weapon to become, for all intents and purposes, a machine gun.

They also found a load of ammonium nitrate in his car and 24 other firearms spread out over two properties he owned in the state. For those not familiar with ammonium nitrate it's a fertilizer which, when mixed in the proper proportions with diesel fuel, becomes an explosive. It was Tim McVeigh's weapon of choice when he brought down the federal building in Oklahoma City.

Now comes the uniquely American part. All those weapons, a vast cache of unused ammunition which was uncovered in Mesquite, NV and Reno, and yes, even the "bump stocks" can be legally purchased in the United States.

That's correct, right up until he committed an act of vandalism by smashing out two hotel windows in order to get a clear field of fire, Steve Paddock hadn't broken a single law.

Two things happened almost immediately as soon as the smoke cleared. First, a few of the ever shrinking number of progressive politicians left in congress and elsewhere began to call for meaningful gun control laws. Or at least a ban on those fucking, "bump stocks."

Just as predictably the right wing media, led by vile monsters such as Sean Hannity, began to howl about liberals, "politicizing" the nightmare, "before the bodies are even in the ground." Their argument being we need to take time to honor and remember the dead, before we begin to debate gun control.

It is the same crass dodge we've heard before. It's also wildly hypocritical. Take a look at what the same wankers were saying about Muslim immigrants within a few hours of the mass shooting at the Pulse night club in Orlando a year and a half ago. Last night they were headed in the same direction. Their desperation to link Paddock to ISIS, or some other terrorist group was absolutely palpable.

In fact, the only conservative bobble head who is currently willing to express the true reality of right wing philosophy is the notorious sexual predator, Bill O'Reilly. He issued a statement which said the shooting was simply the price we pay for freedom in this country.

Yes ma'am, your daughter died at a country music concert so the rest of us can own and carry as many guns as we want. A grateful nation thanks you for her sacrifice.

For God's sake who are these foul mutants?

Will one of you evil cranks please tell us when would be a good time to talk about gun control? Give us a fucking date. Personally, other than Saturdays, I'm free the rest of this month and all of next.

And just so there isn't any confusion, some of us don't give a rat's ass if Steve Paddock was a Muslim, a Wiccan, or a run amok Southern Baptist. What we do care about is that a bat shit crazy son of a bitch was able to legally amass more military grade weapons than the army of Luxembourg and buy, "bump stocks" as easily as he could ice cream cones.

See you at the next massacre, America. Trust me, given our track record, it's right around the corner.

.


10-4-17




Monday, October 2, 2017

Stephen Paddock Goes to Vegas and Stays There

He was just a guy.

Eric Paddock talking about his brother, Stephen



Aren't they all? It seems like it anyway.

By every indication 64 year old Steve Paddock was living the good life, the American dream really. He was apparently flush with money and comfortably retired, or semi retired. Two years ago he moved into a home on a golf course in a seniors community 80, or so miles outside of Las Vegas. His life style was so discreet and unremarkable the Mesquite, NV police department didn't even know who he was until the phone calls began to come in yesterday evening.

Now, just about everyone in these 50 United States knows his name. That's because last night Mr. Paddock appears to have gone off his nut in the worst way imaginable. As of this hour he is accused of being the perpetrator of the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the republic. And, as we all know far too well in order to set that gruesome record you have to kill scads and scads of people.

At the moment the count is 59 confirmed dead, 60 if your count Paddock, who police say committed suicide as they busted in his hotel door. Over 500 more were wounded, or injured as they tried to flee the killing ground--an open air country and western music festival.

No one knows why Paddock opened fire, at least not yet. However, that hasn't stopped some from giving their opinions via the internet.

The deadly clowns known as ISIS, or at least someone claiming to be them, issued an online statement claiming Paddock had recently converted to Islam and pledged his allegiance to them. Of course the way things are currently going for that outfit they're liable to claim responsibility for anything, up to and including a traffic accident at the intersection of May Avenue and NW 63rd street in Oklahoma City. The FBI is saying there is no evidence of a connection to ISIS, or anyone else.

On the other hand, the conspiracy wankers are already infesting YouTube, saying the shooting--which involved over 22,000 witnesses, victims, police, emergency medical techs, and hospital personnel--was faked by the government. According to them the entire faux attack involved the usual suspects, you know, shadow agencies looking to take away every one's guns and paid crisis actors. As proof they cite the lack of blood and bodies in videos shown on cable news. At 10:15 central time this morning there were at least 16 different YouTube channels claiming they had proof the entire nightmare was a fix. 

If you believe in genetic predestination one supposes we could blame it on his father, Benjamin Paddock, aka, Big Daddy. He was such a bad guy he made the FBI's most wanted list back in the early 1960's. His wanted poster described him being diagnosed as psychopathic with suicidal tendencies. It noted he should be considered armed and dangerous. According to Fox News, he died a free man in 1998 after doing a minimum amount of prison time and paying a couple of hefty fines.

The only real hint about what might have gone wrong available to the public right now is Stephen Paddock loved to hit the tables when he was in town. So much so there are some recent bank transactions on his account involving fairly large sums of money. The situation remains so confused though, no one knows, or is saying if the money transfers were deposits, or debits. 

What we do know is he checked into the Mandalay Bay Hotel on September 28th. Last night he knocked out two separate windows in either a suite, or connecting rooms so he could change his firing position. In addition, he didn't have to be much of a marksman. When you use a fully automatic weapon on a crowd of 22,000 souls jammed into a fenced area like cattle, picking out individual targets is a waste of time. Just point and pull the trigger, baby, then let the law of averages take over.

We also know, thanks to Nevada law, it was perfectly legal for Stephen Paddock to drag an arsenal up to his 32nd floor vantage point. In fact, within a week, there will be a major gun show in Las Vegas so someone doing just such a thing wouldn't even raise eye brows at the front desk, or among the bell staff.

Yes, officer, he looked like just another patriotic good ol' boy exercising his second amendment rights. Who would have ever thought?

Right.

Ladies and gentlemen the bar is most certainly open. Just keep your backs to the wall and your eyes on the door. Hey, this is America and God only knows who is coming through it next and how heavily armed and bat shit crazy they will be.



10-2-17