Doctor Who Alert: Yes, SHE Is...

HOLY F-CKSH-T IT'S THE NEW DOCTOR.

BELIEVE IT BRUV.

I'm serious. Jodie Whittaker starred in a cult classic SciFi movie called Attack the Block, which is now required viewing.

Oh yeah. That's Finn from Star Wars teaming up with the Doctor to fight off aliens. This is gonna go off the geek-o-meter, mates. Allow it.

In the meantime, this is great. The show is opening up the gender roles in science fiction more than it's been in ages. We've had strong female roles - Scully, Buffy, Xena - and we've had strong female leads in established franchises - Janeway on Star Trek, Starbuck and Athena on the reboot of Battlestar Galactica - but this is a major step: This will be a strong female lead in an ICONIC role.

Icons exist beyond the stories that birthed them - Sherlock, Bond, Kirk, Spock, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, just to name a few - and icons have a great impact on the cultural trends of the past, present AND future.

As much as a successful Wonder Woman movie is groundbreaking, as much as having movies like Mad Max Fury Road promote positive imagery of women, to open up an existing role and character as important to SciFi geekery as the Doctor will pave the way to equalizing roles between genders for the next generation of shows and characters.

So to all the haters out there, grow up. Women have been into science fiction as long as the men, and they've been writing their fanfic and making their cosplay and pining their dreams of heroic escapes same as you.

Allow it.

These are good times ahead for geekery.

Because the Gods of Death Need Their Pound of Flesh... And a Tax Cut

The pending Senate vote on their horrific, decimating health care bill is on hold while they wait for Senator McCain to recover from his insured, funded surgical procedure.

The irony is potent.

And yet, here we are. Poised again to watch Republicans willfully support a bill everybody knows will kick millions off of health care coverage, condemning thousands to death or massive debt.

All for a goddamn tax cut for the rich.

Even the polls are telling them they shouldn't do this. Solid majorities of American voters - even cutting into Republicans - know that the GOP push - for massive cuts to Medicaid and rewriting the rules to make access to health care harder - is gonna suck.

And yet, here we are.

The Republican leadership are doing this because of how broken our electoral system is. Accountability has disappeared in this age of mass Gerrymandering and "Safe" Districts. The deep-pocket SuperPACs pushing the tax cut agenda hold more sway over Congresscritters than their own residents.

The Republican leadership are doing this to appease the hardcore base that will show up to vote no matter what, making sure they've been satisfied to learn that the dreaded OBAMACARE went away.

The Republican leadership are doing this because they're sadists. They've lost any empathy for people making less than $90,000 a year, and there's enough of them who believe the poor really are slackers and thieves instead of grossly underpaid and unprotected by the law.

We as a nation can still fight this, but it's going to take more than the phone calls and letters to remind Congress and the Republicans that THEY have to answer to US.

It's going to take long memories, everyone. YOU NEED TO REMEMBER THIS TERRIBLE VOTE IN 2018. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT VOTE REPUBLICAN IN 2018.

Digging the trump Hole Deeper w/Update

Update below:
The current status of the Russia-trump Scandal is such a massive turn of affairs - revealing direct acts of collusion with a foreign power - that I'm better off referring you to David A Graham's take over at the Atlantic about it.

Yet with Donald Trump Jr.’s release of self-incriminating emails on Tuesday, the nation learned that the wildest of fantasies was all too real: Granted the chance to take what he believed to be damaging information about Hillary Clinton from a Russian government official, provided because the Kremlin wished to aid his father, Trump Jr. eagerly seized the opportunity. “If it’s what you say I love it,” he wrote to an intermediary. Not only that, but he brought along his brother-in-law Jared Kushner and Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort...

...If Trump really knew nothing about the June 9 meeting, one wonders what it was that he was so eager to suppress in his calls to the intel chiefs and his firing of James Comey. And as the collusion scenario that once seemed so implausible is verified by an email trail, which of the other allegations are true, too?

On a serious note: DEAR SWEET JESUS THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN WAS ACTIVELY WORKING WITH RUSSIA TO F-CK WITH OUR ELECTION. THIS IS TREASON.

On a lighter note: Dear Sweet Jesus, these guys are morons.

The way trump jr. handled this entire revelation - by denying, admitting, evading, re-admitting, and then dumping his emails without realizing they contained incriminating proof - showed a complete lack of operational awareness. If anything, utter cluelessness about what was right or wrong. Either he thinks what he did wasn't illegal - it was, under 52 US Code 30121 - or that he's untouchable.

It's that last part that's troubling. Because one of the recurring points about this ongoing scandal is how many unforced errors the trump people have committed since the intel reports started picking up the scent in 2016. Half the people involved in the attempted cover-ups - including the Alpha Dog trump himself - keep blabbing and tripping over themselves in a rush to excuse away an early report, quickly exposing fresh evidence that just piles on the damage.

There's been comparisons about the trump empire being akin to a Mafia family (it doesn't help that being a NYC land developer likely had donald rubbing shoulders with real mobsters his whole career). But each new self-inflicted wound brings up the sorry likelihood that the trump power circle is made up entirely of Fredos. (all apologies to actor John Cazale, who was a brilliant performer whose life was cut short)

We were warned. I warned people. This was going to be an incompetent regime, led by those lacking any political savvy or administrative skill. Who turned out to get where they are through manipulation, lies, and (with Russia's help) cheating instead of any actual talent.

Right now, it's not a question of how criminal the trump campaign was. It's a question of what the hell the rest of our government - the ones who are sworn to serve and protect our nation - is going to do about stopping them.

Update: As always, leave it to a master of snark to point out the obvious WTF stupidity of junior:

When Being Sober Is A Curse: I Blame trump

How can I cope with my recurring depression when trump keeps ruining the universe like this (via Frum at the Atlantic)?

But the basic story line is clear. It was clear in real time—and it’s clearer than ever after the Hamburg summit. Whatever exactly happened at the meeting between Trump and Putin, the president’s Sunday morning Twitter storm confirms: Trump has accepted Putin’s denials as the final word on the matter.

Why would not Trump accept it? He has insisted that the accounts of Russian interference in the US election are a “made-up story,” a hoax by sore-loser Democrats. Putin told Trump nothing that Trump did not already believe—or anyway, that Trump wanted everyone else to believe. If there was any question before Hamburg, that question was settled at Hamburg: There will be no consequences for Russia. They attacked American electoral processes and succeeded. The president Russia helped to install will not punish Russia for helping to install him.

It's shit like this that would drive me to drink if I ever developed the habit of liking alcohol. But I'm so sober it's a goddamned curse.

To quote a saner, hopefully sober Betty Cracker from Balloon Juice:

I don’t expect to like any Republican president’s policies. And Trump is a person of exceedingly low character, so I expect him to behave in an embarrassing manner. But sometimes I wonder if my antipathy toward the man distorts my view of his performance. Is it possible that, while he routinely fucks up and brings shame upon the country, Trump’s presidency isn’t the unmitigated disaster I think it is?

Then I watch something like this summary from an Australian analyst, and I think, nah, it’s not just me...

A compromised, incompetent, deranged buffoon is the president of the United States. The president is surrounded and enabled by amoral, unpatriotic, power-hungry people who will paper over his gaping deficiencies and corruption to pursue their own agendas.

That’s bad, obviously. But the normalization of the situation poses its own dangers.
To pick on NBC for a moment, how could a “top-5 takeaways” piece fail to mention Trump’s insane assertion that “everyone” at the G-20 was talking about John Podesta, which also indicated Trump has no idea what role Podesta played in 2016 or, more alarmingly, the CIA’s role in investigating crimes against U.S. citizens? How could a round-up piece not include the weird and unprecedented insertion of Trump’s knockoff bag and shoe peddler spawn into the conference? Or his capitulation to Putin on an attack on U.S. sovereignty?

My complaint isn’t just about the sorry state of Beltway coverage. We’ve been kvetching about routine hackery for decades and will for decades to come, I suspect. But living in a country run by a madman and his accomplices warps reality for everyone, including the people whose job is to provide facts that help shape our perceptions. It’s probably easier for news sources outside the U.S. to frame the Trump menace accurately. But this interminable national crisis will require all of us to keep a grip on what’s real and what’s an illusion...

Ye Gods. Lemme bring up that Australian reporter's rant:

This is what a power vacuum looks like, America: We have a preening, self-absorbed and self-deluded con artist running things. trump wants to keep selling his agenda of being cozy with Putin and Russia, that "there's no collusion" and no conspiracy to subvert our electoral process... even as the real-world evidence piles up that collusion happened.

trump wants us to believe Russia didn't hack our elections, and even wants to team up with Russia on a joke of a "joint" Cybersecurity project that would likely expose our nation's own security protocols. He's doing this even as Russia is hacking our nation's electric power grid.

I'm with Abed on this: We've gone down the Darkest Timeline in this Multiverse, where a vain madman is in control of the United States, aided and abetted by a partisan Congress and a blind mainstream media.

I want to find the portal back to the Normal Timeline, please.

So Many Different Ways The Republicans Can Make Things Worse

Trying to figure out how the endgame of the Republican War on Obamacare will go. As David Atkins over at Washington Monthly notes, the normal rules of politics no longer apply:

The setup is actually fairly simple: would the Republican desire to pass massive tax cuts for its donor class overwhelm its fear of being punished at the ballot box for taking healthcare away from millions of Americans, including their own voters? Under normal circumstances fear of electoral consequences would prevail. But we live in an age of unprecedented partisanship and big money influence, which leads many Republicans to feel insulated from the consequences of even openly cruel actions that damage their loyal constituents. That Republicans would actually destroy Obamacare went from remote possibility to very real.

What that means is anyone's guess, so I'm trying to plot out the scenarios just to determine how fucked we are.

Scenario One: McConnell is somehow able to push through the horrendous Senate version (BCRA) of trumpcare.

By making tweaks to the Senate package, McConnell will try to keep the "moderate" Republicans from bolting - gifting possible holdouts with small relief funding - while giving the Far Right more reason to vote for the bill. While the Democrats could use various procedural rules to delay or hold the bill, given McConnell's track record of bulldozing through his agenda this could also mean those procedures will get napalmed into ash.

Because the Senate bill differs from the House version (AHCA), this means the hot potato goes back to the House for a new vote, and this is where the scenarios can really diverge.

Scenario One-A: The House - despite the griping from the Freedom Caucus (Far Right) that it doesn't go far enough, and the worries of the Tuesday Group (Moderates) fully aware of how the voters hate the bill - passes the Senate BCRA and trump signs it, essentially dooming 18-24 million Americans having their healthcare taken away.

Given the delays written into the Senate bill, most of the damage from it won't be obvious until 2020. But early shifts in Medicaid funds, the loss of maternity care, and the loss of regulatory control protecting pre-existing conditions will be clear early on. The CBO score rated that 11 million could lose their health care by 2018. That's even before the hard cuts to Medicaid kick in.

Scenario One-B: The House Republicans split on the vote. The Tuesday Group were angry about how they were told to vote for a bad bill with the promise that "the Senate will fix it" only to have the Senate pass the buck back to them. They've had months to watch the public outcry against any Repeal-Replace and can refuse to support this next step. Ryan may not have enough favors in his pocket to get enough of them around to support it... while coping with a Freedom Caucus that would never accept any moderate changes to their Repeal-Replace desires.

As a result, the entire Repeal-Replace effort collapses for good. This does turn into a serious problem with Congress, because the real reason the Republicans were so eager to get rid of Obamacare first was to clear the table for bigger issues such as their overall Tax Cut Budget of Doom. They can't push that massive tax cut if there's still a big federal healthcare mandate like Obamacare in the way. The GOP hasn't even looked at a serious budget proposal this session despite several on the table, and the budget is due by September I believe. They're running out of time.

The delay in legislative action is having a cascade effect on everything else: The debt ceiling vote in particular is coming up fast, serious political infighting with the hardcore Freedom Caucus poised to block any debt hike. The Republicans can't afford to let their Repeal-Replace effort wither away, as it would signal a serious rift among their ranks preventing anything from getting done. That lack of effort will discourage their voting base, another midterm woe they'll have to cope with.

Scenario One-C: This goes a little farther than One-B in that the Republican split turns into a party civil war. Failure by Ryan and the House leadership to keep the factions in line leads to a public falling out, where either the Freedom Caucus quits the GOP (likely) to form a third party, or the Tuesday Group quits (unlikely, 'cause they're cowards) and throws in their lot with the Democrats.

There's currently 240 Republicans to 194 Democrats in the House. It would take 47 Republicans quitting the GOP and forming a third party to get them down to 193, giving Dems a plurality. Better still, any Republicans flipping party to the Dems - allowable during the sessions - would boost Democratic numbers into a majority of their own: That would need 24 Republicans switching the aisles.

By numbers, there's 33 official members of the Freedom Caucus: Not enough to form a third party unless they convince - or the SuperPAC deep pocket funders convince - enough regular Republicans to flee with them. They definitely will not flip to the Democrats, so that part of the scenario won't happen. A serious move for this scenario would have to involve enough of the moderate Tuesday Group - 48 in their roster, so either way they can do this - flipping sides or going third party.

Once the Democrats are in control of the House, the whole effort to Repeal-Replace stops.

This is pure fantasy, of course. I'd personally love to see the moderate factions grow a spine and tell the wingnuts to go fuck themselves, but that's not how elected moderates roll. It's possible the Freedom Caucus could pull off a revolt of some kind that would force the Tuesday Group to flee no matter what, or pull off a split with enough members to give the Democrats minority-majority control, but that's next-to-impossible with the current math.

Of the three variances, One-B is the one we can hope for... but don't be surprised if we get One-A. After all, with the Republicans in charge we're all screwed.

Past all this, we move on to Scenario Two: Unable to pass a Repeal-and-Replace package, the GOP Senate - then the House - opts for a straight-up Repeal and let the whole thing crash until people beg for their bad bill(s).

This is the Shoot-The-Hostage strategy. The Far Right factions in both House and Senate would view this as a winning move, because it clearly destroys Obama's signature achievement AND it validates their worldview that government regulations are bad. The logic for this move is that once they reset the nation's healthcare system to how it was in 2009 - which is, shitty - and let the nation stew in horror for six months, the Republicans could force the Democrats to agree to ANY Replace package the GOP would put on the table.

There are several faults in this logic. One, there is nothing the Republicans can do to force the Democrats to cave on this issue. The Dems may genuinely care that millions of Americans need healthcare coverage, but they are competent enough to know that any GOP plan will be a disaster compared to what Obamacare - or a Medicare/Medicaid For All - offers. The only thing Democrats will ever vote on is keeping Obamacare the way it is (or at best fixing its gaps with a Public Option). Plus, the Democrats are smart enough to know that any deal with the devil is no deal at all.

Second, for all the attempts the Republicans will try to pin the blame of losing healthcare on the Democrats, a majority of Americans are fully aware which party - the one yelling and screaming and lying their asses off about Obamacare - will deserve the blame (hint: it ain't Obama). The sudden turnaround of pro-Obamacare support is a clear sign of that. This is what David Frum warned the party about: Once a public benefit is out there - Social Security, Medicare - you can't take it away without getting punished for it.

The Republican leadership may think themselves protected via gerrymandered "safe" districts and via their growing voter suppression efforts, and given the recent history of midterms - 2010, 2014 - going their way they may be right. However, the conditions the GOP are setting up - massive social trauma, the likelihood of economic chaos when the health care industry takes the hit - could make this coming election cycle similar to 2006 when the disasters of Katrina, rising gas prices, and the failing Iraq occupation led to the Democrats flipping the House and Senate with historic gains.

A full Repeal without a Replace would also betray the Republican Moderates who are keen on genuine replacement, and that might lead to the One-C scenario.

Scenario Three: The Senate can't agree on a path forward on their version of trumpcare, and since they'd already pissed on the House version that ends any effort to Repeal. Instead, a genuine effort to Reform the existing Obamacare system (ACA) gets a bipartisan deal in the Senate done. And it goes - with some grumbling - to the House for passage just to get it out of the way.

This is from the noise coming from "moderate" Senators - Collins in particular, with harrumphs from Murkowski, Cassidy and Heller - who are openly opposed to the current Senate bill. Their plan(s) range from just minor cuts of Medicaid funding to changes of the tax model to shift the revenue burdens and placate both sides (mostly), with an eye towards making sure they keep the healthcare loss to a minimum - say, just a million or two Americans - while avoiding the bad optics of kicking children and elderly to the curb.

Whatever they come up with, the plan would have to appease either the Democrats in both the Senate and the House, or the Far Right Republicans.

In short: This could never happen. Not with the existing dogma choking the Republican leadership. The Far Right wants their goddamn tax cuts at all hazards - which would be about $750 BILLION out of ACA - and in order to justify that cut from Obamacare they HAVE to cut spending somewhere - which is why Medicaid is seeing cuts to around $744 BILLION when it's all said and done. Unless the moderates find a revenue source that can cover $744 BILLION - which means a tax hike somewhere in the economy that no wingnut can accept - that one step alone blocks all compromise.

Scenario Four: Aliens show up that can provide free health care to all, making the entire matter moot.

Problem with this is, no sentient lifeform in the universe is going to want to deal with that goddamn con artist sitting in the White House.

So you can kind of see the trouble we're in. The only scenario that looks even remotely possible is One-B where the attempt to Repeal-Replace fails again and Congress is forced to move on to other pressing matters. But knowing the wingnut nature of the modern Republican Party, they are going to get their goddamn tax cuts come hell or high water, which means we're all getting One-A.

At which point our nation DOES go to hell and we all drown in the flood.

Thanks, Russia. Thanks, 62 million trump voters. Thanks, Grover "Drown 'Em In My Bathtub" Norquist. Thanks, spineless moderate Republicans.

We are so royally fucked.

This Is Why I Always Book Hotels Through AAA

So, trump's gone back to Europe for the G-20 Summit, and what new way has he figured out to embarrass the ever-loving hell out of himself and the entire United States?

President Donald Trump apparently forgot to book a hotel room in Hamburg, Germany, for the annual Group of 20 summit of key global leaders, and was stuck scrambling to find somewhere to stay, BuzzFeed reported Thursday.

Oops.

And they can't even use the punchline "No but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night."

Of course, other arrangements have been made and trump will sleep in somebody's guest bedroom while his staff crash in the living room somewhere, but this still begs the question "just how fucking incompetent is trump's White House going to be?"

The White House apparently waited too long before making a reservation for Trump and his traveling staff for the summit, which begins on Friday. All the luxury hotels in the city were completely booked by other world leaders, leaving the US president — who made his name in business building, uh, luxury hotels — without a place to stay.

This is a perfect time to point out the word Schadenfreude is German for "laughing at morons" uh "malicious joy at another person's suffering".

So why does this keep happening? It might have to do with the fact that the State Department is currently understaffed and unorganized. Only nine key positions out of 124 have been confirmed at the State Department.

No one has even been nominated as the director in the Office of Foreign Missions, which is responsible for planning and providing security for US missions when diplomats and other top officials travel abroad.

This is seriously a major problem for our nation: The Executive offices necessary to represent us abroad and to ensure a functioning government at home aren't working at all. And sooner rather than later this void of organization is going to get people killed.

Meanwhile, remember how trump is not a huge fan of other world leaders laughing at him? Yeah, he's about to get more of the mockery as this weekend progresses.

This trip is not going to end well.

Going Four for the Fourth!

Because NO ONE ASKED FOR IT, here I am anyway!!!

...

So, hopefully the fireworks shows didn't scare the crap out of your pets.

In the meantime, here's some patriotic porn:

Now, ROCK OUT TO JULY 5th, AMERICANS! 'Cause it's all downhill this year to Christmas.

Where We Stand As a Nation This 4th of July

It's getting close to fireworks time across the East Coast as the sun sets and the families gather to the city parks.

It's an annual tradition, this Independence Day, to celebrate the many things the United States represents: Freedom, Democracy, Justice, the American Dream, Mom, Apple Pie, Baseball, the hearty consumption of beer and hot dogs, and blowing shit up with fireworks that scare the crap out of dogs now hiding under beds.

This year is a little harder than most, given the current situation in our political and social spheres, with a likelihood our economic sphere getting hit hard with an incoming trade war. In the face of such concerns, what is there still to celebrate about our independence from British tyranny as trumpian tyranny rises before us?

We still have a few things worth fighting for.

Our friends and families, about to face the horrors of a Republican repeal of Obamacare, need our support.

Our communities need fresh leadership focused on justice, on improving our schools, on fixing our roads and infrastructure.

Our nation needs to remember the American Dream as an inspiration to all cultures, all ethnicities, across the globe, to every man woman and child who cherish the idea of a better life for themselves and the generations that come after us.

On this 4th of July, I want to celebrate the Idea of America. The hope. The spoken guarantee to pursue life, liberty, and happiness for all.

Let's get to it.

Stand up for America this 4th of July.

Basic Observation of the Ongoing Venezuelan Crisis

There's been a major economic and political crisis in Venezuela since 2014 (actually, for years longer) that has turned into a massive constitutional crisis. So much so that to describe the problems overall would take a team of economists and foreign policy experts writing a book for publication by a university press.

Since I'm not fully qualified, I'm just gonna boil this down to the simplest explanation I can:

A dictatorial government over-reliant on a single industry (oil) is consuming itself in a wave of corrupt self-serving habits that fail to give the majority of the citizenry the fundamental resources (affordable food and housing) needed to live.

And because the people in power cannot admit to failure or allow others who can resolve these problems to enter into power, the only possible response by the majority of the people is to rise up.

At some point, and horrifyingly soon, Venezuela is going to explode in mass violence between the angry mobs and the heavily-armed military.

This won't be pretty.

Independence Day 2017 Style

I'm posting FOUR FOR THE FOURTH TODAY, beeches!

That's right. I'm gonna write four blog entries today, at least one long serious muthaf (you shut your mouth!) in honor of our nation's birth!

Starting off with as always a YouTube clip showing my favorite bit from the musical 1776!

And Hamilton's reply!

Oops.

Get to work, people, it's the Schuyler Sisters (and Peggy)!

And because I can't let it go:

Lesson: Never eat peanut butter on the 4th of July. Stick to hot dogs.

You Will Get My Voter ID Card When You Pry It From My Cold Dead Hands

This weekend, I'm pissed at both trump and my state of Florida.

Well, yeah, I know I'm ALWAYS pissed about trump being the President Loser of the Popular Vote. And there are times I'm pissed with Florida having elected a goddamn MEDICARE FRAUD like Rick "No Ethics" Scott to governor.

But this weekend my German/Irish ire kicked up a notch because trump's horrific "Voter Fraud" commission sent requests to all 50 states to give up every voter registration data they've got.

Damn them.

The entire Republican Narrative of "Mass Voter Fraud" is a lie. And yet the GOP runs with this Narrative because it gives them political cover to suppress voters, specifically the poor, the minorities, and the college age voting blocs.

What the GOP can do with voter information like this - everything down to Social Security number - might range from targeted harassment to broad voter suppression by geography/district.

The good news so far is that most of the states are refusing to aid trump's faux committee by complying. As Kathy Gill notes at the Moderate Voice:

The following states have indicated that they will not provide the Kobach Commission with all of the information it requested on Wednesday. These states are either ignoring the request, complying with their state laws (the request is for more than publicly available information), or waiting for assurances on how the data will be used.

AK, AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, GA, IA, ID, IN, KS, KY, MA, ME, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NH, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA (note: GOOD FOR YOU LOT!)

The following states have not received a letter:

AR, DE, HI, IL, MI

And these states have no decision or no comment:

FL, LA, MD, NE, NJ, SC, WV, WY

It's this last bit raising my ire. Florida should have only one response to this: on moral, legal, and common sense grounds, this state should tell the Republican Party to go fuck itself. We could have told them to go jump into the Gulf of Mexico, but Mississippi (!) beat us to it.

Here's the irony: a lot of Red States are telling this commission NO. Even they know this is a fool's errand, and that they'll be violating a shitload of their own laws. Even Kris Kobach's state Kansas forced Kobach to tell himself he'd have to give only the public domain info.

So what the hell are we waiting for, Florida? Sadly as Michael Van Stickler at the Tampa Bay Times reports:

Florida officials say they are considering a request for voter information from President Donald Trump's commission investigating alleged voter fraud in the 2016 election. The letter was from Kris Kobach, the vice chairman of the commission and Kansas' Republican secretary of state.

Gov. Rick Scott on Friday said he has not seen the letter that had been sent to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner on Wednesday. But a spokeswoman for Detzner said the agency was reviewing the request.

This is a No-Brainer, Detzner. Write back to Kobach and trump and tell them NO DICE.

This Monday, bright and early, every Floridian needs to call the Department of State's office and insist our voter ID information remain unviolated. I certainly do not want trump to get ANY of my private information, and I sure as hell want to stop these false accusations about voter fraud.

Here's the number: 850-245-6500  and ask for Detzner and/or for the Elections office supervisor. BE POLITE BUT FIRM. Tell them you do not want your private voter information going to an unjust and harmful federal committee.

Get active, Florida.

Anniversary: Gettysburg

I dread the possibility of a time traveler going back to July 1 1863 and warning Union troops that if they win the battle then in another 154 years some jackass becomes President. I know there's no causality between one or the other, but the specter of trump becoming President would scare any honest patriot into fleeing for Canada.

Anyway, in memory of the troops who died and lived on the battlefield:

What The Republicans Want to Do When They Kill Off Obamacare

It's really very simple:

Republicans want to give everyone earning over $200,000 annual income a tax cut. So screw the 90 percent of Americans under that income limit.

And Republicans want to kill 22 to 25 million Americans who will lose their Medicaid support and/or their health care coverage.

Try this as a reality check. Go outside to a crowded place, like a shopping mall or grocery store or a summer day's park. Start counting each person. One out of every twenty Americans are going to lose their health care. So when you get to the twentieth person, realize that the person you're pointing at is going to die.

If you think that you aren't affected, that your family or friends are safe, you're wrong. Start counting your family, start counting your friends. When you get to Number Twenty, say goodbye to that person.

And we are all fucking screwed.

The Republican Party Bites

I don't think I ever believed the Senate would ever stop the madness.

When the House tripped over themselves trying to nuke Obamacare earlier this year, it had more to do with the GOP being too inept to pull off the stunt. So of course, the Far Right Republicans pressed ahead on another plan to gut the Affordable Care Act, passing a horrifying House bill that granted them their oh-so-precious TAX CUT FOR THE RICH at the cost of kicking 18 to 24 million Americans off health care.

The House did that all in a rush, in secret, unwilling to let it be up for debate or cross-examination.

So why expect the Republican-controlled Senate to be any different?

They too worked on their version of the Kill Americans Act in utter secrecy, avoiding committee room reviews or public debate on the matter. What they came up with was a horrifying Senate bill that grants them their oh-so-precious TAX CUT FOR THE RICH at the cost of kicking 18 to 24 million Americans off health care.

You might notice there is little goddamn difference between the two bills. Merely the wording and the time-delays the Senate built into their ticking time bomb.

And of course the Beltway media will condemn in the softest language, debate using rules only the Far Right will accept, falsify history about how Obama and his Democratic allies passed their ACA, and pretend that this would all somehow work out if only the Democrats in Congress would be more bipartisan about it.

And of course the Moderates in the Senate - the Concerned Corps of Crunchy Conservatism - will roll over and vote for this bill after a hammy performance of "oh we need to tweak just this little bit and ALL WILL BE WELL" so they can campaign on "I fought for you" when they really didn't.

And of course trump will sign whichever travesty of "Nuke Obamacare" reaches his desk, because then he will claim HE'S DONE THE MOST OF ANY PRESIDENT EVER and preen like a jackass pretending to be an eagle.

AND OF COURSE MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WILL LOSE HEALTH CARE COVERAGE, EITHER THROUGH MASSIVE CUTS TO MEDICAID OR THROUGH INCREASED PREMIUMS THEY CAN'T AFFORD TO MATCH. Even working Americans are going to find themselves feeling the pinch, not just in three years but in three months when the insurance companies freak out against the changes in law and funding.

All because the Republican Party as a whole no longer gives a shit about any American making less than $200,000 a year.

All because too many voters bought into the decades-long propaganda campaign by the Republicans and their Fox Not-News shills that libruls are the true evildoers who cavort with the Dreaded OTHER.

All because we have a broken electoral system from the gerrymanders all the way up to an outdated Electoral College.

I wrote two years ago that the Republican Party was dead, that all that remains was a soulless shambling ghoul, a zombie whose continued existence was racing to the grave.

Problem with zombies: anything they bite turns into a zombie too.

This nation got bit by the Wingnut plague, and we're at the point it's shambling into that grave along with the GOP.

Gods Help Us All.

Hark! I Saw U2 Live

I normally don't go to live concerts. I dread going solo, and I usually can't afford the tickets for the acts I'd like to see.

One such act is U2, one of those crowd-pleasing, epic live performing bands that makes them one of the "Bucket List" bands you HAVE to see. So when they announced their 30th anniversary Joshua Tree Tour for this summer... I sat it out, because I didn't think I could afford it.

Last week, an old friend from high school announced she had an extra ticket to sell. At this point, I *could* afford it - my parents have helped straighten out my budget - so I bartered and got a ticket.

So... for the seven readers who know I'm a huge U2 fan... YEAH I WENT TO SEE THEM PERFORM AND OMG IT WAS A RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE I WANNA GO OUT AND SAVE THE WORLD NOW I HAVE TO SHOUT MY EARS ARE STILL RINGING WHAT DID YOU SAY I THINK YOU SAID SOMETHING ABOUT EARDRUM SURGERY WHAT WHAT NOW

Just to note, since I was going, the Gods deemed it fit to have it rain all day over Tampa Bay. So it was still drizzling getting into the stadium:

There was a weather delay for the opening act One Direction, and when they did come out to perform there was still enough drizzle to have them cover up half the stage and the lead singer's piano. But as they finished, the storm moved on and the sun began to set over the Gulf Coast and the Gods brought forth the most beautiful rainbow:

You could see the double rainbow at one point:

Then the sun set and the rainbow left and then in the darkness they began playing "Sunday Bloody Sunday":

U2 played a handful of their pre-Joshua Tree hits while out on the in-crowd dais, wrapping up with "Pride" before moving onto the main stage to begin their Joshua Tree performance in its entirety.

Remember how I wrote about how awe-inspiring it was to hear "Where the Streets Have No Name" for the first time? Try adding a stark, haunting video backdrop of the Joshua Tree National Park to the stage:

That's me "WHOOOOOO"ing every five seconds.

I didn't video the whole concert on my smartphone because I did not manage my battery power to last (argh), so I took a bunch of photos during the rest of the concert:

My high school friend Kim showed up with her family and friends - the extra ticket was for her husband Sim who had to stay behind at work - and I asked her to get a picture of me with the stage in background.

The video accompanying "Bullet the Blue Sky"

The backdrop of "In God's Country", where they had the screen projection indented in such a way to make that Joshua Tree show as 3D.

As promised, U2 played EVERY song off Joshua Tree which made for an epic night. When they finished with "Mothers of the Disappeared", they took a bow and left the stage... which you're supposed to do so the audience can stand there for ten minutes screaming for the inevitable Encore. :) They then played their greatest hits post-Joshua Tree, including a haunting update of "Miss Sarajevo" only this time focusing on the plight of Syrian refugees fleeing that civil war (has it been SIX YEARS already?).

All in all, an epic night. And yes, my ears are still ringing.

Naked flame
She stands with a naked flame
I stand with the sons of Cain
Burned by the fire of love
Burned by the fire of love

What If: trump and the Pardon Power

So hey, if it's time for some Game Theory (as Eric Garland would put it), how do we game out this ongoing disaster that is the trump Administration?

Right now, we're in the middle of an ongoing and expanding special counsel investigation into potentially criminal ties between Russia and trump's Presidential campaign.

As it stands now trump himself is "not the target" of the investigation, but so many of his people in his Inner Circle are - Mike Flynn, Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, and more - that there's every likelihood that trump is tied to at least one felony violation. Given trump's history of questionable business deals, that likelihood jumps higher.

And let's include the Obstruction of Justice situation over trump's firing of FBI Director Comey.

So let's just say the Progressive/Democrat/Sane Person's Fantasy comes true to the last detail: That Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigations into trump-Russia-Gate prove that trump's campaign actively colluded with Russian spies and hackers to subvert the 2016 Elections (including hacking into electronic voting machines to skew results); that the active collusion not only involves trump but also VP Pence, Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and various other Republican Party leaders and campaign experts in a massive conspiracy (that itself can be a criminal charge); that there were acts of bribery, slush funds, illegal payoffs, and money laundering INVOLVING FOREIGN DONORS (an electoral No-No); that there were acts of extortion involving hacked emails of both Democrats and Republicans; and that trump actively Obstructed the investigations by firing not only Comey but also other government officials such as Sally Yates (who warned the White House that Flynn was compromised).

So there's about five felony charges at the least facing President Loser of the Popular Vote donald trump.

What the hell happens next?

In a sane and just world, Congress would move to Impeach trump (and other high-level officials) to prevent his further abuse of power.

But a Republican-controlled Congress - especially with Ryan and McConnell at the helm - will likely not do so. Even if Ryan and McConnell are dragged off in handcuffs, the remaining majorities in the House and Senate will likely remain Republican. And the Republicans are cowards.

In the meantime, since the investigation would reveal trump's criminal misdeeds, the federal agents authorized to arrest him on those charges - I dunno if it would be the FBI or the US Marshals, what the hell let's make it Gibbs' team from NCIS - are hurrying over to the nearest trump Golf Course to slap the handcuffs on him.

But before Gibbs can get through the door, trump rushes over to a table and fills out official Presidential Pardon papers that he issues to himself regarding those crimes and any others he may have possibly committed beforehand. Essentially giving himself a "Get Out of Jail Free" card (he may include everyone else arrested, but knowing trump he'll likely let most of them hang for "their failure" to serve him).

Can trump even do that? Can ANY President pardon himself?

It's a serious question, and it's come up often during major scandals like Watergate, Iran-Contra, and Whitewater.

It starts off with the question if Presidents can be charged while in office. Given the nature of their duties, there's a likelihood they may violate laws both domestic and foreign - such as war crimes - and if they can be charged on even a minor issue it could prove distracting. However, previous Supreme Court decisions argued that the President is NOT above the law, so if there are felonies involved - especially ones that threaten the Constitutional system - this situation may fall into precedent and trump can get charged.

If we go to Brian Kalt over at Foreign Policy:

I have been writing about presidential self-pardons for years. My position has always been that they would be legally invalid. I have also believed that a self-pardon is unlikely to ever happen because there are too many incentives weighing against it. But I am not sure that applies to Trump, who has proved he has a high tolerance for personal risk and a taste for attempting the never-before attempted.

So what would happen if Trump attempted a self-pardon? First, some pardon fundamentals: Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution gives the president the power to “grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” Pardons thus can only cover federal criminal offenses and cannot thwart an impeachment (which technically is not a criminal prosecution anyway)...

...If a court ever did consider the issue, the decision could go either way because there are reasonable arguments on both sides. The president (or ex-president by the time he would be prosecuted) would have a very simple case that his self-pardon was valid: There is nothing in the Constitution that explicitly forbids it.

The prosecutor’s argument, while much more complicated, is a stronger one. First, a textual argument: The word “pardon” means something inherently bilateral, something that a sovereign bestows upon a subject. Consider more colloquially that you can beg someone else’s pardon, but you never seek or receive one from yourself. While there is admittedly no explicit limitation on self-pardons, there is no need for one, because a self-pardon is by definition not a “pardon...” 

...The prosecutor can also appeal to the venerable maxim that no one may be the judge in his own case. If a federal criminal defendant feels unjustly accused, he must convince one of the following to back him: the U.S. attorney (who can drop the prosecution), a majority of the grand jury (which can refuse to indict), the judge (who can dismiss the case), any member of the trial jury (which can fail to unanimously convict), or the president (who can pardon). But people cannot prosecute, judge, or sit on juries in their own cases. Like a judge who would have to submit to the authority of another judge if he were being prosecuted, a president must seek a pardon from his successor...

Again, considering trump, his need for self-preservation would still compel him to attempt a self-pardon, but the damage from that move wouldn't be worth it. Again to Kalt:

Besides these legal arguments against self-pardons, there are also some practical reasons why a president would not want to pardon himself even if he thought he could. The most important is that it would look so craven and corrupt that it would greatly weaken the president’s political position with all but his most die-hard supporters. If he were facing impeachment, it would increase his chances of being removed from office. If there were an election anytime soon, he and his party could pay a tremendous price.

The subsequent election after Nixon's resignation and Ford's pardon of him in September 1974 over Watergate was the 1974 Midterms Election (November). Republicans lost seats in both the Senate and the House, and Ford narrowly lost to Carter in the 1976 Presidential. Political experts agree the pardon ruined the Republicans' chances both times.

If trump does this for himself, he may remain in the White House but he'll be terribly alone. Accepting the pardon is an admission of guilt: It's a "Yeah I did the crime, but I won't do the time" move. No matter how he'll sell it to his base, everyone else on the planet will know him for what he is: A crook, and not a very smart one at that.

No sane person will want to work for him (which is already a problem his administration has), fearing the likelihood of getting caught up in other criminal misdeeds. Meaning an already-understaffed West Wing will get worse, and sloppier, with failures and disasters of mismanaging the state of affairs that would harm the nation even more. There would be at least two years of death, war, and mayhem before a Democratic Congress could challenge trump's destructive ways.

It would be possible for a Republican-controlled Congress to turn on trump if he abuses his office with a self-pardon move. They may fear their own Far Right base but they're not all idiots in Congress: They've seen what happens to the Party associated with scandal (SEE 1974 results) and know if they stick with trump throughout the midterms they will lose every Independent non-wingnut voter out there even in the "safe" gerrymandered districts. Impeaching trump would be the only way to save their skins in November 2018 (if they can last that long).

There's even a slight possibility that if the scandal is seriously bad, enough Republicans in Congress will flip parties - it can happen during the congressional sessions - and give control to the Democrats now, who would gladly Impeach trump even if they still end up with Pence in the Oval Office.

Both those scenarios, however, are pretty weak Ifs. The modern Republican Party is craven, dogmatic, and obsessed with their tax-cut deregulation agenda of doom. Even the "moderates" in the Party won't bolt.

This can well go down to the Supreme Court to determine if a President can self-pardon. That could still take years to reach that level of the legal system, and it still boils down to whether the conservative Republican-backed Justices side with the Constitution or with trump.

We are so royally fucked.

The Summer of Our Discontent

How much farther does this train wreck have to careen, O Lord?

The devastation made by the growing trump-Russia scandal spreads by the minute now, not by week or day. There's evidence that Russian-backed hackers cyberattacked our electronic voting machines in key states that flipped for trump.

trump himself has been reduced to accusing fired FBI Director Comey of lying and yet still claiming Comey's testimony vindicates him. Given trump's history of lying, why should anyone believe his claims?

And yet... and yet there's still the trump Voter Base who will side with him on every lie, every con, because it profits them to do so at the cost of their own sanity and safety.

We are still so very fucked.

Anniversary: Storming Those Beaches

Early in the morning of June 6, 1944 a massive invasion fleet made up of American, British, Canadian, and French forces landed at various spots along Normandy beaches for a spot of tea to affirm their commitment to a Western Front against the Nazis.

As such, we honor this day for those men's bravery and sacrifice.

Anniversary: Tiananmen Once Again

Today is June 4th, which means another reminder that some fights for freedom are not over:

Police detained at least 11 Chinese activists after a pair of small events to commemorate the 28th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, according to human rights groups and activists.

Meanwhile, thousands gathered in Hong Kong for the annual candlelight vigil to remember the events of June 4, 1989, which have gained added poignancy in recent years in view of a continuing struggle for democracy there.

I still hope Tank Man is still alive. I still want to ask him the question, about what it was like to stand there in front of the tanks.

Part of me worries, however, I will learn soon enough. The way trump is behaving in the Oval Office, my own country is facing its own Tiananmen moment...

Drowning in trump's Bluster

Today wasn't even much of a surprise. OF COURSE trump would do this:

Donald Trump has confirmed that he will withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement, in effect ensuring the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases will quit the international effort to address dangerous global warming.

The US will remove itself from the deal, joining Syria and Nicaragua as the only countries not party to the Paris agreement. There will be no penalty for leaving, with the Paris deal based upon the premise of voluntary emissions reductions by participating countries...

“We will start to negotiate, and we will see if we can make a deal that’s fair,” Trump said. “If we can, that’s great. If we can’t, that’s fine.”

Would it help to note that nearly EVERY OTHER NATION - including oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and RUSSIA (!) - are staying with the Paris Climate Accords?

Would it help to note that every one of trump's excuses to take the United States out of those Accords are verifiable lies?

trump, meanwhile, seems to think he can "re-negotiate" his own climate deals with individual nations, convinced "he" can get deals that would be "fair"... which by his measurements means "deals in which I steal a shitload of other people's money."

As always, he's creating problems by making everything about him.

You see, here's the little secret that most of the Beltway Media won't talk about. The real reason trump is exiting the climate change accords. It's not over facts, it's not even over standard Republican ideology of opposing everything Democrats support.

trump is exiting the Paris Climate Accords out of personal spite.

To Krugman over at the New York Times, he's thinking of this in terms of Republican animosity towards Obama - who did agree to the Paris Accords - as the simplest explanation:

Pay any attention to modern right-wing discourse — including op-ed articles by top Trump officials — and you find deep hostility to any notion that some problems require collective action beyond shooting people and blowing things up.

Beyond this, much of today’s right seems driven above all by animus toward liberals rather than specific issues. If liberals are for it, they’re against it. If liberals hate it, it’s good. Add to this the anti-intellectualism of the G.O.P. base, for whom scientific consensus on an issue is a minus, not a plus, with extra bonus points for undermining anything associated with President Barack Obama.

And if all this sounds too petty and vindictive to be the basis for momentous policy decisions, consider the character of the man in the White House. Need I say more?

But for trump to do this now, so quickly after his disastrous trip abroad, tells me that he's doing this because his tiny little fee-fees got hurt and he's swinging back at Europe in the worst way possible.

See, trump went overseas on his first big trip as President Loser of the Popular Vote, and with all the crazy things he did and the crazier things he said and the insulting crap he attempted to pull off, trump came back in a foul mood knowing full well he'd been made a laughingstock.

Listen to trump's speech. He kept obsessing over being treated fairly, and commented "We don't want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore, and they won't be."

Who's "we," kemosabe?

The world leaders, the other countries, they were laughing at YOU.

And they still are laughing at you: Because like the wounded eight-year-old bully you are, you came back out onto the playground with mud on your face still threatening to beat up the entire school that showed you that mudpit in the first place.

The rest of the world is going to go on with their climate accord deals because 1) they are driven by the empirical evidence that climate change is a real threat, 2) they are able to make money off of switching to carbon-neutral or eco-friendly energy platforms, 3) they aren't idiots.

Meanwhile, the United States is going to drown in the ocean that is trump's Ignorance.

This move hurts US more than it hurts the world. Look at what's happening. Look at the alienation trump is causing with his destructive travel bans. Look at the way trump caused discord over his failure to recognize Article 5 of the NATO treaty. Look at how trump treated allies that have stood with the United States for decades to create a period of remarkable global stability (granted, this covers most of Western civilization, there remains a lot of bad stuff on the fringes).

Forget the Wall trump keeps threatening to put up on the Mexican border. trump has pretty much built a wall of Isolationism around the United States and has brought an end to the era of the United States as a global power. Nobody in their right mind can claim the President is the Leader of the Free World anymore. trump is only leading himself.

He's giving Putin (who wants the United States to fall as a global power) everything he wants to weaken Western Europe. He's giving China (who can now lead on green energy issues) everything they want to become the biggest Superpower on the planet.

This is what you voted for, 62 million Americans: an easily bruised ego-driven monster cutting off our own collective nose to spite the rest of the world.

Damn you.