Follow the hashtag #TreasonSummit online via the Intertubes to find out if trump has surrendered the United States without a shot in person to Putin.
We may not know until later just how bad the damage is. Maybe when trump decides on issuing an Article 13 against NATO. Right now everything is just guesswork and dread.
Update 3:29 PM: OHHHHHHHHH WE ARE FUCKING EFFED NOW.
Monday, July 16, 2018
Friday, July 13, 2018
The Layers of trump-Russia Treachery
Treachery, though at first very cautious, in the end betrays itself.
-- Livy, Annales XLIV
The latest regarding our long descent down the Darkest Timeline: Mueller's Washington DC grand jury issued 12 indictments against Russian agents - at least one confirmed GRU (post-KGB) officer - involved in hacking various individuals and organizations tied into the Democratic Party.
We're talking actual criminal charges here, in which illegal acts were committed against Americans by a foreign power.
We're talking establishing evidence that the Russians managed a committed campaign to subvert our nation's electoral process.
Let's have Adam L Silverman from Balloon Juice talk a bit about this now:
Unfortunately, as this week's Republican House attack on FBI agent Strzok proved, the Republicans are so sunk into their partisan Narrative that they will not rise to the challenge of fixing this catastrophe, they will in fact dive into the mire and revel in it. Back to Silverman:
What Mueller is trying to do is create a Narrative as well, but one based on evidence where the foundations of the case are solid enough to handle the many layers getting piled onto it. No matter how trump and his Republican lackeys will try to shill their alternate fact-free version of events in the court of partisan media, Mueller has a reality-based version that will stand where it matters: the court of law.
As Silverman notes, having established the Russians had the means (operatives on social media performing psych-ops campaigns to mess with the public mindset) Mueller is now establishing opportunity (all the hacking attacks) and shades of motive (wanting trump to win). While these indictments haven't named any Americans actively engaged in the criminal acts - even with all the stories the news media have uncovered suggested there were a good number of Republicans who did - these indictments ARE creating links to them for the next round of indictments (depending on when trump/GOP tries one more time to shut the grand juries down).
In particular, there's a part of the grand jury evidence involving a still-unnamed person highly ranked in the trump campaign interacting with Russian hackers who operated under pseudonym Guccifer 2.0: Based on earlier reporting, that evidence strongly points at Roger Stone. The odds of being a target of the next layer of indictments is going up on Stone, because that's how these investigations work from the outside in. So far, trump has been able to bluff "no collusion" because Mueller hasn't come out with direct links between trump and Russian hackers. With Stone - a key trump ally for years, as well as a major dark figure in Republican politics - Mueller can create that direct link.
Another part of Mueller's indictments involves one of the key moments in the trump-Russia scandal: The day - July 27, 2016 - trump went public at a press conference openly asking Russian hackers to do him a solid and get Hillary's "missing" emails. While a good lawyer could argue coincidence, the fact that within that day Russian hackers intentionally broke into her email account looks very much like a smoking gun of collusion (or even conspiracy). trump's outburst could well have been a flag to his Russian buddies to do his dirty work for him.
One last thing to note about Mueller's indictments against the Russians: It wasn't just the trump campaign profiting from the illegal hacks. Investigators uncovered at least one Republican political operative - still unnamed, but there's strong hints about who it is - working with the hackers, and also one Congressional candidate (or his campaign) actively reaching out to the hackers to get stolen documents to use in dirty tricks campaigning.
When you add in the reports of a key GOP funding group - the goddamn NRA - funneling Russian money into Republican campaign coffers, you start seeing the shape of an entire party eagerly working with a foreign power to cheat and subvert our elections.
Mueller is adding the layers to this scandal. We're starting to see the shape of it.
And Gods help us, it's looking more and more like a lot of Republicans were in on this scandal than they would care to confess to... even as the Republicans double-down on their denials and evasions.
-- Livy, Annales XLIV
The latest regarding our long descent down the Darkest Timeline: Mueller's Washington DC grand jury issued 12 indictments against Russian agents - at least one confirmed GRU (post-KGB) officer - involved in hacking various individuals and organizations tied into the Democratic Party.
We're talking actual criminal charges here, in which illegal acts were committed against Americans by a foreign power.
We're talking establishing evidence that the Russians managed a committed campaign to subvert our nation's electoral process.
Let's have Adam L Silverman from Balloon Juice talk a bit about this now:
Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein just announced indictments of twelve Russian intelligence officers for hacking the DNC, the DCCC, and others on the Clinton campaign, stealing data, and then weaponizing it on behalf of Putin’s active measures and cyberwarfare campaign to harm Secretary Clinton’s campaign in order to promote the President’s campaign. Rosenstein also made it clear that he briefed the President on this earlier in the week, which explains why he was at the White House before the President left for the NATO summit. DAG Rosenstein, in his announcement today, took a swipe at the GOP members of Congress, as well as conservative commentators, who have been trying to downplay Putin’s activities or outright trying to get the Special Counsel’s investigation stopped through a variety of means, by emphasizing that this was an attack on the US and the response transcends partisanship...
Unfortunately, as this week's Republican House attack on FBI agent Strzok proved, the Republicans are so sunk into their partisan Narrative that they will not rise to the challenge of fixing this catastrophe, they will in fact dive into the mire and revel in it. Back to Silverman:
First, if you’ve been watching what the Special Counsel has been doing, this makes sense. Simply put he has method, not madness. His first indictment of nineteen Russian nationals set up this indictment about who actually stole the information. This indictment, like the one that preceded it, is setting up the next one. Special Counsel Mueller is working methodically to build not just a set of related cases, but to have the indictments and the cases tell his narrative of what happened...
What Mueller is trying to do is create a Narrative as well, but one based on evidence where the foundations of the case are solid enough to handle the many layers getting piled onto it. No matter how trump and his Republican lackeys will try to shill their alternate fact-free version of events in the court of partisan media, Mueller has a reality-based version that will stand where it matters: the court of law.
As Silverman notes, having established the Russians had the means (operatives on social media performing psych-ops campaigns to mess with the public mindset) Mueller is now establishing opportunity (all the hacking attacks) and shades of motive (wanting trump to win). While these indictments haven't named any Americans actively engaged in the criminal acts - even with all the stories the news media have uncovered suggested there were a good number of Republicans who did - these indictments ARE creating links to them for the next round of indictments (depending on when trump/GOP tries one more time to shut the grand juries down).
In particular, there's a part of the grand jury evidence involving a still-unnamed person highly ranked in the trump campaign interacting with Russian hackers who operated under pseudonym Guccifer 2.0: Based on earlier reporting, that evidence strongly points at Roger Stone. The odds of being a target of the next layer of indictments is going up on Stone, because that's how these investigations work from the outside in. So far, trump has been able to bluff "no collusion" because Mueller hasn't come out with direct links between trump and Russian hackers. With Stone - a key trump ally for years, as well as a major dark figure in Republican politics - Mueller can create that direct link.
Another part of Mueller's indictments involves one of the key moments in the trump-Russia scandal: The day - July 27, 2016 - trump went public at a press conference openly asking Russian hackers to do him a solid and get Hillary's "missing" emails. While a good lawyer could argue coincidence, the fact that within that day Russian hackers intentionally broke into her email account looks very much like a smoking gun of collusion (or even conspiracy). trump's outburst could well have been a flag to his Russian buddies to do his dirty work for him.
One last thing to note about Mueller's indictments against the Russians: It wasn't just the trump campaign profiting from the illegal hacks. Investigators uncovered at least one Republican political operative - still unnamed, but there's strong hints about who it is - working with the hackers, and also one Congressional candidate (or his campaign) actively reaching out to the hackers to get stolen documents to use in dirty tricks campaigning.
When you add in the reports of a key GOP funding group - the goddamn NRA - funneling Russian money into Republican campaign coffers, you start seeing the shape of an entire party eagerly working with a foreign power to cheat and subvert our elections.
Mueller is adding the layers to this scandal. We're starting to see the shape of it.
And Gods help us, it's looking more and more like a lot of Republicans were in on this scandal than they would care to confess to... even as the Republicans double-down on their denials and evasions.
Quick Update, By Jove: trump Is Currently in London Embarrassing The Ever Loving Hell Out of the U.S.
Yeah, no surprise there.
So far, he's insulted the Prime Minister May, insulted CNN as "Fake News" and gave Fox Not-News a handjob, lied about his own interview with The Sun, and is probably en route to meet the Royal Family at which point he'll probably insult the Queen in some horrifying fashion.
I hope she puts on her World War II military boots and kicks him square in the groin.
So far, he's insulted the Prime Minister May, insulted CNN as "Fake News" and gave Fox Not-News a handjob, lied about his own interview with The Sun, and is probably en route to meet the Royal Family at which point he'll probably insult the Queen in some horrifying fashion.
I hope she puts on her World War II military boots and kicks him square in the groin.
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
One Step Away From the End of the United States (w/ Updates)
(Update: Thanks again to Batocchio at Crooksandliars.com for a link in Mike's Blog Round-Up! Please take the time to visit the rest of the blog, and hey you might notice I have a new short story published in the Strangely Funny anthology series!)
So, just to note,President Loser of the Popular Vote donald trump is now in Brussels - sorry, Europe - to partake in meetings with our North Atlantic Treaty allies (NATO)... and also to meet with Russia Kleptocrat/Autocrat Vladimir Putin for a one-on-one meeting that will not be attended by any other American present (not even an American translator). No Chief of Staff, no one from the State Department, nobody from the White House... The possibilities of so many things happening off-the-radar that could well threaten U.S. National Security cannot be ignored: The last time trump held an unsupervised visit with Russians, he gave up vital national security secrets involving our Israeli allies to where he fucked up a covert operation for them.
The man simply cannot be trusted on his own. At yet, he will be... with arguably one of the biggest threats to American national security to re-emerge after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
This isn't simple fearmongering on my part. A lot of foreign policy experts are dreading this as well.
Worse, they're worried that this particular trip - with trump railing against NATO more than before - will spell doom for American foreign policy: There is every likelihood trump will drag the United States out of NATO and kill an alliance that has held Western Europe (and recently all of Europe) together for 60-plus years.
Lemme link to Jonathan Chait at New York for this:
trump is moving the goalposts on this so that he'll always have an excuse to do what he's likely about to do. Back to Chait:
Under other circumstances, it would be hilarious to watch all the hardened foreign policy wizards of the Republican Party - all of them perfectly aware of how the U.S. has benefited in both military and political matters being united with the other Western democracies during the Cold War and Global War on Terror decades - suddenly switch their worldviews from "Europe good, Putin bad" to "OMG Putin is just the best BFF ever!" Under other circumstances, most of those intelligent, well-studied thinkers of realpolitik would argue against any ill-advised ignorant demolition of a stable, valuable alliance. But we no longer live in that world: This is the World of Fox Not-News, and if you can't help shill the Narrative of the hour/month/year which happens to be whatever is in trump's head that very moment, you are persona non grata to the GOP.
By the end of this week, everything we've ever known about the United States' place in the world could well be blown up and torn down like the Berlin Wall.
We will see a near-immediate end to foreign sharing of intel: What is the likelihood the UK or France is willing to share data with a nation that could easily hand it over to Russia without batting an eye? NATO's efforts to stop Russia from a full-out invasion of Ukraine falls apart. Half of Central Europe - bizarrely under the political sway of right-wing Nationalist governments more friendly to Putin than they should - could well cut out of any NATO or shared alliance with Western Europe and turn most of Eastern Europe back into a Russian playground.
Our own military situation won't improve. Any ongoing efforts in the Global War on Terror takes a hit when we lose all that intel. Half of our military preparedness and ability to deploy has been tied into our sharing of resources overseas: Our military bases in Europe will likely be closed.
The aftershock of trump shutting down NATO won't end there. Our other overseas alliances especially in Asia will come under scrutiny. How many of those nations would be willing to stay attached to a United States dominated by a bully in trump who keeps screaming for "reparations" on "delinquent payments"? South Korea is already scarred by trump's failures - yes, THAT already fell apart - dealing with North Korea. Central America is already pissed at trump's evil anti-immigrant policies. Africa's in no mood to give trump the time of day either.
Put on top of this trump's eagerness to wage tariff wars on multiple fronts - we're at four trade blocs and counting - and we're screwed. Every nation from Australia to Zimbabwe is going to consider their options in dealing with a crazed, unstable USA and take their chances without us.
The United States is one step away - one major temper tantrum by the world's biggest orange baby - from being a Superpower nation to a Third-World Nobody relying on Russia for handouts.
This isn't hyperbole. This can really happen. The North Atlantic Treaty - the basis for NATO - includes Article 13, which allows a NATO member to "denounce" its membership and gives that nation a year to cut all ties with the alliance. trump can issue a denouncement and we'd be out of NATO technically by 2019. In reality, the entire situation will go FUBAR within hours.
It would be up to the remaining pro-foreign-policy, pro-NATO people in the Republican ranks - likely Secretary of Defense Mattis, who has to be fully aware how serious a hit to our own military this will be, and Chief of Staff Kelly, and then various Senators and Congresspersons on the Foreign Relations committees - to do something to stop trump from nuking our strongest allied bloc from orbit. However, given the constant failure by these same "sane adults in the room" to keep trump on a leash, I doubt any of them will grow the collective spine necessary to call for a 25th Amendment solution to remove a clearly unstable and dangerous president for the sake of the nation.
To everyone especially the hard-core trump supporters who keep screaming there's no proof that trump colluded with Russia to hack/interfere with the 2016 Elections... here's your fucking proof. trump's own fucking actions selling the United States out to Putin, practically handing this nation over on a goddamn silver platter. Everything bad that can happen on this trip by trump will be EXACTLY what Putin wants. The second that trump pulls the United States out of NATO, Putin wins.
It had long been a plot point in political potboiler thrillers that somehow the United States would come under attack not from invasion but from subversion, of a group or an individual somehow grabbing the reins of power and surrendering the entire nation without a shot. To anyone who ever thought those books or movies were implausible, welcome to the Hell that is trumpWorld.
It had been a common political attack, usually from the Far Right and the Republicans who went after Democrats as being so liberal they were practically Commies. Think back to Nixon's first Congressional campaign when he attacked his Democratic opponent - a woman by the by - of being "Pink down to her underwear." Think about all the times the Republicans accusing Democrats of being in bed with the Soviet Union. Think about the Far Right fears about fluoride in the water.
And when Soviet Communism fell, the Far Right found other excuses to hate on Democrats. The Clintons were in cahoots with China. Obama was a Secret Muslim selling us out to ISIL. Anything to fearmonger their base into voting for the worst of the worst.
And now here we are. One step away from the likelihood of donald Shitgibbon trump cutting off our strongest international alliance all to curry favor with his favorite dictator Putin. One step away from the so-called Leader of the Free World surrendering without a shot to the latest Strongman of Russia.
But this isn't a conspiracy. This is no far-flung fantasy. This ain't a movie starring Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury.
Hail Fucking Hydra.
We are so very fucking royally fucked.
Update (7/11/18): This very morning trump accused GERMANY of being "a captive of Russia". The worst case of projection since that slideshow presentation at that boring seminar we all attend at some point in our lives.
So, just to note,
The man simply cannot be trusted on his own. At yet, he will be... with arguably one of the biggest threats to American national security to re-emerge after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
This isn't simple fearmongering on my part. A lot of foreign policy experts are dreading this as well.
Worse, they're worried that this particular trip - with trump railing against NATO more than before - will spell doom for American foreign policy: There is every likelihood trump will drag the United States out of NATO and kill an alliance that has held Western Europe (and recently all of Europe) together for 60-plus years.
Lemme link to Jonathan Chait at New York for this:
President Trump tweeted today that America’s NATO allies have been “delinquent for many years in payments” and should “reimburse the U.S.” That is not how NATO works...
One cannot rule out the possibility that Trump lacks the mental capacity to understand the basic form of America’s most important alliance. But it is at least as likely that Trump is choosing not to understand this, so that he can precipitate a fissure within the alliance.
Last week, Trump’s national security advisers, who have traditional Republican views toward NATO (good) and Russia (bad), and the allies both expressed their hope that Trump would use the NATO summit to declare victory. Trump has been calling for the allies to increase their defense spending, and indeed they have. The increase has been ongoing since 2014, when Russia invaded Crimea, but the allies signaled they would be happy to let Trump claim credit. “The European officials we’ve spoken to would love nothing more than for Trump to take a victory lap and claim credit for them boosting their defense spending,” reported Jonathan Swan last week.
Oddly for Trump, he is not taking the opportunity to claim a win. Instead he appears to be defining the terms of the disagreement such that it cannot be resolved. NATO’s allies can always try to spend even more on defense, but asking them to pay the United States back dues that they never promised and do not owe is an impossible demand...
trump is moving the goalposts on this so that he'll always have an excuse to do what he's likely about to do. Back to Chait:
Meanwhile, the Trump-Putin relationship is blossoming (or perhaps just coming out into the open). Putin reportedly has been telling Trump that “fake news” and the “deep state” are conspiring against them. (“It’s not us,” Putin has told Trump, according to an American source, summarizing his message, “it’s the subordinates fighting against our friendship.”) Trump has also reportedly expressed to Putin his desire for better relations, and called the advisers who tried to prevent him from congratulating the strongman on his reelection “stupid people.”
Compared to a week ago, it is now harder to imagine Trump will use the summit to leverage concessions that will make him appear like a strong negotiator, and much easier to imagine that he will use it to instigate a diplomatic crisis with NATO. By the time this is over, he may well have reoriented American foreign policy completely. It may seem bizarre that one man could do this, especially given that almost nobody in Trump’s administration or the ranks of the party’s political professionals share his goal of jettisoning NATO or closely courting Russia. Yet Trump has shown the ability to lead his base wherever he wants to take it. And where the base has gone, the party has eventually followed...
Under other circumstances, it would be hilarious to watch all the hardened foreign policy wizards of the Republican Party - all of them perfectly aware of how the U.S. has benefited in both military and political matters being united with the other Western democracies during the Cold War and Global War on Terror decades - suddenly switch their worldviews from "Europe good, Putin bad" to "OMG Putin is just the best BFF ever!" Under other circumstances, most of those intelligent, well-studied thinkers of realpolitik would argue against any ill-advised ignorant demolition of a stable, valuable alliance. But we no longer live in that world: This is the World of Fox Not-News, and if you can't help shill the Narrative of the hour/month/year which happens to be whatever is in trump's head that very moment, you are persona non grata to the GOP.
By the end of this week, everything we've ever known about the United States' place in the world could well be blown up and torn down like the Berlin Wall.
We will see a near-immediate end to foreign sharing of intel: What is the likelihood the UK or France is willing to share data with a nation that could easily hand it over to Russia without batting an eye? NATO's efforts to stop Russia from a full-out invasion of Ukraine falls apart. Half of Central Europe - bizarrely under the political sway of right-wing Nationalist governments more friendly to Putin than they should - could well cut out of any NATO or shared alliance with Western Europe and turn most of Eastern Europe back into a Russian playground.
Our own military situation won't improve. Any ongoing efforts in the Global War on Terror takes a hit when we lose all that intel. Half of our military preparedness and ability to deploy has been tied into our sharing of resources overseas: Our military bases in Europe will likely be closed.
The aftershock of trump shutting down NATO won't end there. Our other overseas alliances especially in Asia will come under scrutiny. How many of those nations would be willing to stay attached to a United States dominated by a bully in trump who keeps screaming for "reparations" on "delinquent payments"? South Korea is already scarred by trump's failures - yes, THAT already fell apart - dealing with North Korea. Central America is already pissed at trump's evil anti-immigrant policies. Africa's in no mood to give trump the time of day either.
Put on top of this trump's eagerness to wage tariff wars on multiple fronts - we're at four trade blocs and counting - and we're screwed. Every nation from Australia to Zimbabwe is going to consider their options in dealing with a crazed, unstable USA and take their chances without us.
The United States is one step away - one major temper tantrum by the world's biggest orange baby - from being a Superpower nation to a Third-World Nobody relying on Russia for handouts.
This isn't hyperbole. This can really happen. The North Atlantic Treaty - the basis for NATO - includes Article 13, which allows a NATO member to "denounce" its membership and gives that nation a year to cut all ties with the alliance. trump can issue a denouncement and we'd be out of NATO technically by 2019. In reality, the entire situation will go FUBAR within hours.
It would be up to the remaining pro-foreign-policy, pro-NATO people in the Republican ranks - likely Secretary of Defense Mattis, who has to be fully aware how serious a hit to our own military this will be, and Chief of Staff Kelly, and then various Senators and Congresspersons on the Foreign Relations committees - to do something to stop trump from nuking our strongest allied bloc from orbit. However, given the constant failure by these same "sane adults in the room" to keep trump on a leash, I doubt any of them will grow the collective spine necessary to call for a 25th Amendment solution to remove a clearly unstable and dangerous president for the sake of the nation.
To everyone especially the hard-core trump supporters who keep screaming there's no proof that trump colluded with Russia to hack/interfere with the 2016 Elections... here's your fucking proof. trump's own fucking actions selling the United States out to Putin, practically handing this nation over on a goddamn silver platter. Everything bad that can happen on this trip by trump will be EXACTLY what Putin wants. The second that trump pulls the United States out of NATO, Putin wins.
It had long been a plot point in political potboiler thrillers that somehow the United States would come under attack not from invasion but from subversion, of a group or an individual somehow grabbing the reins of power and surrendering the entire nation without a shot. To anyone who ever thought those books or movies were implausible, welcome to the Hell that is trumpWorld.
It had been a common political attack, usually from the Far Right and the Republicans who went after Democrats as being so liberal they were practically Commies. Think back to Nixon's first Congressional campaign when he attacked his Democratic opponent - a woman by the by - of being "Pink down to her underwear." Think about all the times the Republicans accusing Democrats of being in bed with the Soviet Union. Think about the Far Right fears about fluoride in the water.
And when Soviet Communism fell, the Far Right found other excuses to hate on Democrats. The Clintons were in cahoots with China. Obama was a Secret Muslim selling us out to ISIL. Anything to fearmonger their base into voting for the worst of the worst.
And now here we are. One step away from the likelihood of donald Shitgibbon trump cutting off our strongest international alliance all to curry favor with his favorite dictator Putin. One step away from the so-called Leader of the Free World surrendering without a shot to the latest Strongman of Russia.
But this isn't a conspiracy. This is no far-flung fantasy. This ain't a movie starring Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury.
Hail Fucking Hydra.
We are so very fucking royally fucked.
Update (7/11/18): This very morning trump accused GERMANY of being "a captive of Russia". The worst case of projection since that slideshow presentation at that boring seminar we all attend at some point in our lives.
Wednesday, July 04, 2018
Four For the Fourth 2018: Four Things To Note (w/ Update)
We are still in a precarious and devastating situation with donald trump sitting in the White House.
1) trump is making plans to visit with his boss Putin soon... and wants to do it alone without any other staffer or observer in the room with him. GODS help us with whatever mischief trump wants to do behind those closed doors.
2) trump keeps making noise about wanting to invade somewhere so he can get his war groove on (the need of a bullying autocrat to prove his manhood through the blood and sacrifice of others). he wants a war with Iran but no other nation will back us on that (other than Saudi Arabia and Israel, and there's no guarantee they'll be of any help). he wanted a war with North Korea but Kim Jong-un played trump like a fiddle, and now trump is deluding himself into thinking his overtures to Korea will earn him a Nobel Peace Prize. So now trump is rumored looking at Venezuela, a bankrupt and starving nation on the brink of civil war itself, as a great place to invade except for the fact that our current standing in South and Central America earns us NO regional allied support and we'd be going into a situation that can quickly devolve into a Vietnam-esque jungle hell.
3) Rumors now abound that trump is looking at shutting down the Mueller investigations in the bluntest way possible,with support from EPA director Scott Pruitt apparently dropping hints he'd be more than ready to take the Attorney General spot from the recused Jeff Sessions. If trump tries this - by abusing a loophole to avoid a Senate vote (since even the GOP Senate would balk at any attempt to fire Sessions) - Pruitt would then simply fire Deputy AG Rosenstein and order Mueller to shut down and hand all materials to himself (but really to trump). This move would not only have the effect of gutting and politicizing the Department of Justice and the FBI, it would also put the most corrupt sonofabitch in trump's Cabinet - Pruitt makes trump look like a fucking choir boy - in control of our federal law enforcement: This is akin to putting John Gotti in charge of the FBI's Racketeering division. There have been corrupt men in charge of the DoJ before - Ed Meese, John Mitchell, Harry Daugherty - Pruitt has the potential of besting all of them as the most corrupt bastard ever. Okay, disregard this. It turns out Pruitt's headaches weren't worth it for trump after all. But a plan like this is likely in the works. Except now I fear it involves Jared.
4) We are as voters facing the likelihood of massive voter suppression efforts by Republicans to ensure they retain control of Congress this Midterms cycle. There is a serious need by Americans who aren't registered to vote to get registered, and there is a serious need by registered voters to get the damn vote out, and there is a serious need by the majority of Americans who HATE trump to vote every goddamn cowardly Republican official out of office. The only way voter suppression fails is when there's too many of us voting to stop us.
So that's where we stand tonight, America.
Get the vote out.
Your vote is your power. Your power is your freedom.
1) trump is making plans to visit with his boss Putin soon... and wants to do it alone without any other staffer or observer in the room with him. GODS help us with whatever mischief trump wants to do behind those closed doors.
2) trump keeps making noise about wanting to invade somewhere so he can get his war groove on (the need of a bullying autocrat to prove his manhood through the blood and sacrifice of others). he wants a war with Iran but no other nation will back us on that (other than Saudi Arabia and Israel, and there's no guarantee they'll be of any help). he wanted a war with North Korea but Kim Jong-un played trump like a fiddle, and now trump is deluding himself into thinking his overtures to Korea will earn him a Nobel Peace Prize. So now trump is rumored looking at Venezuela, a bankrupt and starving nation on the brink of civil war itself, as a great place to invade except for the fact that our current standing in South and Central America earns us NO regional allied support and we'd be going into a situation that can quickly devolve into a Vietnam-esque jungle hell.
3) Rumors now abound that trump is looking at shutting down the Mueller investigations in the bluntest way possible,
4) We are as voters facing the likelihood of massive voter suppression efforts by Republicans to ensure they retain control of Congress this Midterms cycle. There is a serious need by Americans who aren't registered to vote to get registered, and there is a serious need by registered voters to get the damn vote out, and there is a serious need by the majority of Americans who HATE trump to vote every goddamn cowardly Republican official out of office. The only way voter suppression fails is when there's too many of us voting to stop us.
So that's where we stand tonight, America.
Get the vote out.
Your vote is your power. Your power is your freedom.
Four For the Fourth 2018: Third Time's The Strikeout?
Hey, it's the Fourth of July and there's nothing more American than WATCHING SOME BASEBALL!
Hell yeah, let's see how the Tampa Bay Rays are doing today playing in Miami against the Marlins!
...
Well, yeah, the Rays aren't doing so hot this year...
/cries
Hell yeah, let's see how the Tampa Bay Rays are doing today playing in Miami against the Marlins!
...
Well, yeah, the Rays aren't doing so hot this year...
/cries
Four For the Fourth 2018: Second The Motion With New York Abstaining
Courteously.
Here's the obligatory YouTube clip to one of my fave movies, 1776.
Here's the obligatory YouTube clip to one of my fave movies, 1776.
Four For the Fourth 2018: First Posting About My Country Tis of Thee
On this day, of all days, we Americans need a reminder that WE ARE A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS and that we are all sons and daughters of those who came to these shores looking for better opportunities and safety for their families. For us.
Home, don't it seem so far away
Oh, we're traveling light today
In the eye of the storm
In the eye of the storm
Home, to a new and a shiny place
Make our bed, and we'll say our grace
Freedom's light burning warm
Freedom's light burning warm
Everywhere around the world
They're coming to America
Every time that flag's unfurled
They're coming to America
Got a dream to take them there
They're coming to America
Got a dream they've come to share
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
Today, today, today, today, today
My country 'tis of thee
Today
Sweet land of liberty
Today
Of thee I sing
Today
Of thee I sing
Today...
-- Neil Diamond, "America"
Let us remember that Lady Liberty is not some prideful symbol of dominance or victory, but a signal beacon of hope:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” - Emma Lazurus, "The New Colossus"
This is the Immigrants' day as much as a Citizen's day. This is the Fourth of July. A day of Independence. A day of Hope.
Home, don't it seem so far away
Oh, we're traveling light today
In the eye of the storm
In the eye of the storm
Home, to a new and a shiny place
Make our bed, and we'll say our grace
Freedom's light burning warm
Freedom's light burning warm
Everywhere around the world
They're coming to America
Every time that flag's unfurled
They're coming to America
Got a dream to take them there
They're coming to America
Got a dream they've come to share
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
Today, today, today, today, today
My country 'tis of thee
Today
Sweet land of liberty
Today
Of thee I sing
Today
Of thee I sing
Today...
-- Neil Diamond, "America"
Let us remember that Lady Liberty is not some prideful symbol of dominance or victory, but a signal beacon of hope:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” - Emma Lazurus, "The New Colossus"
This is the Immigrants' day as much as a Citizen's day. This is the Fourth of July. A day of Independence. A day of Hope.
Monday, July 02, 2018
The Second Civil War Will NOT Start Over Karen's Potato Salad
So fringe conspiracy nutcase Alex Jones - who sadly has far too many people paying attention to him - went out and tweeted a godawful plot twist for the ongoing Far Right Pity-Party Self-Oppression Narrative (via Adam L Silverman at Balloon Juice):
Yes, that's correct: Even with all the "Democrats In Disarray!" story lines floating around the screwed up Beltway Media, nothing can stop the wingnuts from convincing themselves those socialist libtards are one step away from violent global domination.
I haven't dived into Jones' full rant - mostly because I want to spare my brain cells from damage - but I can guess a lot of it revolves around getting minorities to riot in the streets and feminists kicking every white male in the groin until we white boys all surrender due to sympathetic pain-sharing.
I doubt it has anything logical to it, such as getting the U.S. military to the tune of 1,150,000 active servicepeople and 800,000 reservists to turn against their trumpian masters. I mean, that's a lot of Democratic libtards in all five branches of the military. I doubt most Republicans would believe there's that many Democraps among the ranks. Without enough military support, any civil war uprising is doomed to fail.
If the civil war planning has anything clever to it, the primary rule of seizing all means of communication would mean shutting down the likes of Fox Not-News, the entire Sinclair chain of local TV and radio stations, and also cutting off or crimping Internet across all 50 states. The logistics of such a move may seem simple in a movie (such as the Fire Sale of Die Hard 4.0), but in practice there's a lot of moving parts there and no guarantee of success. If anything, cutting the power on Fox would go a long way to disrupting trump's own methods of staying informed so... on this point alone it might be worth a go.
Look, here's the simplest reason why Alex Jones is just making noise about a goddamn civil war started by the Progressive(Libtard) Left on the 4th of July: There is no goddamn way it would work. Just consider that the 4th is a big holiday for people to go out and get drunk, meaning that every State Highway Patrol car is out on the major roads alongside County and City police just itching to pull suspicious drivers over. Would any librul risk the likelihood of getting pulled over by the cops? NO. End of argument.
If any group in this nation has shown the desire to make attempts to start any insurrection, it's been the gun-toting, Sovereignty-obsessed, white supremacist, wingnut Far Right. The real risk here is Jones stirring up that group into a fear-based froth, terrifying them into turning any public gathering on the 4th of July into a firearm-freakout bloodbath.
I have to admit I've been blogging here that we're already in a Second Civil War, but it's not a war in a conventional sense of battle lines and cities under siege. This has been a war fought over control of the political and media outlets running this nation. The fighting has less been open gunfights and more along the lines of street protests and attempts at voter turnout for this year's midterms. So far...
Jones is tweeting about Civil War for several reasons. Above all, it gets him attention and media traffic and mo' money. It keeps his audience terrified and ready for the worst if he ever finds the need to call an uprising of his own. And if a war in the streets finally does erupt, he's trying to position himself as the messenger/messiah leader driving his side of wingnuttia towards cultural purification and victory.
In the meanwhile, the Democratic Party of the United States is not planning a Civil War to be fought on the 4th of July.
They're trying to stop Karen from bringing her potato salad to the cookout. Raisins? AH HELL NAW...
BREAKING: Democrats Plan To Launch Civil War On July 4th (I will not provide a direct link to anything by Jones if I can avoid it)
Yes, that's correct: Even with all the "Democrats In Disarray!" story lines floating around the screwed up Beltway Media, nothing can stop the wingnuts from convincing themselves those socialist libtards are one step away from violent global domination.
I haven't dived into Jones' full rant - mostly because I want to spare my brain cells from damage - but I can guess a lot of it revolves around getting minorities to riot in the streets and feminists kicking every white male in the groin until we white boys all surrender due to sympathetic pain-sharing.
I doubt it has anything logical to it, such as getting the U.S. military to the tune of 1,150,000 active servicepeople and 800,000 reservists to turn against their trumpian masters. I mean, that's a lot of Democratic libtards in all five branches of the military. I doubt most Republicans would believe there's that many Democraps among the ranks. Without enough military support, any civil war uprising is doomed to fail.
If the civil war planning has anything clever to it, the primary rule of seizing all means of communication would mean shutting down the likes of Fox Not-News, the entire Sinclair chain of local TV and radio stations, and also cutting off or crimping Internet across all 50 states. The logistics of such a move may seem simple in a movie (such as the Fire Sale of Die Hard 4.0), but in practice there's a lot of moving parts there and no guarantee of success. If anything, cutting the power on Fox would go a long way to disrupting trump's own methods of staying informed so... on this point alone it might be worth a go.
Look, here's the simplest reason why Alex Jones is just making noise about a goddamn civil war started by the Progressive(Libtard) Left on the 4th of July: There is no goddamn way it would work. Just consider that the 4th is a big holiday for people to go out and get drunk, meaning that every State Highway Patrol car is out on the major roads alongside County and City police just itching to pull suspicious drivers over. Would any librul risk the likelihood of getting pulled over by the cops? NO. End of argument.
If any group in this nation has shown the desire to make attempts to start any insurrection, it's been the gun-toting, Sovereignty-obsessed, white supremacist, wingnut Far Right. The real risk here is Jones stirring up that group into a fear-based froth, terrifying them into turning any public gathering on the 4th of July into a firearm-freakout bloodbath.
I have to admit I've been blogging here that we're already in a Second Civil War, but it's not a war in a conventional sense of battle lines and cities under siege. This has been a war fought over control of the political and media outlets running this nation. The fighting has less been open gunfights and more along the lines of street protests and attempts at voter turnout for this year's midterms. So far...
Jones is tweeting about Civil War for several reasons. Above all, it gets him attention and media traffic and mo' money. It keeps his audience terrified and ready for the worst if he ever finds the need to call an uprising of his own. And if a war in the streets finally does erupt, he's trying to position himself as the messenger/messiah leader driving his side of wingnuttia towards cultural purification and victory.
In the meanwhile, the Democratic Party of the United States is not planning a Civil War to be fought on the 4th of July.
They're trying to stop Karen from bringing her potato salad to the cookout. Raisins? AH HELL NAW...
Sunday, July 01, 2018
Families Belong Together Lakeland Rally w/Photos
Most people I know in the area probably went to the Tampa rally - those tend to be bigger and more awe-inspiring - earlier in the day, but I heard via Twitter from Betty Cracker of Balloon Juice that it got interrupted by a late morning thunderstorm (welcome to Florida, lightning capital of the Northwest hemisphere (which should actually be a quadsphere not a hemi, but I digress)).
At our march it was mostly grey and threatening, ending up with a bothersome drizzle as we started walking through downtown Lakeland (all five blocks of it, sigh).
I figure we had around 100 people and between four to eight puppies.
I documented what I could with pics and
 |
| This fat boy looks familiar. I wore my Captain America shirt because it seemed appropriate. |
I will work on getting the video uploaded.
I was too busy actually walking to get my smartphone out to record any of it, but we circled Munn Park a few times and performed a few chats.
Out of the car traffic that passed us, I would say we had 30-50 people honking their horns in favor and only 3 people being total jerkasses: one middle finger, one couple shouting pro-trump crap out the window, and one attempt at a Coal Roll exhaust blast. ALL THREE OF THEM were driving the oversized supertrucks most people shouldn't drive unless they really do haul 16 tons around work. I had to explain to a couple protesting beside me what Coal Rollers were and why they were the perfect example of deplorable trump voters. This is purely anecdotal on my part, but I figure we had a 10-to-1 balance of pro-family pro-immigrant support over the hater coalition.
I hope everyone else's marches went well. I am linking to updates that were posted at Balloon Juice over the weekend.
Keep marching. Keep protesting. Those kids need to be reunited with their families as soon as fucking possible. Our immigration policy needs to open up to asylum seekers and honest families looking for safe homes to raise their kids to go to college and contribute to our United States. We need to listen to the better angels of our nature.
Saturday, June 30, 2018
Out In the Streets, Fighting for Justice
I plan on being at the Families Belong Together rally in Lakeland this afternoon.
Pics to prove it happened forthcoming.
Stay safe at these rallies today, America.
Pics to prove it happened forthcoming.
Stay safe at these rallies today, America.
Friday, June 29, 2018
Personal Note: Getting Published With a Super Awesome Humor Horror Anthology 2018 Edition
Got a new story published this year in this anthology:
It's called "The Pumpkin Spice Must Flow" in the Strangely Funny Volume V humor horror series. It's on Amazon, and you can find the print copy with the ISBN-13 number 978-1949281002. There's a Kindle eBook version as well if you're doing the eReader scene.
Tell all your friends! I am planning on doing an autographed giveaway as soon as a shipment of copies get to me!
Meanwhile, I need to decrease my turnout here blogging, as I need to focus on writing projects for this year. I wanna needa hafta get a damn novel finished. sigh...
It's called "The Pumpkin Spice Must Flow" in the Strangely Funny Volume V humor horror series. It's on Amazon, and you can find the print copy with the ISBN-13 number 978-1949281002. There's a Kindle eBook version as well if you're doing the eReader scene.
Tell all your friends! I am planning on doing an autographed giveaway as soon as a shipment of copies get to me!
Meanwhile, I need to decrease my turnout here blogging, as I need to focus on writing projects for this year. I wanna needa hafta get a damn novel finished. sigh...
Thursday, June 28, 2018
Blood on the Streets of Annapolis, Blood In the Newsroom (w/ Update)
Jesus.
This attack on a newspaper office is coming on the heels of certain Far Right wingnuts openly calling for fellow wingnuts "to start gunning journalists down on sight." It's coming after months of donald trump calling reporters "enemy of the people."
We are at a moment when every form of public discourse is tinged with violence, and anger, and frustration while civil liberties are getting trampled by an administration eager to kill off due process.
We are at a moment where every sign in this nation is that we are honest to God in a Civil War. Side vs. Side, divided not by state lines but by conflicting ideologies of Right vs. Wrong.
Human Decency versus Sadistic Brutality.
And the brutes are gunning for a body count.
This isn't about angry guys with guns anymore.
This is about radicalized terrorists - toxic masculinity males - with an agenda to make this nation theirs by the tools of violence as their means.
I would still call for everyone I know who wants to stand for the right things - Freedom, Honesty, Justice, Legal Immigration and the Greeting of New Americans, the Right to Choose, the Right to Gay Marry, the Right to be You - to keep standing, to march in protests that are scheduled this Saturday to raise alarm about the children still being held prisoner by our sadistic government. We cannot back down even in the face of violence.
Love can drive out Hate.
But for the Love of God, stay safe.
Update (6/29/18): It is turning out the gunman had a specific grievance against the Capital Gazette newspaper, so this is falling back onto the argument against Angry White Guys With Guns. Still, we are now in a situation where the first impulse about any physical attack on reporters is by someone triggered by the Far Right on trump's word. The Dread that we as a nation are in a civil war is still a valid concern...
At least five people were killed and several others were “gravely injured” in a shooting Thursday afternoon at the Capital Gazette in Anne Arundel County, authorities said.
A shooter is in custody, police said. Police would not name the suspect, but said he was a Maryland resident in his late 30s and had specifically targeted the Capital.
“This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette,” said Anne Arundel County Deputy Police Chief William Krampf. “This person was prepared today to come in. He was prepared to shoot people...”
Phil Davis, a Capital Gazette crime reporter who was in the building at the time of the shooting, said multiple people were shot, as others — himself included — hid under their desks. He said there was a lone male gunman.
“Gunman shot through the glass door to the office and opened fire on multiple employees. Can’t say much more and don’t want to declare anyone dead, but it’s bad,” Davis wrote on Twitter as he waited to be interviewed by police.
“There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload...”
This attack on a newspaper office is coming on the heels of certain Far Right wingnuts openly calling for fellow wingnuts "to start gunning journalists down on sight." It's coming after months of donald trump calling reporters "enemy of the people."
We are at a moment when every form of public discourse is tinged with violence, and anger, and frustration while civil liberties are getting trampled by an administration eager to kill off due process.
We are at a moment where every sign in this nation is that we are honest to God in a Civil War. Side vs. Side, divided not by state lines but by conflicting ideologies of Right vs. Wrong.
Human Decency versus Sadistic Brutality.
And the brutes are gunning for a body count.
This isn't about angry guys with guns anymore.
This is about radicalized terrorists - toxic masculinity males - with an agenda to make this nation theirs by the tools of violence as their means.
I would still call for everyone I know who wants to stand for the right things - Freedom, Honesty, Justice, Legal Immigration and the Greeting of New Americans, the Right to Choose, the Right to Gay Marry, the Right to be You - to keep standing, to march in protests that are scheduled this Saturday to raise alarm about the children still being held prisoner by our sadistic government. We cannot back down even in the face of violence.
Love can drive out Hate.
But for the Love of God, stay safe.
Update (6/29/18): It is turning out the gunman had a specific grievance against the Capital Gazette newspaper, so this is falling back onto the argument against Angry White Guys With Guns. Still, we are now in a situation where the first impulse about any physical attack on reporters is by someone triggered by the Far Right on trump's word. The Dread that we as a nation are in a civil war is still a valid concern...
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Curled Up In a Coherent Rage
Justice Kennedy is retiring from the Supreme Court.
Try to think of every Far Right fantasy the wingnuts desire:
I dread the possibility that I will lose the right to say FUCK FUCK FUCK and FUCK THAT SHIT on my blog.
All of that will be possible under a Supreme Court that will lean six Republican votes to three Democratic ones.
I am starting to think Obama should have gone to the Senate floor and beaten McConnell over the head with a 2-by-4 until the Republicans agreed to vote on Merrick Garland.
To every Progressive, Far Left, Democratic-leaning voter who failed to show up for the 2010 and 2014 midterms, and who failed to show up to vote for Hillary in 2016, go fuck yourselves. The Judiciary Branch of the United States is now going to lean Far Right on every issue for the next 20-30 years. There's gonna be at least two trump appointees on the high bench, ruining our lives for half of the 21st Century. GODDAMN YOU.
And to Mitch McConnell (and your fellow Republican lackeys in the Senate) THE DEEPEST PIT OF HELL IS NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU.
Try to think of every Far Right fantasy the wingnuts desire:
- An absolute ban on abortion AND birth control, to the point where the criminalization of miscarrying will be allowed
- Shoving Christian Prayer back into schools and making secular law more religious
- Harsher immigration bans
- Curtailing every legal gain that Gays, Lesbians and Transgender people have received in the last 5-10 years. Rights of gays to marry, gone. Rights to serve in the military, gone
- Outright elimination of the Voting Rights Act
- Gutting of the Civil Rights Act
- Bringing back legalized segregation and other Jim Crow laws
- Making gun ownership not only easier to obtain but making gun ownership mandatory (for everyone not an ethnic minority)
- Denying equal pay for women, maybe even curtailing women's rights to work
- Granting more corporate control of our economy and our lives
- Pissing away any anti-trust powers our government has left
- Flushing our environmental protection laws down the toilet
I dread the possibility that I will lose the right to say FUCK FUCK FUCK and FUCK THAT SHIT on my blog.
All of that will be possible under a Supreme Court that will lean six Republican votes to three Democratic ones.
I am starting to think Obama should have gone to the Senate floor and beaten McConnell over the head with a 2-by-4 until the Republicans agreed to vote on Merrick Garland.
To every Progressive, Far Left, Democratic-leaning voter who failed to show up for the 2010 and 2014 midterms, and who failed to show up to vote for Hillary in 2016, go fuck yourselves. The Judiciary Branch of the United States is now going to lean Far Right on every issue for the next 20-30 years. There's gonna be at least two trump appointees on the high bench, ruining our lives for half of the 21st Century. GODDAMN YOU.
And to Mitch McConnell (and your fellow Republican lackeys in the Senate) THE DEEPEST PIT OF HELL IS NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
In the Pit of Antenora Resides The Dark Heart of Republican Treachery
Yeah, that's how moody I am tonight.
Spent the day railing against a horrific Supreme Court decision where five of the Republican Justices - including the one who stole a seat that Obama SHOULD HAVE filled - agreed with trump's evil Muslim travel ban, by ignoring the racism behind trump's intent and focusing instead on the vague wording that the Republicans use to excuse the reason the ban was put in place for.
Spent much of the day condemning one man: Mitch McConnell, the goddamn thief who obstructed Obama's turn to fill the Court vacancy both to deny Obama one more piece of legacy and to ensure a conservative dominance of the courts on the off-chance trump "won" the Presidential campaign (which he did through cheating, damn the Russians and damn McConnell for giving them political cover).
I wasn't the only one (to GQ's Jay Willis):
I said it before: The deepest pit of Hell is not enough for Mitch McConnell.
If you're wondering what the "Pit of Antenora" is, I'm referring to Dante's Inferno where he describes the levels of the Ninth Circle of Hell, where Treachery resides. Anternora is the level reserved for those who betrayed their nations. McConnell technically deserves to rot there.
But in truth the level of damage Mitch is causing requires his twisted dark soul to find a place even deeper and colder than the frozen lake trapping the worst of the worst. Preferably parked right under Satan's frozen ass. McConnell's been doing such a good job of ass-kissing for Putin, he's going to have the right experience looking up to the Prince of Darkness he so clearly serves.
We are so very royally fucked, America.
Spent the day railing against a horrific Supreme Court decision where five of the Republican Justices - including the one who stole a seat that Obama SHOULD HAVE filled - agreed with trump's evil Muslim travel ban, by ignoring the racism behind trump's intent and focusing instead on the vague wording that the Republicans use to excuse the reason the ban was put in place for.
Spent much of the day condemning one man: Mitch McConnell, the goddamn thief who obstructed Obama's turn to fill the Court vacancy both to deny Obama one more piece of legacy and to ensure a conservative dominance of the courts on the off-chance trump "won" the Presidential campaign (which he did through cheating, damn the Russians and damn McConnell for giving them political cover).
I wasn't the only one (to GQ's Jay Willis):
Nearly 18 months after President Trump rolled out the first of his clumsy, hamfisted attempts to disguise in legalese the implementation of his campaign promise to prevent Muslim people from entering the United States, the Supreme Court upheld the administration's Muslim ban in a 5-4 decision released on Tuesday morning. The majority opinion in Trump v. Hawaii, authored by Chief Justice Roberts, concludes that since the directive's authors were smart enough to call the ban something other than "Donald Trump's Official Muslim Ban No Burqas Allowed Woo-Hoo," it is therefore a lawful exercise of executive authority and cannot be overruled by judicial fiat...
The Hawaii decision makes 15 cases this term decided by the Court's most common five-justice conservative bloc: Kennedy, the traditional "swing vote," and then Roberts, Alito, Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch. These result is a grim reminder that the Court's newest justice holds that title only because Mitch McConnell shredded whatever scraps of integrity remained in his body in order to steal an appointment from President Obama—and, when Senate Democrats objected to Gorsuch's nomination on substantive grounds, disposed of some of the same hallowed Senate "norms" he had used to justify his craven power grab in the first place...
I said it before: The deepest pit of Hell is not enough for Mitch McConnell.
If you're wondering what the "Pit of Antenora" is, I'm referring to Dante's Inferno where he describes the levels of the Ninth Circle of Hell, where Treachery resides. Anternora is the level reserved for those who betrayed their nations. McConnell technically deserves to rot there.
But in truth the level of damage Mitch is causing requires his twisted dark soul to find a place even deeper and colder than the frozen lake trapping the worst of the worst. Preferably parked right under Satan's frozen ass. McConnell's been doing such a good job of ass-kissing for Putin, he's going to have the right experience looking up to the Prince of Darkness he so clearly serves.
We are so very royally fucked, America.
Monday, June 25, 2018
The Worst Impulses of an Angry trump Nation
While the Beltway media is sitting around in their overindulging circle jerk arguing about civility in Virginia restaurants we should not overlook the fact that OVER 2000 CHILDREN HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED BY OUR GOVERNMENT AND THAT THEY NEVER PLANNED TO REUNITE THESE FAMILIES.
Are you starting to understand this, America? Any of you? We are facing a humanitarian crisis of our government's own doing, and the people who are in any position to question this, fight back against this are all rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic just before Vesuvius erupts! (or something to that effect)
Then again, there's nothing we CAN do because the leadership we have in government knows exactly which part of America they answer to - that's not the majority - they answer to their primal angry destructive base. And I'm not the only one saying this. Drew Magary over at GQ is noting it too:
While this is all taking place, trump's policies are starting to have an adverse affect on the parts of the nation that supposedly supported trump. His tariff war against steel is forcing companies to shut down and forcing manufacturers like Harley Davidson to relocate to countries where the costs won't hurt them. Our farmers are starting to see their foreign markets close all doors to them.
But I guarantee you every single "trump Voter" is humming a happy tune tonight knowing every libtard and dark-skinned Other out there is feeling butt-hurt.
And the anger and rage that is cutting this nation further apart is getting worse because whatever leadership we have right now is too cowardly to make a moral stand and lead us away from our nation's worst impulses.
We are so very royally fucked as a nation. And about 62 million trump voters are loving every minute of it.
Are you starting to understand this, America? Any of you? We are facing a humanitarian crisis of our government's own doing, and the people who are in any position to question this, fight back against this are all rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic just before Vesuvius erupts! (or something to that effect)
Then again, there's nothing we CAN do because the leadership we have in government knows exactly which part of America they answer to - that's not the majority - they answer to their primal angry destructive base. And I'm not the only one saying this. Drew Magary over at GQ is noting it too:
...In fact, and oh wow you’re not gonna believe this, but Trump voters tend to grow even fonder of Trump the more he fucks up at his job. A near-infinite number of gallons of ink have been spilled trying to explain the fever grip Trump has over this inordinately powerful bloc of the electorate. He lies to them. Fox News lies to them on his behalf. The Internet lies to them. The establishment media (hi!) disdains them and sows their distrust as a result. They’re going through difficult times and need bogeymen to lash out at. Their schools are garbage. They’re hooked on opioids. They harbor deep racial and sexual resentments that have only been superficially addressed through the years. Since 2016, I have been fed explanation after explanation as to why these people act and vote the way that they do.
But what if, and hear me out on this… what if it’s because the people are the problem?
America is a broken democracy at the moment, and Trump’s presidency has revealed the myriad ways in which it always has been. Going by polls, our leadership does not accurately reflect the views of a majority of our population. And yet, ever since Trump was elected, I have had a very difficult time comprehending the fact that over 60 million people voted for him. Voted for THAT guy. It was an electorally unforgivable act, and yet they went ahead and did it anyway. These voters are always portrayed as beholden to forces outside of their control, both socioeconomic and political. But it is the will of those same people that put Trump in power and have approved of nearly all of the Republican Party’s efforts to mutilate democracy to better serve its own greed. The people did this...
At nearly every turn, our worst leaders are enabling our worst people. They are, in the most soulless possible fashion, REPRESENTING them. When Trump chucks a handful of Starburst at Angela Merkel, he’s representing the people. When an anonymous Trump official says that the official Trump Doctrine is “We’re America, Bitch,” they’re representing the people. And when Trump uses ICE as an agency of soft ethnic cleansing, he’s representing the people. If Trump has brought out the worst in them, well the worst was always there to begin with. I can say “Trump doesn’t REALLY stand for America” to myself over and over, but I know that’s a lie.
This is not a spell. There’s no prince who’s gonna ride in with true love’s first kiss and bring sunshine and flowers to the land once more. There is very little in America’s history to suggest that its evils haven’t been a direct result of the will of a sizable and highly influential number of its citizens, and it is an enormous abdication of leadership when politicians and titans of industry don’t have the sack to tell these people that they are WRONG.
Because they are. Trump voters were wrong to elect him president. They are wrong to support mass family jailings at the border. They are wrong to blindly support corrupt police and sheriff’s departments. It is a fundamental, perhaps lethal, flaw of our democracy that our leaders are rewarded more for catering to the people (and craftily exploiting them in the process) rather than actually serving and leading them...
While this is all taking place, trump's policies are starting to have an adverse affect on the parts of the nation that supposedly supported trump. His tariff war against steel is forcing companies to shut down and forcing manufacturers like Harley Davidson to relocate to countries where the costs won't hurt them. Our farmers are starting to see their foreign markets close all doors to them.
But I guarantee you every single "trump Voter" is humming a happy tune tonight knowing every libtard and dark-skinned Other out there is feeling butt-hurt.
And the anger and rage that is cutting this nation further apart is getting worse because whatever leadership we have right now is too cowardly to make a moral stand and lead us away from our nation's worst impulses.
We are so very royally fucked as a nation. And about 62 million trump voters are loving every minute of it.
Thursday, June 21, 2018
The Sins of Minority Party Rule (w/ Update)
It should be noted that a majority of Americans do not support trump and his lackeys on their horrific child kidnapping plan along the U.S. border. And yet, Congress is dragging its collective feet on the matter because both the House and the Senate are under Republican control, and the Republicans are profiting from this overt racism.
It should be noted that a majority of Americans do not support massive tax cuts for the rich, yet the Republicans controlling Congress passed a massive tax cut bill last year that only profits the rich and has done NOTHING for our nation's middle-income and working classes. Worse, they are poised to pass another deep tax cut bill for the upcoming 2019 budget.
It should be noted that a majority of Americans want affordable health care, yet the Republican Party in charge of everything keeps pursuing a Kill Obamacare agenda that hurts everyone but plays to their Obama-hating voting base.
It should be noted that a majority of Americans are Independent voters but tend to (barely) vote Democratic. But the Republicans control much of the federal government and a majority of state legislatures/governors, meaning that much of the legislation being passed aren't what the majority of voters wants or needs.
To take notes from Steve M. over at No More Mister Nice Blog:
John Cole over at Balloon Juice once brought up a desire to talk about Minority Party Rule in America, although I haven't seen a thorough article posted yet. It's a complex argument to make and hard to stay focused on because the rage of the idiocy of it all takes over and you have to step away for an hour before continuing (this has been a blog post months in the writing)
Minority Party Rule in the United States is a headache because our electoral system is based on Winner-Take-All: whoever gets the most votes - even if it's not a majority of votes - just wins that seat. As a result in certain elections where a spoiler third candidate runs - Perot in 1992 and 1996 for the Presidency, the gubernatorial elections that left Maine with unpopular LePage - a candidate the majority of voters didn't want can end up winning.
The Presidential election process takes on an extra layer of the Electoral College where it's not who wins the overall popular votes but who wins enough states (with their Electoral values). This was how trump - garnering only 42 percent of the popular vote below Hillary Clinton's 45 percent - stole the presidency (well that and Russian sabotage, but that's a separate rage point).
If we witness Minority Party Rule overseas, it's usually in the form of dictatorships where the ethnic or religious minority had been granted undue control of the nation or had played factions among the majority against themselves. Those nations tend to have bad histories of human rights abuses and civil wars because the majority population flares up against the minority that rules through force and corruption.
Minority Party Rule itself isn't always a problem: Most parliamentary systems are multi-party and rarely does a majority party gain enough seats to rule without hassle. Most elections won by a plurality forces the large parties to form coalitions to create a government stable enough to rule until the next set election (some coalitions do fall apart over certain issues, in which case the government falls and emergency elections kick in). The system still is responsive enough to react to crises that should force the right leadership into making the right coalitions to keep things working.
But in the system we have - a Federal Republic (not an actual democracy) of checks and balances -
it's harder to hold a government accountable when ONE party holds the key to ALL branches of government the way the Republicans currently control the Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary. Especially when that control came not due to the majority supporting it but due to rigging and gaming the electoral process.
When you look at the current leadership in DC, you'll see a Republican Party led by the likes of Ryan, McConnell and trump who all know they do NOT need to answer to the majority - they need to placate their minority base - and so they govern as they please, even in the face of polling numbers that mark them as some of the most unpopular life forms in modern memory. All they have to do is stoke their base to turnout for the midterms, all they have to do is keep their deep-pocket funders rolling in their tax-free profits, and let gerrymandering and voter suppression do the rest.
The only thing holding a Minority Rule Party like that accountable is The Reality-Based World. Bad governance leads to mistakes, which leads to disasters, which leads to outrage and angry majority voters who finally get sick of it all and try their best to flip the bad actors out of power.
Sad thing about that is, by the time those disasters take place - think the Iraqi Occupation, think Katrina, think the CDO Housing Subprime Bubble - the damage has been done. Innocent people have suffered, honest lives lost.
And then, damn us all, the SOBs responsible for all that avoid criminal accountability and regain the chance to lie and bully and steal their way back into power again.
Which is why we're facing a new round of disasters - Say hello to the Republicans trying to gut healthcare and Social Security! Say hello to trump's Baby Jails for immigrant toddlers! Say hello to trade wars against Canada and our FORMER Euro allies! - that will consume this nation in darkness, debt, and despair.
We can't keep playing this back-and-forth of sane Democratic MAJORITY leadership and insane Republican MINORITY misrule.
We really can't.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP VOTING REPUBLICAN. Fight back against gerrymandering. Get everyone you know registered to vote and balloting this midterms. It matters. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, OUR NATION AND OUR CHILDREN MATTER.
(Update 6/30/18): I still seem to be writing this out ahead of the Beltway curve. Dana Milbank at Washington Post is thinking along the same lines:
I dread it will explode, not from the majority fighting to take their power back but from the minority of Angry White Guys terrified of losing power they don't deserve.
It should be noted that a majority of Americans do not support massive tax cuts for the rich, yet the Republicans controlling Congress passed a massive tax cut bill last year that only profits the rich and has done NOTHING for our nation's middle-income and working classes. Worse, they are poised to pass another deep tax cut bill for the upcoming 2019 budget.
It should be noted that a majority of Americans want affordable health care, yet the Republican Party in charge of everything keeps pursuing a Kill Obamacare agenda that hurts everyone but plays to their Obama-hating voting base.
It should be noted that a majority of Americans are Independent voters but tend to (barely) vote Democratic. But the Republicans control much of the federal government and a majority of state legislatures/governors, meaning that much of the legislation being passed aren't what the majority of voters wants or needs.
To take notes from Steve M. over at No More Mister Nice Blog:
ONCE AGAIN, IT'S REPUBLICANS WHO ARE OUT OF STEP WITH THE REST OF AMERICA
CNN:
Two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the Trump administration's practice of taking undocumented immigrant children from their families and putting them in government facilities on US borders, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS. Only 28% approve. But among Republicans, there is majority support for the policy....
Quinnipiac:
American voters oppose 66 - 27 percent the policy of separating children and parents when families illegally cross the border into America, according to a Quinnipiac University National Poll released today.
Republican voters support the separation policy 55 - 35 percent, the only listed party, gender, education, age or racial group to support it...
I say this all the time: America is not primarily a conservative heartland that's besieged by a left-leaning minority living on the coasts and using elite status to tyrannize the majority. The major fault line in this country is between Republicans and everyone else in America. I'm not saying that this is a liberal country (although it is on a number of issues), but it is not a conservative country. Republican dominance of our government at the federal and state levels is largely an artifact of electoral gamesmanship and a highly effective conservative propaganda machine that successfully demonizes Democrats; it doesn't reflect majority support for Republican policies...What's happening here is what's called Minority Party Rule. It's not about political rule of an ethnic or religious minority - although in some nations like Syria and Iraq it worked out that way - it's about political rule by a group that does not reflect the political will of the majority.
John Cole over at Balloon Juice once brought up a desire to talk about Minority Party Rule in America, although I haven't seen a thorough article posted yet. It's a complex argument to make and hard to stay focused on because the rage of the idiocy of it all takes over and you have to step away for an hour before continuing (this has been a blog post months in the writing)
Minority Party Rule in the United States is a headache because our electoral system is based on Winner-Take-All: whoever gets the most votes - even if it's not a majority of votes - just wins that seat. As a result in certain elections where a spoiler third candidate runs - Perot in 1992 and 1996 for the Presidency, the gubernatorial elections that left Maine with unpopular LePage - a candidate the majority of voters didn't want can end up winning.
The Presidential election process takes on an extra layer of the Electoral College where it's not who wins the overall popular votes but who wins enough states (with their Electoral values). This was how trump - garnering only 42 percent of the popular vote below Hillary Clinton's 45 percent - stole the presidency (well that and Russian sabotage, but that's a separate rage point).
If we witness Minority Party Rule overseas, it's usually in the form of dictatorships where the ethnic or religious minority had been granted undue control of the nation or had played factions among the majority against themselves. Those nations tend to have bad histories of human rights abuses and civil wars because the majority population flares up against the minority that rules through force and corruption.
Minority Party Rule itself isn't always a problem: Most parliamentary systems are multi-party and rarely does a majority party gain enough seats to rule without hassle. Most elections won by a plurality forces the large parties to form coalitions to create a government stable enough to rule until the next set election (some coalitions do fall apart over certain issues, in which case the government falls and emergency elections kick in). The system still is responsive enough to react to crises that should force the right leadership into making the right coalitions to keep things working.
But in the system we have - a Federal Republic (not an actual democracy) of checks and balances -
it's harder to hold a government accountable when ONE party holds the key to ALL branches of government the way the Republicans currently control the Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary. Especially when that control came not due to the majority supporting it but due to rigging and gaming the electoral process.
When you look at the current leadership in DC, you'll see a Republican Party led by the likes of Ryan, McConnell and trump who all know they do NOT need to answer to the majority - they need to placate their minority base - and so they govern as they please, even in the face of polling numbers that mark them as some of the most unpopular life forms in modern memory. All they have to do is stoke their base to turnout for the midterms, all they have to do is keep their deep-pocket funders rolling in their tax-free profits, and let gerrymandering and voter suppression do the rest.
The only thing holding a Minority Rule Party like that accountable is The Reality-Based World. Bad governance leads to mistakes, which leads to disasters, which leads to outrage and angry majority voters who finally get sick of it all and try their best to flip the bad actors out of power.
Sad thing about that is, by the time those disasters take place - think the Iraqi Occupation, think Katrina, think the CDO Housing Subprime Bubble - the damage has been done. Innocent people have suffered, honest lives lost.
And then, damn us all, the SOBs responsible for all that avoid criminal accountability and regain the chance to lie and bully and steal their way back into power again.
Which is why we're facing a new round of disasters - Say hello to the Republicans trying to gut healthcare and Social Security! Say hello to trump's Baby Jails for immigrant toddlers! Say hello to trade wars against Canada and our FORMER Euro allies! - that will consume this nation in darkness, debt, and despair.
We can't keep playing this back-and-forth of sane Democratic MAJORITY leadership and insane Republican MINORITY misrule.
We really can't.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP VOTING REPUBLICAN. Fight back against gerrymandering. Get everyone you know registered to vote and balloting this midterms. It matters. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, OUR NATION AND OUR CHILDREN MATTER.
(Update 6/30/18): I still seem to be writing this out ahead of the Beltway curve. Dana Milbank at Washington Post is thinking along the same lines:
Republicans have been defying gravity for some time. As New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait reminds us in a smart piece, they lost the popular vote in six of the last seven presidential elections. Electoral college models show Republicans could plausibly continue to win the White House without popular majorities.
Because of partisan gerrymandering and other factors, Democrats could win by eight percentage points and still not gain control of the House, one study found. And the two-senators-per-state system (which awards people in Republican Wyoming 70 times more voting power than people in Democratic California) gives a big advantage to rural, Republican states...
The backlash is coming. It is the deserved consequence of minority-rule government protecting the rich over everybody else, corporations over workers, whites over nonwhites and despots over democracies. It will explode, God willing, at the ballot box and not in the streets...
I dread it will explode, not from the majority fighting to take their power back but from the minority of Angry White Guys terrified of losing power they don't deserve.
Monday, June 18, 2018
Children Crying For Their Parents in trump's America
Jesus.
This is just 10 children we can hear. Multiply this to 2000 children. Keep multiplying because this is what trump and Sessions and Neilsen and the rest of those sadists in the White House want to do to every Latino/Hispanic child they find, I shit you not.
They are going after Naturalized families now, on top of all these families trying to find asylum and help in the United States. They are going to go after more children, and even more children, and even more.
And it's not even because they're trying to use these kids as trading chits to force the Democrats in Congress to sign in on trump's goddamn Wall.
They're doing this because they enjoy it. They've stirred up decades of anti-Latino outrage and they're pumped on that Fear and Hate and they're reveling every minute in this hell they've inflicted on others.
This isn't about the gangs. These aren't members of MS-13 getting thrown into cages. These are not drug mules, or gun smugglers, or rapists, or thieves, or rioters, or monsters.
They are FIVE YEAR OLD CHILDREN.
CHILDREN.
GODDAMN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. GODDAMN JEFF SESSIONS. GODDAMN KIRSTJEN NEILSEN. GODDAMN donald trump. GODDAMN THE 62 MILLION WHO VOTED FOR THIS SHIT.
You can end this TODAY, Republicans. YOU CAN. Not the Democrats, not Hillary, not Obama. THIS IS ALL ON REPUBLICANS. THIS POLICY OF HATE INFLICTED ON CHILDREN IS ALL ON REPUBLICANS.
GODDAMN YOU.
This is just 10 children we can hear. Multiply this to 2000 children. Keep multiplying because this is what trump and Sessions and Neilsen and the rest of those sadists in the White House want to do to every Latino/Hispanic child they find, I shit you not.
They are going after Naturalized families now, on top of all these families trying to find asylum and help in the United States. They are going to go after more children, and even more children, and even more.
And it's not even because they're trying to use these kids as trading chits to force the Democrats in Congress to sign in on trump's goddamn Wall.
They're doing this because they enjoy it. They've stirred up decades of anti-Latino outrage and they're pumped on that Fear and Hate and they're reveling every minute in this hell they've inflicted on others.
This isn't about the gangs. These aren't members of MS-13 getting thrown into cages. These are not drug mules, or gun smugglers, or rapists, or thieves, or rioters, or monsters.
They are FIVE YEAR OLD CHILDREN.
CHILDREN.
GODDAMN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. GODDAMN JEFF SESSIONS. GODDAMN KIRSTJEN NEILSEN. GODDAMN donald trump. GODDAMN THE 62 MILLION WHO VOTED FOR THIS SHIT.
You can end this TODAY, Republicans. YOU CAN. Not the Democrats, not Hillary, not Obama. THIS IS ALL ON REPUBLICANS. THIS POLICY OF HATE INFLICTED ON CHILDREN IS ALL ON REPUBLICANS.
GODDAMN YOU.
Thursday, June 14, 2018
What the Republicans Are Doing To Children
The ongoing immigration issue with trump's aggressive policies is turning into a quagmire of questionable and unethical and inhumane practices.
Offensive above all is how - seemingly beginning under trump's misrule - the Border Patrol and ICE agents are intentionally splitting up families "in order to send a message". This message just happens to be "Hey, Mexico and Central America! The United States is now led by a group of rampaging assholes!"
'Cause only assholes would take a baby getting nursed by her mother.
The situation has gotten enough attention - especially after a reporter did a recent tour of a detention facility (converted from an empty Wal-Mart, how's THAT for symbolic?) - to where the DC Press Corps tried asking the White House Press Room about what was going on.
The answers they got? Shut up and don't question your government overlords.
Specifically, Attorney General Sessions came out and quoted the Bible at everybody: "Persons who violate the law of our nation are subject to prosecution. I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order..."
So Sessions wants to quote the Bible at us to justify inhumane and sadistic behavior?
This is what I thought immediately in response:
That gets quoted again in Matthew from the Gospels, specifically the part where Herod massacres every boy child in an attempt to kill the Baby Jesus. HOW'S THAT FOR A BIBLICAL REFERENCE, SESSIONS YOU SONOFABITCH PHARISEE.
But that's not the Biblical quote most have been going for. The more common quotes have been:
The proper Christian response to immigration is to be more humane; to improve our system of asylum to allow those fleeing persecution, terror and war; to keep families intact and safe.
The proper American response to immigration should be to realize that ALL Americans come from everywhere - my ancestors were immigrants, we are ALL the sons and daughters of immigrants - by virtue that those who seek our shores WANT to be Americans.
On both counts, trump and his buddy Sessions and pretty much EVERY Republican who revels in bashing immigrants - not just the illegals, but even the ones who are Naturalized and working towards Citizenship - are failing. There are missing children, sacrificed to lapsed mismanagement and neglect and God knows what else. They don't care. Worse, they're enjoying this.
Sadists and Pharisees, the lot of them. Hypocrites and criminals all.
America should be better than this, people. We should be treating children better than this. Goddamn us.
Offensive above all is how - seemingly beginning under trump's misrule - the Border Patrol and ICE agents are intentionally splitting up families "in order to send a message". This message just happens to be "Hey, Mexico and Central America! The United States is now led by a group of rampaging assholes!"
'Cause only assholes would take a baby getting nursed by her mother.
The situation has gotten enough attention - especially after a reporter did a recent tour of a detention facility (converted from an empty Wal-Mart, how's THAT for symbolic?) - to where the DC Press Corps tried asking the White House Press Room about what was going on.
The answers they got? Shut up and don't question your government overlords.
Specifically, Attorney General Sessions came out and quoted the Bible at everybody: "Persons who violate the law of our nation are subject to prosecution. I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order..."
So Sessions wants to quote the Bible at us to justify inhumane and sadistic behavior?
This is what I thought immediately in response:
This is what the Lord says:
“A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.” - Jeremiah 31:15
That gets quoted again in Matthew from the Gospels, specifically the part where Herod massacres every boy child in an attempt to kill the Baby Jesus. HOW'S THAT FOR A BIBLICAL REFERENCE, SESSIONS YOU SONOFABITCH PHARISEE.
But that's not the Biblical quote most have been going for. The more common quotes have been:
“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." - Leviticus 19:33
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me...” - Matthew 25:35
The proper Christian response to immigration is to be more humane; to improve our system of asylum to allow those fleeing persecution, terror and war; to keep families intact and safe.
The proper American response to immigration should be to realize that ALL Americans come from everywhere - my ancestors were immigrants, we are ALL the sons and daughters of immigrants - by virtue that those who seek our shores WANT to be Americans.
On both counts, trump and his buddy Sessions and pretty much EVERY Republican who revels in bashing immigrants - not just the illegals, but even the ones who are Naturalized and working towards Citizenship - are failing. There are missing children, sacrificed to lapsed mismanagement and neglect and God knows what else. They don't care. Worse, they're enjoying this.
Sadists and Pharisees, the lot of them. Hypocrites and criminals all.
America should be better than this, people. We should be treating children better than this. Goddamn us.
Monday, June 11, 2018
Doubts About Singapore This Week
Just to note that right now trump is in Singapore planning to meet face-to-face with Kim Jong Un, despite all of the earlier bashing, mockery, failure to commit (on trump's part), and scrambling to save face (also on trump's part).
trump is REALLY REALLY desperate to "earn" himself a Nobel Peace Prize. Most Republicans have this insane love/hate/really-hate relationship with that Peace Prize: They argue whenever Democrats receive it - Gore, Obama, others - and belittle it whenever possible, but at the same time they make excessive "nomination" efforts (many of them aren't even allowed to do so, doesn't stop them from acting like idiots in public) to get their warmongering guys like Dubya and even trump to win one because it conveys Statesman status.
Anyway, trump is trying to establish his foreign policy mastery - right after insulting the hell out of Canada and the rest of the G7 allies - by doing his damnedest to suck up to the North Korean dictator to try and get the tiniest concessions he can fake getting. trump has already agreed not to bring up anything that would offend Kim to his face - especially human rights abuses - and there's little else that trump is bringing as incentives for bargaining chips as need be.
Under normal circumstances, I hope for the best possible outcome of any foreign nation negotiations not just for the United States but also our allies in the region who can benefit from peace or stability.
But in this case, I don't want to get my hopes up. trump is going to be way out of his league here, and Kim is likely to walk away from this visit with all these gifts and leaving none behind for ourselves.
You gotta remember, trump's negotiation skills are not all that great: He panders, he bullies, he demands, he tries to wear down his opponent but offers little in exchange worth taking. Against small businesspersons and contractors unable to keep up, it works. Against political peers, well... Just look at the disaster that was this weekend in Quebec. All trump got out of that was the certainty his tariff trade war is going to escalate, and not in our favor.
The best possible outcome out of this is that Guam gets a chance to get out of U.S. protection and switch over to Japan or something. 'Cause right now they're sitting ducks for any Korean missile strikes if trump ever brings up his goddamned "lil Rocket Man" barbs.
Just remember to Duck and Cover, Asia. Duck and Cover...
trump is REALLY REALLY desperate to "earn" himself a Nobel Peace Prize. Most Republicans have this insane love/hate/really-hate relationship with that Peace Prize: They argue whenever Democrats receive it - Gore, Obama, others - and belittle it whenever possible, but at the same time they make excessive "nomination" efforts (many of them aren't even allowed to do so, doesn't stop them from acting like idiots in public) to get their warmongering guys like Dubya and even trump to win one because it conveys Statesman status.
Anyway, trump is trying to establish his foreign policy mastery - right after insulting the hell out of Canada and the rest of the G7 allies - by doing his damnedest to suck up to the North Korean dictator to try and get the tiniest concessions he can fake getting. trump has already agreed not to bring up anything that would offend Kim to his face - especially human rights abuses - and there's little else that trump is bringing as incentives for bargaining chips as need be.
Under normal circumstances, I hope for the best possible outcome of any foreign nation negotiations not just for the United States but also our allies in the region who can benefit from peace or stability.
But in this case, I don't want to get my hopes up. trump is going to be way out of his league here, and Kim is likely to walk away from this visit with all these gifts and leaving none behind for ourselves.
You gotta remember, trump's negotiation skills are not all that great: He panders, he bullies, he demands, he tries to wear down his opponent but offers little in exchange worth taking. Against small businesspersons and contractors unable to keep up, it works. Against political peers, well... Just look at the disaster that was this weekend in Quebec. All trump got out of that was the certainty his tariff trade war is going to escalate, and not in our favor.
The best possible outcome out of this is that Guam gets a chance to get out of U.S. protection and switch over to Japan or something. 'Cause right now they're sitting ducks for any Korean missile strikes if trump ever brings up his goddamned "lil Rocket Man" barbs.
Just remember to Duck and Cover, Asia. Duck and Cover...
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