Slouching Towards Oblivion

Sunday, December 30, 2018

The Fail

When the rubes are a bit unclear on the concept - because the "leader" is not fully competent, and fails to explain it well.

Today's Quote


Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought.
-To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears.
-To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.
-To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen.
-To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.

Saturday, December 29, 2018

Rise Of The Machines

Under the general heading: Oddly - And A Bit Disturbingly - Satisfying.

A Step Forward

Negotiating without framing the outcome as winners and losers.

If we have an argument instead of a fist fight, that's called progress. But we've allowed our attitude to backslide into looking at the debate as a battle.

If I learn something new and I change my mind about the issue we're debating, the current way we see these things requires me to be labeled the loser, which makes me more likely to rationalize a point of view that almost has to evolve into something totally radical and unworthy of support.


You Are Not So Smart Podcast:

Today's Tweet



This is the only award anyone at DumFux News is likely ever to get.

Friday, December 28, 2018

Weekly Address

If you're still willing to say the Dems lack a message - or to believe someone else when they say it - please do us all a favor and fuck the fuck off.


116th Congress - HR 1:
  • Voting
  • Transparency of campaign money
  • Ethical standards
"...a more perfect union..."

There was a wave. It was blue. Shut the fuck up and get to work.

Today's Beau

Beau Of The 5th Column

Today's GIF


Today's Quote


Looking at life from a different perspective makes you realize that it's not the deer that's crossing the road - it's the road that's crossing the forrest.
-- Muhammad Ali

Ruh-oh, Reorge


This time for sure.

Peter Stone and Greg Gordon, McClatchy DC:

A mobile phone traced to President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen briefly sent signals ricocheting off cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, leaving an electronic record to support claims that Cohen met secretly there with Russian officials, four people with knowledge of the matter say.
During the same period of late August or early September, electronic eavesdropping by an Eastern European intelligence agency picked up a conversation among Russians, one of whom remarked that Cohen was in Prague, two people familiar with the incident said.
The phone and surveillance data, which have not previously been disclosed, lend new credence to a key part of a former British spy’s dossier of Kremlin intelligence describing purported coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia’s election meddling operation.

But Cohen continues to lie about it, tweeting recently that he's never been to Prague, or to the Czech Republic.

And then - just in case you were afraid it wouldn't get any weirder or uglier - we get this from Michael Burke, The Hill:

A lawyer for a Russian company that has been indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller said Mueller has "collected a nude selfie" as part of his probe into the Russian company.
In the court filing, Eric Dubelier — an attorney for Concord Management and Consulting — accused Mueller's team of illegally keeping information from the company.

Dubelier also said in the filing that among the millions of records that the special counsel has collected as evidence in the case is a "nude selfie."

“Could the manner in which he collected a nude selfie really threaten the national security of the United States?” Dubelier wrote.

Concord Management and Consulting is among the Russian entities and Russian nationals that Mueller indicted earlier this year, accusing them of participating in a Russian troll farm's effort to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the election as well as possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Today's Quote

The glory of justice and the majesty of law are created not just by the Constitution - nor by the courts - nor by the officers of the law - nor by the lawyers - but by the men and women who constitute our society - who are the protectors of the law as they are themselves protected by the law.
-- Robert F Kennedy

Thursday, December 27, 2018

On Being Stoopid


The secret to demagoguery is to make yourself seem as stoopid as the average citizen. Then that average citizen will think he's as clever as his leaders. He'll believe he's in on the joke, and  he'll never admit he's been left holding the bag.


Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Christmas Wishes

Here's hoping we all eventually get what most of us wanted for Christmas.

Score Card

It's good to know Shep Smith is trying to keep it 100, even though we can't really be sure this isn't just ass-covering.  

But I think get it - DumFux News needs some kind of beard; they need plausible deniability; something that muddies up the water a little; something that lets them maintain the illusion that their "coverage" during the day is real news while their prime time programming is all about opinion and blah blah blah.

Anyway, Media Matters For America does some good work once in a while by making these mashups so we can keep track of some of the epic volume of bullshit that flies out of Cult45 at record speed.


Monday, December 24, 2018

Make A Joyful Noise


After all the shouting and pain and bloodshed that go hand in hand with religion and the politics that comes with religion, I'm always left with these three things:

One is my atheism - and thank god for that.

Another one is that eventually, we get to Christmas, where we find some amazing and glorious music to help us process all the silly (and often dangerous) weirdness that goes on in our minds.

The third is a wish - that we could just stick to the art, and learn how to skip all that other shit.

Sometimes it's hard not to see winter as bleak and harsh and bereft of anything hopeful, even knowing it's just part of the continuing cycle of our lives. But if we hold each other in the warmth of our hearts, we're not alone - and we can welcome a long and lustrous season waiting for spring.

Merry Christmas, everybody.



Making for home

Saturday, December 22, 2018

Great Line

Got done Christmas shopping, leaving the dollar store, I glanced over and I saw Chuck Norris, face down in a pool of his own blood. 
I helped him to his feet, I blurted out “ Chuck, what happened?!” He turned, spit out a tooth, looked into my soul and said one word... “Ginsburg”

ProLeftPod

  • No "Best Of" nonsense here, guys - a fresh episode every Friday, no matter what.
  • Losing DumFux News
  • Christmas got its start with a mad king doing some really scary shit
  • Cue David Brooks
  • Gender Neutral Gingerbread Persons





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