Slouching Towards Oblivion

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Saturday, September 29, 2018

I Wish I Could Do That

Kavanaugh vs Tarentino

One More Time



Ronan Farrow is turning out to be quite the investigator. And while the fact of Ramirez isn't new, the story of the Repubs holding it back explains how they managed to (eg) come up with a list of 65 women to "vouch" for Kavanaugh's character on such very short notice.

At that point, Heather Sawyer, the Democratic staffer who was copied on the e-mails in accordance with committee policy, wrote to Davis, “As you’re aware, Ms. Ramirez’s counsel have repeatedly requested to speak with the Committee, on a bipartisan basis, to determine how to proceed. You refused. I’ve never encountered an instance where the Committee has refused even to speak with an individual or counsel. I am perplexed as to why this is happening here, except that it seems designed to ensure that the Majority can falsely claim that Ms. Ramirez and her lawyers refused to cooperate. That simply is not true.”

They knew there were some major problems in this asshat's past and weirdly, the "woman problem" may be the one they actually want us to focus on, so we can be made to overlook the truly horrendous shit he's pulled as a long-time GOP operative, specializing in Rat-Fuckery.

I just like to remind myself of these things. 



And also too - thinking about Kavanaugh's little hissy fits on Thursday, imagine what this jagoff is going to be like in a debate with SCOTUS colleagues behind the doors.

And also too, pt 2: Imagine Donald Segretti, as a mean drunk, being elevated to SCOTUS.

Come At Me, Bro


If you're still on board with Cult45, you have no way to troll me effectively, because it's all but certain there's nothing in your opinion that can be identified as factual, or logic-based - which makes it impossible to respect the intellect behind that opinion.

Your MAGA hat, and your big red Xs, and your 4Chan QAnon baloney, and your DumFux News bullet points all demonstrate that you and I are simply not morally compatible.

Say your worst - it's meaningless - it's nothing - it's balloon juice and sail boat fuel.

hat tip = @JohnPavlovitz

Quick Reminder


37 days until 11-06-18

Friday, September 28, 2018

Today's Pix

click it




















Oops - Just Missed


A hero

On 26 September 1983, just three weeks after the Soviet military had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, Petrov was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system when the system reported that a missile had been launched from the United States, followed by up to five more. Petrov judged the reports to be a false alarm,[1] and his decision to disobey orders, against Soviet military protocol,[2] is credited with having prevented an erroneous retaliatory nuclear attack on the United States and its NATO allies that could have resulted in large-scale nuclear war. Investigation later confirmed that the Soviet satellite warning system had indeed malfunctioned.

Now imagine this while Cult45's in charge.

Pick A Little Guitar

Almost Too Late - Dan Schwartz (harp guitar)

Fake Jesus, Make It Stop


Brett Kavanaugh's support gang is not looking real supportive.

But let's talk about how eleven Shouty Old White Dudes managed to miss a great opportunity - and I'm not referring to how they failed to ask the right questions of a nominee who's "qualified" for SCOTUS, while being so totally fucking wrong for the job.

The committee had an expert witness in front of them for hours - someone who has academic credentials out the wazoo, who's a seasoned pro in a field of study that ties in perfectly with the experience of millions of sexual assault victims, and who knows a lot about the inner workings of the human brain - and sadly they missed the chance to ask her the one truly important question: "Dr Ford, please take a few minutes and explain to us why we're acting like such assholes about this whole thing."


And BTW - a coupla points about how Kavanaugh has such great regard for women that his staffers are almost exclusively female:

1 - why would a predator not surround himself with potential prey?

2 - The Charlie Wilson crap: "They can learn how to type, and do the filing - they can't learn how to grow tits."

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Today's Tweet



Well - it can't be irony - these idiots killed that a long time ago.  We're gonna need some new words.

The Logic Circle

First we make it all but impossible for American farmers to sell their goods to China. Then we borrow money from China to rescue American farmers because they can't sell their goods to China. Then Wall Street collects a percentage of the interest on the loans, paid by American farmers.

Trumponomics

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Keep Calm

...and pick a little guitar.

Roxane Elfasci:


Sorry - I can't find this on Amazon.


Today's Quote


You can't make somebody understand something if their salary depends upon them not understanding it.
--Upton Sinclair

Monday, September 24, 2018

The Whole Standing Army Thing


The debate had begun to rage as I entered high school - All-Volunteer vs Conscription-Augmented.

We're seeing the reality of what both the Founders and the Wacky Hippie Alarmists tried to warn us about.

The Brookings Inst:

The gap in civilian and military experiences in the United States over the 17 years since 9/11 has led to persuasive, persistent, and unrealistic myths that have eroded faith in civilian leadership of defense policy. Among these myths are the superior virtue of military over other kinds of public service; that battlefield experience is the most authoritative source of military policy expertise; and that an exclusively civilian background is inadequate for strategic defense leadership. In the United States, these myths are nurtured and perpetuated by both military and civilian communities and affect general public opinion as well as the attitudes of national security professionals. These myths are also corrosive. Unless they are acknowledged, addressed, and challenged, future civilian leaders may struggle to control the use of force—a profound problem for a democratic system. Downgrading civilian leadership will weaken U.S. national security and the military itself.


It's easy for a Boomer like me to have a knee-jerk reaction against reinstating the draft.  "My war" was Viet Nam, and by the time it was my turn to sweat the lottery, I knew it was already very unlikely that I'd ever be anywhere near the joint, even if I hadn't beaten the 4-1 or 5-1 odds against being selected in the first place (my magic number was 239 in a year when they were "only taking" 1-95).

Anyway, fast forward to other wars of choice - Afghanistan and Iraq - and we see a very familiar variation on the theme of how fucked it all gets if we're not careful. 

During Viet Nam, the draft system got totally corrupted because the "privileged white" kids who had access to lawyers and doctors and other influencers could practically opt out of the draft while the poorer kids - ie: black kids, and others from the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder - ended up being way over-representated.

In the 2000s, you start out with a really solid military - fairly representative of the American society as a whole. But once it's clear that Afghanistan and Iraq are turning sour, the military starts to run dry (because people do wise up eventually), and we get a lower quality product as a result of the same piss poor management that gets us into stoopid-ass wars to begin with.

I won't recount all the shitty things we've done to our people in uniform (and continue to do to them). Suffice to say that I hope we've relearned the lessons of the founders - that we understand that it's a bad idea to let anybody with guns and tanks and airplanes have too much unchecked power to make the decisions on how they use all that shit.

And the draft? No matter how you try to unrig it, there will always be major problems with a conscripted military. But if we allow the military to be part of a Plutocratic system of government (that a professional military always pushes towards), we let ourselves in for problems that pose the same level of existential threat to the democracy that having no military at all would pose.

Any professional military - standing army or otherwise - is a danger to democratic self-governance.

I think it all goes back to the basics of how we build in the checks and balances. The system that makes sure we maintain the appropriate separations of power. 

And all of that depends on a well-informed public.

Don Caron


A new parody from Don Caron - The Parody Project, Environmentally Resigned:


From the posting notes:

Published on Sep 24, 2018
Parody of Gentle on My Mind by John Hartford

Every day Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is in office, he works to destroy our public lands and waters at the expense of our communities. He needs to be "environmentally resigned."

He proposed gutting Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. He wants to massively ramp up oil and gas drilling off our coasts. And he’s trying to slash protections for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

There are already 14 federal investigations into Zinke’s decision-making, misuse of funds, and potential corruption.

Use the link below to sign the petition to fire Zinke now.

https://us.e-activist.com/ea-action/e...

To help keep Parody Project alive and functioning, please visit https://parodyproject.com/supportus

Parody Project Store: https://parodyproject.com/shop

To become a Patron of Parody Project please visit our Patreon Page:
https://www.patreon.com/parodyproject

You can sign up to our mailing list on our website so you don't miss any of our new posts.
https://parodyproject.com/subscribe/

A Chestnut

...and I couldn't care less about that - it's great, and sadly it seems, there will never be a time when we don't need reminding of the universal theme of how individual toughness feeds into the cooperative effort necessary to make us all free.

Still I Rise --Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise

hat tip = FB pal Vicki W-Eckhart

A Question

Mollie Tibbetts was murdered by an "illegal" and Cult45 started jumping and and down screaming, and otherwise losing their shit over it.

"Immigrant" Celia Barquin Arozamena is murdered by a white American-born guy, and  -


So, my question(s): 

Are we looking for balance here? 

Are we seeing something from the Press Poodles that points a finger at GOP cherry-picking? 

And if either or both of those is the case, what's the fuckin' difference?

Welcome to (hopefully) the height of The Propaganda War.

For what it's worth: