The McCain Incident

White House staff was so worried about giving 45* something to bitch at them about, they decided it would be a good idea to hide the USS John S McCain from his sight while visiting Japan.

Here's the eMail from those staffers to the advance team:

Of course 45* says he knew nothing of this, and even though our base assumption has to be that he's lying - since he lies pretty much all the time - it might be OK to take his word for it because we know that his default position is to know practically nothing about practically everything.

But it all fits. It doesn't matter to 45* what's true or not true. He's constantly working to undermine our ability to figure it out for ourselves, with the intent of putting himself in the position of being the final arbiter on all things.

"I'm the most powerful man on the planet, and I can make your life a lot worse than it already is - so you can either believe what I say, or what you see with your own lyin' eyes."

The war on reality is a thing. The Daddy State doesn't want you to know how to think. It insists on telling you what to think.

Today's Tweet(s)

We are still America, because this...

NEW: The White House wanted the USS John McCain “out of sight” for Trump’s visit to Japan. A tarp was hung over the ship’s name ahead of the trip, and sailors—who wear caps bearing the ship’s name—were given the day off for Trump’s visit. w/@gluboldhttps://t.co/6ugPceCOre pic.twitter.com/KuIoWJK5Kt

— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) May 29, 2019

...gives us good ideas on how to countervail the worst tendencies of The Daddy State.

I’m calling my uterus John McCain so Trump’s government keeps away from it.

— Jena Friedman (@JenaFriedman) May 30, 2019

Time for DC City Council to rename Pennsylvania Avenue, "John McCain Avenue" ?

— David Frum (@davidfrum) May 30, 2019

Oh Dang - Now I See It

Key & Peele

A Video

And then there was a wolverine just walking by - carrying the head of a goat.

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I'll stand with these folks every day. Because they're the real Americans - not this phony made-up bullshit story about ignoring the workin' guy in flyover country and Wonder Bread and the heart-n-soul of blah blah fucking blah.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best....They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems...”

Wrong. Hard-working immigrants like this family Make America Great and help put food on our tables. https://t.co/qzWJaIXWA9

— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) May 28, 2019

Weekend Hangover

Spotted aboard ship somewhere around Japan, as 45* was getting ready to deliver a Memorial Day address.

And of course, it just had to be aboard the USS WASP, right? Because these white-bread MAGA dicks are nothing if not ham-handed, obvious, and about as sharp as a bag full of wet yarn.

Anyway - UCMJ Article 134 would seem to be pretty clear on prohibiting political activities while in uniform. But they're aboard ship, and they've been ordered to assemble, and so they can make a plausible case (at least to the public) that they're just showing support for their CinC, which gives us another perfect example of Cult45 operating in SmarmSpace®.

Aside from that, though, is the corrosive effect of all this Kiss-Ass. When exactly did it become acceptable - bordering on preferable - to make your way through the ranks in the US military just by sucking up to the boss?

45* has spent his whole life accomplishing practically nothing, deflecting responsibility for his massive shortcomings, and always failing up to the next higher position. And now he's at the head of the one of the greatest organizations in history, and his management style is coming down to the rank and file as Style-Over-Substance - don't worry about doing the job, just make yourself look good, and blame everybody else for the fuckups.

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Sam Stone - John Prine:

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The House That Ralph Built

Usually, when Americans talk about "creative destruction", we're rationalizing doing something shitty to people "in the name of progress" or "for the good of the economy" or whatever the plutocrats need us to buy into so we're distracted and not paying attention as they fuck us with our pants on.

Sometimes though, it really is a thing of beauty.

Today, 10AM EDT, Charlottesville VA

I was going to see if I could figure out a way to do a compare-n-contrast thing - like:

"How Americans see the destruction of their historical landmarks versus how Syrians see the destruction of theirs."

But somehow, self-restraint got the better of me.

No Time To Check Out

There's a bi-partisan, almost universal, condemnation of Press Poodles. Everybody loves to hate "the media". But the reasons people criticize news outlets are important because there are important differences in that criticism.

"Conservatives" like to paint themselves as the true patriots and defenders of Real America, so they shit on the press for always poking holes in their stories and showing up Republicans (mostly) to be hypocrites and pinch-faced blue-nosed puritans who think politics is about ruling the public instead of serving us.

"Liberals" shit on the media for their constant attempts to substitute "balance" for factual analysis in service to profitability - the standard bullshit of scampering back to "Both sides do it" and "Yeah, but the Democrats..."

What's happening with Julian Assange is a weird thing that does not bode well.

I've been very critical of Assange because I think he was played for a stooge by Putin et al. And I think he crossed the line, moving from "the right to publish once something's been leaked" to "let's help the leaker steal a bunch of embarrassing shit that'll make us a pile of money when we publish it".

It can be a really fine line, but there's a line. IMHO, Julian Assange is not a Katherine-Graham-level hero.

However, things have changed a bit now. Cult45 is going after Assange, not for stealing the stuff, but for publishing it. And that's a whole new bag of fuckery.

Rachel (and pay particular attention at about 15:50, when she gets to the part about Austria):

Closing In

People often describe him as “unraveling,” but that implies he was once fully knitted.

Dana Milbank, WaPo:

This is not the work of an orderly mind.

President Trump stormed into the Cabinet Room 15 minutes late Wednesday morning and immediately proceeded to blow up a long-planned meeting with Democratic leaders about an infrastructure bill. He raged against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for the terrible, horrible things she has said about him, and he vowed not to work on any legislation until Democrats stop investigating his administration. He stomped out of the room before Democrats had a chance to reply, then marched into the Rose Garden for an unscheduled news conference — or, more accurately, a 12-minute parade of paranoia.

Positively everybody was out to get him. They were out to get him in the third person: “They hated President Trump. They hated him with a passion,” he said. They were out to get him in the first-person plural: “These people were out to get us, the Republican Party and President Trump. They were out to get us.” What’s more, they have been after him “pretty much from the time we came down the escalator in Trump Tower.” And now they probably will impeach him because they “do whatever they have to do.”

- and -

Nobody seemed to know what to make of the explosion. White House officials reportedly said they tried to stop Trump from making the Rose Garden appearance. And for good reason: With Wednesday’s public announcement that he won’t negotiate with Democrats, the president has taken ownership of the lack of progress on infrastructure and other legislation — much the way he took ownership of the government shutdown.

- and -

“I don’t do coverups,” announced the man who paid hush money to an adult-film star and who is now fighting legal battles to conceal his tax returns and business records. “I’m the most transparent president, probably, in the history of this country,” he also said.

In one sense, that’s true: Trump’s state of mind is utterly transparent, revealed in real time. At the moment, he seems to be transparently mad.

Not to get too redundant - It's not just about Russia.

There's a concerted effort - that's been catching fire around the world - to move away from democracy and back towards autocracy.

Today's Tweet

What the fuck is wrong with us?

This infuriates me. Here's a black college student minding his own business when a Colorado cop racially profiled him. Black men can't even go outside and pick up trash without being seen as a criminal. This is Amerikkka. pic.twitter.com/YFegU1yD9L

— Kenidra4Humanity (@KenidraRWoods_) May 23, 2019

Essence Magazine:

The Boulder, Colorado, police officer who initiated contact with a Black man as he was picking up trash around his front yard, resulting in several officers responding and also handling their weapons in a threatening manner, has resigned.

Instead of being fired as he should have been.

According to KDVR, the officer, John Smyly was found to have violated two department policies: police authority and public trust and conduct, but said that there was no evidence to support the claim that he racially profiled Zayd Atkinson, who is a student at Naropa University.

As the news station notes, Smyly would have likely been suspended or fired over the violation of department policies, but was able to resign before the disciplinary process concluded.

The other officers who were involved in the incident were cleared of any wrongdoing in the escalating confrontation.

Smyly’s resignation took effect on Wednesday, as part of the settlement with the city. As part of his cushy deal he will be paid for accrued floating holiday leave, sick leave, and be permitted administrative leave until Feb. 9.

“The exchange between Officer Smyly and Mr. Atkinson does not represent the professionalism of the Boulder Police Department nor the community Boulder desires to be,” city attorney Tom Carr said.

“While we have no proof that racial bias was a motivating factor, the internal affairs investigation resulted in sustained violations of police policies,” Car added. “However, a disciplinary appeal process required by the police collective bargaining agreement likely would have overturned a termination of the officer, and he would have returned to duty after extensive additional delay. The settlement allowed the city to provide the community information more quickly, and it transitioned Officer Smyly out of a law enforcement career.”

Atkinson’s attorney, Siddharta Rathod, criticized the department’s move in continuing to pay Smyly and allowing him to resign.

“Boulder is essentially saying we’re going to pay this officer and let him resign for threatening Zayd’s life, for racially profiling Zayd,” Rathod said, according to the AP. “If you or I were to do this, we would be criminally charged. We would immediately lose our jobs.”

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Happy birthday to August Landmesser.

A Shortage Of Fingers

The damn done sprung a right good many leaks.

45*'s little tantrum yesterday - "I won't do any work if you don't stop bothering me about that other stuff" - is very dim echo of his attempts to hold us all hostage (gov't shutdown) as he tried to force us into funding that stoopid wall.

He looked for something most of us want the feds to do, and decided to use it as leverage.

1) He had no intention of pushing for anything like major infrastructure projects.

2) He's showing himself to be clumsy as fuck in everything he does now - it's obvious there's no one left in the west wing to provide any kind of guidance. He just comes up with something weird, and yells about it until somebody responds positively and helps him expand on it and rationalize whatever knuckleheaded "plan" they put together on the spot.

It all started to go to go in the crapper when we decided the presidency should be demystified - that all we needed was a guy with an affinity for regular people and a little common sense.

Bullshit

I don't want a guy who's "just folks" - a guy I'd like to have a beer with - a simple guy who knows how to catch a fish and fix a leaky faucet in the kitchen.

We need that guy for a neighbor, but we can't keep thinking we should put that guy in the oval office.

We have to have an exceptional guy - an exceptional woman - somebody who knows how to hang with ordinary people certainly, but they also have to know their way around a major international confrontation that might involve nuclear fucking weapons.

Republicans keep giving us guys who shouldn't be in charge of renting paddle boats at City Park in Buttcrack Florida.  What the fuck are we doing?

GoT Breakdown

YouTuber Eric Voss - New Rockstars

"Breaking the wheel" is a notion that carries an appeal that's almost universally popular - thus its political enshrinement as Populism - but in the end, it's almost as universally false.

Revolutionaries ride in promising some variation on "peace bread freedom and justice", but they deliver struggle and pain and sorrow and privation.

For as long as there's been any kind of political structure, people have been out to conquer the world. The world is bruised and bloodied, but it remains undefeated.

When will we ever learn?

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Samantha Bee

Persuasion

"Once you've got 'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow." --Teddy Roosevelt(?)

(as made famous by Dick Nixon's Chief Counsel Chuck Colson)

And btw, just cuz it's a natural thing don't make it a good thing for humans.

Catherine Adell

Cat Adell is a standup comic and a puppeteer and she does other stuff too.

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