An Essay

Ali Velshi may be the hardest working guy in TV news.

And he gets this one exactly right IMO.

All through the Trump years - and continuing now - though not quite as often or as loudly, thank the fake lord - the rubes have told us Trump says what they've been thinking about black people and immigrants and women and China and liberals and and and.

And we've all been rightly appalled to learned that so many seemingly normal people in this country are (and apparently have been) closet racist assholes.

Trump spits horseshit about "very fine people on both sides" after Charlottesville, and millions of white people are standing in line to pay homage to a guy who says the quiet part out loud.

But Biden speaks the truth that's in the good hearts of decent people everywhere, and he gets roasted for "committing a gaffe"?

Maybe he said it knowing full well what effect it was likely to have in the media, and in the Kremlin. I don't know that Biden's all that clever, but I think I know this much: When the Russian Foreign Minister gets snidely harrumph-y because of it, and then the French President goes all prickly-dickly, you're probably on the right track.

Way to go, Joe,

Oops

At the very end, after he's off camera, "...waste of my fuckin' time" is clearly audible.

So we don't know for sure it was Ryan who said it, and we certainly don't know what exactly he thinks is a waste of time. The issue of the ban? The ban itself?  The distractions coming from the Trump While House? A press conference in itself?

Or are we seeing the normal inter-branch friction getting to a point where's it's making it very much more difficult for Ryan to do the shitty things we're all sure he's itchin' to do?

I guess I'm wondering mostly about whether or not the Press Poodles will follow up and ask him for clarification.

And it might be really interesting to ask Trump and/or Spicer about it too.

Oh, and BTW, here's today's anagram:

Sean Spicer = Scare Penis

Gary and Jill

I have an editorial policy that requires me to address politicians by the appropriate title, and with the appropriate respect.

That said - fuck this Johnson jagoff. "What's Aleppo"!?!

Libertarians - we just wanna be free from Government Interference, man - and Societal Norms - and Facts - and having to think about anything but ourselves. OK?

And speaking of the fringe candidates, Dr Jill Stein went to North Dakota to get in on the demonstrations of the Standing Rock Sioux as they try to stop a pipeline - which of course is getting minimal coverage because when did Neo-Americans start giving one single fuck about "The Noble Savages"?

Anyway, from CBS News via VICE:

CANNON BALL, N.D. — A North Dakota county has issued a warrant for the arrest of Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who is accused of spray-painting construction equipment during a protest against the Dakota Access pipeline.

Stein was charged Wednesday in Morton County with misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass and criminal mischief.

A spokeswoman for Stein said Tuesday that activists invited her to leave a message at the protest site, and Stein sprayed “I approve this message” in red paint on the blade of a bulldozer.

So first, good for you, Dr Stein. 

But then, bad, Dr Stein.  Civil Disobedience is (at least it can be) a very good thing.  But you're not doing it right if you don't stay for the whole party.  

ie: you need to get arrested and you need to pay the fines and/or spend some time in jail, and then make sure you make enough noise that the press covers the thing so everybody can see the injustice of what you're protesting.  Otherwise, you're just making yourself the center of attention. And that makes you a grandstanding asshole, using good people and their good cause as nothing more that chumps and unwitting accomplices for a publicity stunt.  

Get your ass back up there and finish what you started, Jill.

A New Thing

Big national campaigns almost always give us some memorable slogans or phrases.

There you go again.
Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy
Welfare Queens

Soledad O'Brien may have come up with one last night.  At about 5:10 she coins the phrase "The myth of the Deadbeat Nation".


And BTW - Bay Buchannan seems to be fairly gasping for air trying to beat this thing down.

Fast forward to the first coupla years of Willard's first term, and imagine what happens when he's faced with some majorly snarled problem in - oh, I dunno - the Middle East or SW Asia or North Africa or wherever.  We'll have Willard out front saying some kinda stupid shit that he thinks only Americans can hear, while his State Dept team is saying something exactly the opposite to the rest of the world because they're trying to keep from being barbecued inside our embassy in Western Fuckedupistan - and then we'll spend the next 7 or 8 years trying to get ourselves out of the shooting war that Sec Def Lyndsey Graham absolutely knew was a great way to settle the issue etc etc etc.

DO NOT put these clowns in charge of anything more complicated than a Saturday morning carwash down at the local high school.