Keith

Why is Putin so quiet about one of his best good buddies in Caracas?

Have we signaled a trade? Are we telling Putin to stay out of our way in Venezuela and Cuba in exchange for our intention to dump on Ukraine?

And why are we suddenly so actively interested in Greenland again? If we threaten Denmark by way of our threat against Greenland, doesn't that signal at least that we're open to the possibility that we'll fuck up NATO - which means Putin gets to fuck around some more in Europe?

EAGERLY AWAITING

THE BIG BEAUTIFUL OBITUARY

Today's Keith

If you ignore an attention whore, guess what happens.

Today's Keith

Somewhere in the back of his "mind", Trump knows he's never accomplished anything of his own - that he has nothing he can point to and truthfully say, "That's me - I did that".

So he has to make shit up - like how he's ended 10 wars, and he's built great companies, and he got the Olympics, and he warned us about bin Laden, and he's brought in $10 trillion of investment in American business, and and and - it's all in service to him believing he should be getting the praise he knows deep down that he doesn't really deserve, and never will.

And as his grand plan to take us back to the glory of the 1890s heads for the shitter, he has to grasp for ever weirder notions to keep from having to admit that he's failed up for the last time. There's nowhere else for him to go.

It would be a sad thing except for the fact that 75% of us know that what he deserves is to get ass cancer and die the worst, most painfully long and drawn out death ever.

What's sad is that 25% of us still think he's the greatest thing since perforated toilet paper.

And what's even sadder is that the mass destruction of our democracy is what some of them have wanted for 50 years, and were hoping Trump would do for them.

THIS SHIT CAN ONLY END

ONCE WE'VE STOMPED ON THEM

UNTIL THERE'S NOTHING LEFT

BUT A GREASY SPOT ON THE RUG

Today's Keith

"The president is unwell" might be an understatement for the ages.

Today's Keith

The problem is, even though the Dems could - and absolutely should - hammer outfits like DumFux News once (if) they get back in power, they won't do it because there really is a sense of honor left in most Democrats. They know it's wrong now, and they'll know it's wrong later.

But damn, it's nice to think about.

Today's Keith

So the shooter isn't a Groyper? Are we sure he's still the shooter? Are we sure his mom isn't slanting her assessment just a tiny bit to slap at the "radical left" for queerifying her darling boy?

So many questions.

Having missed the mark on identifying Charlie Kirk's assassin early on, are we being asked - again - to dismiss what we know about Stochastic Terrorism?

BTW: I could be more careful and circumspect about this shit, but even though I was wrong about the asshole who killed Charlie Kirk being a wingnut, I still think he'd be alive right now if Kamala had won last November.

Anyway, who has enabled millions of people to think in terms of "killing our way out of our problems"? Was that the Democrats? Liberals? The loony left?

• Who said he'd like to punch hecklers in the face?
• Who asked his advisers, "Can't you just shoot the protesters in the leg are something?"
• Who called practically all of us "the enemy" at one time or another?

Trump cannot abide dissent. If you don't agree with everything he says, and obey his every command, then you are the enemy.

But eventually, he'll make you the enemy no matter what.

• If you stand up to him, then you're disloyal, so you're the enemy
• If you acquiesce at every turn, then you're weak, so you're the enemy

Your only chance is to try to lick his boots without being too obvious about it, and find ways to be a total asshole to his perceived Enemy du Jour, being sure to congratulate him afterward for providing you with such firm and decisive leadership and blah blah fucking blah.

Fake lord, please - I'm so fucking sick of this shit.

Today's Keith

You can't kill your way out of your problems.

Authoritarians have never - and will never - understand this. They try to dictate generic, one-size-fits-all solutions, and when it becomes clear that not everybody will comply - and in fact, many are simply unable to comply - they always go for some version of The Final Solution. Always.

Today's Keith

There is great tragedy - and mounting fear - coming from this most recent example of stupid gun violence.

Pretending to be surprised by it is dumb.

We seem to love comforting ourselves with phrases like:

• This is not who we are
• Violence has no place in American politics

Just dumb as fuck.

Trump has called for the deaths of his political foes on more than a few occasions by suggesting that actions they've taken - or even opinions they've expressed - are tantamount to treason, and then casually reminding us that the penalty for treason is death.

When an attempt has been made on the lives of 1 out of every 3 presidents - or ex-presidents - or candidates for president - we don't get to relax and believe that violence in domestic politics is some kind of fucking unicorn.

When you add the attacks on other politicians and activists and influencers and spouses and doctors and talk show hosts, you get a pretty clear picture of just how not rare it is for Americans to kill each other over political disagreements.

Just off the top of my head, I figure we've seen a minimum of 1 splashy national-news-level attack every 7 or 8 years for 249 years. And it's been accelerating over my lifetime. If I threw a study into it, and included violence against less well known people, I'd bet dollars-to-dingleberries it's way more frequent.

Alexander Hamilton was shot and killed by the Vice President of the United States for fuck's sake.

(starting at 18:40)

Today's Keith

The spinning of yarn has gotten so crazy, we'll be lucky not to get smothered to death under an Afghan that an infinite number of grandmas couldn't hook in an infinite number of coffee klatches.

I'm not sure if that makes any sense, but go ahead and point to anything that makes any fuckin' sense right now.

It doesn't square because it's not supposed to square.

Daddy State Awareness

• The Daddy State lies as a means of demonstrating power.
• The lies have practically nothing to do with the subject of the lies.
• Lying about everything creates chaos, which helps condition us to stop thinking, and look to them for "guidance".
• Once we're totally dependent on them, we'll accept the premise that they can do anything they want.

The goal is to destroy reality

so they can dictate reality to us

Today's Keith

We are the stoopid country.

Also gullible.

And deliberately uninformed.

It never fails. Do some polling on what we think about Congress, and we'll all chirp loudly about what a buncha fuckin' idiots they are - "Except my guy - he tells it like it is - he's OK."

What about crime in the cities? "Oh, man - it's bad. It's real bad. But it's OK here in my hometown."

Today's Keith

The Press Poodles are falling down on the job - again - still - as always.

Today's Keith

Told ya so. I've been saying for weeks that it seems like the Trump gang is putting in motion a sick-n-sneaky little plan to convert Ghislaine Maxwell into another one of Jeffrey Epstein's victims, which then would the allow Trump to play the hero, riding in to save her.

And so now we wait to see if the rubes are going to swallow this one the same as they've swallowed every other little turd he's floated down to them.

We'll also have to wait to see if the Press Poodles will do their usual bit.

Trump Pardons Maxwell

To Resounding Cheers

Of Support From The Base

And never mind that 75% of Americans know what horseshit it is. The glorious leader will have once again triumphed over his detractors, and that's how Corporate Media will present it to us in order to stay in the good graces of "our" government so their plans for market dominance can proceed.

Today's Keith

Trump the deal maker is making a deal to let a pedophile - a child rapist - off the hook.

"I'll give you a list."

Today's Keith

There's a list. Pam Bondi has said she's seen it - or she's seen the folder it's in - or something.

We'll have to wait and see how the legal beagles parse her public comments, but she may well have plopped herself into the soup.

What We're Seeing From MAGA

... bears a striking resemblance (so far) to Allan Sherman's The Flight Of The Geejy Bird.

Every government is a geejy bird.

The geejy bird is a strange creature; it flies only once in its lifetime, but that flight is a spectacle to behold. The geejy bird appears suddenly, standing on a limb, young, elegant, proud and respectable. Surveying the horizon, it spreads its majestic wings and swoops upward in a wide graceful curve, with magnificent wing flappings and loud glory whoops.  When it reaches maximum altitude, it begins its elegant descent, an ever narrowing spiral.  It makes smaller and smaller circles in the sky until, suddenly and mysteriously, it vanishes through its own asshole.

No one knows where geejy birds go - probably back where they came from.  Unfortunately, when they go, they take us along.  We are all subjects of one geejy bird or another; we are born and live and die during one of these mad flights. To be born early is, at least, exciting; the air sparkles with hopes and dreams, and there are worthwhile things to be done.  To board the flight in the soaring stage is next best; there is a fresh wind and a feel of strong wings and a dizzying view of the world.

But what about those of us who are born near the end of the flight? We can't jump off; the fall would be fatal.  In vain we scream, "Turn around, great geejy bird! Turn back in thy flight!"  Too late.  There is nothing to do but make the best of it. We snap to attention, salute, and begin to sing our stirring anthem. "God Bless Our Geejy Bird!" Together we enter the turd tunnel to oblivion.

The Rape of the A*P*E* (page 174) --Allan Sherman

Olbermann

It's not the money -

it's the principle of the thing!

When somebody says that, you know it's about the money. Or the power. Or the power that the money gives them. Or the money they can get if they have the power.

The two always go together. Always.

Keith

1. Start with whatever conclusion fits your overall beliefs &/or agenda
2. Fix the narrative around that conclusion
3. Twist the facts, or imagine a biased interpretation of the evidence - or just pull something out of your ass - that fits with what you've concluded

I think that's the basic formula that brought god-knobbers and the GOP together. They both have a very strong authoritarian bent, so it was a logical progression that the evangelicals would teach the Republicans how you can start with the answer, and then find bits and pieces that you can pretend support it.

It's one big rationalization.

And Olbermann's right: "Conservatives" have defeated the scientific method.

BTW, we have to figure out how to recapture "American Exceptionalism" because we have to stop being the country that keeps producing maniacs who think committing murder is how you show the world your pro-life bona fides.

Keith Olbermann

Getting to the "Fuck It" moment.

Today's Keith

An editor at The Harvard Crimson has challenged Linda McMahon to a cage match.

Punch Nazis.

Kick the bully right in the nuts.

If you can defend, and then counterpunch, you don't just survive, but you might knock him on his ass, and then there's a fair chance he leaves you alone - because most everybody watching will abandon their neutrality and side with you against him.

Today's Keith

It's possible Trump is exacting a little revenge because (it's rumored) that his boy, Barron, applied to Harvard and was rejected.

It's also than possible he just wants the homage - he needs them to pay him tribute. So he's trying to extort them. He's the boss and everybody has to pony up his piece of the action.

And I think that's the main theme of all the shit he's throwing. He acts like the biggest baddest motherfucker ever in order to cover the truth - that he's just another whiny-butt little pussy who believes the world has treated him badly, so now that he has the power, he's going to punish everybody.

He's that classic sullen teenaged punk who thinks the world owes him something.