Today's Quote

"Calling a liar a liar isn't an opinion if you can prove it. That's what we call a fact. The idea that news network executives traded their balls for ratings, that's just my opinion." --Samantha Bee

Part 1

Part 2

Where To, Bub?

Hillary went out of her way to assure us that she's not dead.  Of course, we all know what a liar she is so I guess that means we'll have to stay home and let that orange Nazi guy win it.

 

Today's Olbermann

In the debut episode of his new series, “The Closer with Keith Olbermann," GQ's Keith Olbermann tallies the most outrageous of Donald Trump's offenses in what is now his 15-month assault on American democracy.

Watch this video on The Scene.

And here's the text version.

A Razor Blade In The Apple

Buzzfeed:

The secretive private legal system written into many international trade treaties is the epitome of a “rigged game,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren told BuzzFeed News. But it is not set in stone, she said. In an interview in her office on Capitol Hill, she outlined three steps that could get rid of it entirely.

This legal system, which empowers foreign businesses to sue entire countries for hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, was the subject of an 18-month investigation by BuzzFeed News published last week. Among the findings: Executives convicted of crimes have used the system to avoid punishment, and companies have used the mere threat of a lawsuit to gut a country’s laws.

Warren described a case, highlighted in the investigation, that she said “really jumped out in front and put the human face on what this obscure clause can actually do”: A court in El Salvador found that a factory had poisoned a village with lead, failing for years to take government-ordered steps to prevent the pollution. But by threatening to take the matter to this global super court, lawyers for the company helped it avoid a criminal conviction and the responsibility for cleaning up the community and providing needed medical care.

“The company that damaged so many people just gets to slip away,” Warren said of the case. “This is a reminder how the game is rigged.”

If there's something like "the other side" of this one, I haven't heard much of it yet. My main thing is that the ISDS thing wreaks of privatization and corporatocracy.  Too much power in too few hands.

Hillary has made some noise about swinging around in opposition to TPP, even tho' her buddy, Virginia Gov Terry McCauliffe says she'll swing right back once she's been sworn in - so we just don't know.

All the more reason to find out as much as possible about any given candidate's leanings on something like "Free" Trade.  Guess it's time to email Jane Dittmar on this one.

It might be nice if a Press Poodle or two got up on their hind legs and started asking real questions, specific to things like ISDS.

PS) Elizabeth Warren - please come to my house so I can hold you and pet you and call you George...

HRC's Episode

Some tweets:

hillary has pneumonia and is still campaigning 24/7 meanwhile my back kinda hurts so i ordered delivery 3 times today

— jomny sun (@jonnysun) September 11, 2016

Wait, so Hillary has PNEUMONIA and she's still campaigning as hard as she is? You realize how badass that is, right?

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) September 11, 2016

It shows her doing her best to grit her teeth and work hard even with pneumonia. And it's humanizing, relatable.

— Josh Barro (@jbarro) September 11, 2016

I'd rather they just come out and tell us what's going on. I think I understand that they don't wanna make her the center of attention in order to countervail the fact that Trump superimposes himself on everything in sight; and they believe they always have to protect her from the shit that everybody throws at her every minute of every day and blah blah blah - but she's gonna catch that shit either way, so I think she's better off if they stop trying so hard to be cute with it and just let her own it.

"Yeah - I tho't it was just the usual allergies that bother me this time of the year.  Turns out I have pneumonia.  And then I did a coupla campaign stump speeches and a fund-raiser or two, and a buncha other work-type stuff, and then I sucked it up on a Sunday and went to a 9/11 memorial and I started feeling really bad and I had to take a little break - because pneumonia, bitches.  Do ya think Presidents get to call in sick every time they feel a little funky?  I'm gonna do this job, and I'm gonna keep on doing this job, and they're gonna have to carry me out in a fucking box before I stop doing this job.  Hear what I'm sayin'?  Good - what else ya got?"

Today's Meme

Wow.Just.Wow

It just can't ever be about anything but Trump.

There's audio of Trump patting himself on the back for having the tallest building in Manhattan after the WTC fell! pic.twitter.com/vQFFcAibQz

— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) September 11, 2016

Listen For It

The next GOP rebranding is well underway.  Because they know they're gettin' their butts kicked and they have to salvage something.

"What The American People want..." Listen for it.




Then go to their Amazon link...

 The Professional Left

 ...and buy some stuff (that you were gonna buy anyway), which helps the podcast at no extra cost to you.

Today's Pix

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.