Sam

Samantha Bee - Wednesdays at 10:30 on TBS

The basic approach is pretty simple.

First, you throw out the rules that keep powerful people more or less in line thru the reasonable expectation that they'll stay true to their word, and conduct themselves with some sense of fairness and integrity - the honor of normal decent people is what makes them generally more trustworthy than not.

Second, throw every piece of shit you can find into the air conditioning system. Keep everybody so busy just trying to catalog it that they have no time or energy even to triage all the shit.

Third, look for the pieces of shit that provide the greatest benefit (money &/or power) while attracting the least amount of attention (ie: resistance).

More NFL Stoopid

Elizabeth Bruenig, WaPo

On one level, it does seem just as cold and calculated as the old days, when the NFL was swapping salutes for cash. If you have to threaten someone into showing respect, whatever they end up showing isn’t respect but a simulation of it for someone else’s consumption. The fact that the rule has already been made public just means that everyone is aware that this is the portion of the game when the NFL forces its players to stand still while they play a song, or else. The meaning of it all washes out; the fines make it entirely situational: It’s a workplace compliance issue, a matter of the NFL making its performers sell its customers what they want to buy. The content is meaningless.

From Mike’s 10 Commandments:

2. Be true to the ideal, not just to the symbol.

- and -

If not money, then what? There is the evident racial component, bolstered by the bizarre involvement of the president, which has everything to do with disciplining black people in public, a long-running American obsession. But I suspect there’s something more, something wider and stranger, at the root of all this fury over a few athletes quietly kneeling during their country’s anthem. For one, there’s the straightforward fact that kneeling isn’t a sign of disrespect, and nobody brought up in a country with the faintest hint of Christian culture actually thinks it is. As Luke Bretherton, a professor of theological ethics at Duke University, wrote last year in The Post: “New Testament stories describe people who kneel before Jesus in supplication or lament. With their kneeling, these biblical figures say: Something is desperately wrong, please hear us and use your power to help us. Their act of submission signals their faith that healing will come and their prayers will be answered.”

- and a tweet:

The NFL just banned players from kneeling during the national anthem.

Take a look at the image below.

Three of these men are mass murderers & three of them didn’t kill anybody.

Can you spot the difference in their mugshots?

This is why we kneel. #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/9pOdawG8Bd

— Millennial Politics (@MillenPolitics) May 23, 2018

Today's Tweet

The simple fact that this shit still seems to be something of a surprise for you is why 45*'s attacks are effective - you insist on acting like Press Poodles, and the criticism sticks.

Wow. Lesley Stahl, speaking at the Deadline Club Awards, says she once asked Trump why he continues to relentlessly attack the press.

His answer: “I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you." pic.twitter.com/YVvDTD0Pm9

— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) May 22, 2018

Today's Corporate Overreach

Albert Breer, Sports Illustrated:

ATLANTA — On Tuesday, NFL owners put three hours aside for a privileged session to speak—amongst themselves and family members—about the most sensitive of topics.

One was how the league will handle players kneeling during the national anthem going forward. An idea being floated in the room goes like this: It would be up to the home team on whether both teams come out of the locker room for the anthem, and, should teams come out, 15-yard penalties could be assessed for kneeling.

The league is currently being sued by Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid, with the two unsigned free agents alleging that NFL teams colluded to keep them unemployed. Kaepernick was the first NFL player to kneel during the national anthem, to protest police brutality, starting a trend that swept across the league in 2016 and '17.

The NFL addressed the anthem issue at its meetings in October and March, with plans to further discuss it at this meeting. The league also met with the Players Coalition in October, and agreed to a seven-year, $89 million social-justice partnership.

According to sources, the owners also discussed how to move forward its partnership with the players and finalized the terms of the deal.

My dearest NFL,

Fuck you.

Even if you decide not to go thru with it, you're seriously considering it. Add this to all your other attempts to manipulate and control players to the point where most of them lose everything no matter what they're willing to sacrifice in order to play a game that makes a very few people obscenely wealthy, and I can only conclude one thing - fuck you.

Your pal,

Mike

Today's GIF

Clinton
Bush 43
Obama
...and...

One of these is not like the others

John Oliver

The addiction treatment industry is dangerously unregulated. John Oliver explains why many rehab programs should incorporate more evidence-based care and carefully reconsider their doctor-to-horse ratio.

Makes me wonder if there are dots in need of connecting - something that would give us a clearer picture of a legalized system of Drug Cartels right here in USAmerica Inc.

• Pharma
• Prescribers
• Insurance
• Healthcare
• Law Enforcement
• Prisons
• Lobbyists
• Congress

I'm a capitalist because god's a capitalist.

I have to take in more calories than I need right this minute because I need a surplus of  energy in order to do the work required to get my next meal. I have to make some profit.

And I insist on appropriate regulation because god insists on appropriate regulation.

Without a properly functioning pancreas, my blood sugar goes wacky and I die.

Without a properly functioning brain stem, my heart rate goes wacky and I die.

...my body temperature

...etc etc etc

"Government Interference in the Free Market System" is what freed the slaves, dummy.

Every once in a while, we have to step up and save capitalism from the capitalists.

Web Wisdom - Redux

When you're talking about cracking down on brown people - even when you disguise it with coded language like "border security" and "the plague of urban violence" - that doesn't make you Alt-Right.
It makes you a Racist.

Like when you have sex with a barnyard critter. That doesn't make you an Alt-Farmer.
It makes you a chicken-fucker.

Today's GIF

Comey deeks.
Rosenstein deeks.
Now Wray deeks as well - Mueller takes the shot - GOOOOOOALLLLL!!!

We hope.

Today's Tweet

Speaking Spanish, in a place where it's not expected(?), is now considered Probable Cause.

Border Patrol agent detained two US Citizens because they were speaking Spanish at a gas station.

"I came and saw that you guys were speaking Spanish which is very unheard of up here."

Sickening. He should be fired! Please spread. pic.twitter.com/3KkpnCpObc

— Together we rise 🙌🏾 (@Matsamon) May 21, 2018

BTW - that was no accident. That agent didn't take that action on a whim, or because he was bored. His commanders told him that's how we do things now.

This is the Daddy State.

Today's Pix

click to embiggen