Wait - What?

In what may be a clear signal that at least one of the Seven Seals has been broken, here's Charlie Sheen making a thoughtful and cogent observation.

Behold The CINO RINO Wars

Charge and counter-charge.

A squad of semi-behind-the-scenes Repubs are gearing up for something.  Of course, we won't get to see what it is exactly for a while - if we get to see much of it at all.

Remember, these Trumpkinite bozos comprise the GOP's base.  Reince Priebus et al have to figure out how to lose Trump without losing the assholes who follow guys like Trump around believing the basic bullshit that guys like Trump are always peddling.

And please - while we're at it - let's make no mistake here: Only some of Trump's voters are with him because he gives vent to the shittier angels of our nature.  Most of them are willing to overlook an awful lot of the really bad shit because he's telling them they deserve not to have been fucked over by a system that took a giant dump on their heads and now expects them to say, "Thanks for the hat".  

I'm not giving any of these bigoted assholes a pass - I'm just saying there's plenty of angst to go around, and people react to that shit in some pretty weird ways.

HuffPo:

Richard Armitage, who was Bush’s deputy secretary of state during his first presidential term, told Politico in an article published Thursday that Trump “doesn’t appear to be a Republican, he doesn’t appear to want to learn about issues. So I’m going to vote for Mrs. Clinton.”

Armitage, who also served under President Ronald Reagan, isn’t the first Republican to throw his support behind Clinton.

Arne Carlson, the Republican former governor of Minnesota, told CityPages on Wednesday that “no human being in history has been more vetted” than Clinton while Trump “has taken campaigning to a new low.”
Mike Treiser, a former Mitt Romney staffer, said that “in the face of bigotry, hatred, violence, and small-mindedness, this time, I’m with her.”

As conservative writer Ben Howe put it, “I am a fiscal conservative and I am a social conservative. That will not change. But I will not vote for an egomaniacal authoritarian. Nope.”

And we might even get to see a few Press Poodles up on their hind legs because Trump yanked WashPo's press pass, but also because they just really can't afford to have a tin-plated strutting martinet push 'em around.  The cumulative standing of the American Press Corps is only marginally better than the unholy triumvirate of politicians, lawyers and lobbyists, plus a raging Herpes Outbreak all over your lip the day before prom.

Margaret Carlson:

Smoke is rising from the capitol dome and the first responders are missing in action. Instead of running into the building to save it from their presumptive nominee, Republicans are running away. Watch them scurry at the approach of a reporter wielding nothing more than a notebook or microphone asking about the latest outburst from Donald Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's press briefings have been designated Trump-Free Zones. His No. 2, Senator John Cornyn, announced that he won't take any Trump questions until after the November election.

So, Press Poodles - if you're any good at all; if you want any chance to redeem your-mostly-worthless-asses; if you wanna do the job you're supposed to do, then every goddamned one of you asks the Trump Questions every goddamned time any GOP politico steps in front of you.  Every fucking one of you - Every.Fucking.Time.

Keep 'Em Flyin'

Thoughts And Prayers!!!

...the video game that's sweeping the nation
...brought to by (not really) The GOP

(click on the link at the top - I couldn't figure out how to embed)

And also too:

I am angry.

Yesterday I was sad. Today, I am angry.

I know that’s facile and cliche and maybe even self-absorbed. I’m trying to think of a better word — I bet the Germans have a perfectly and oddly specific one, but English doesn’t, so angry will have to suffice.

I’m angry that I’ve always known this would happen.

I’m angry that when marriage equality passed last year, my second thought, right after “OMG yay!” was, “I wonder how long it will take for someone to blow up a gay bar.”

I’m angry that I then immediately scolded myself: “DON’T LET THAT IN. Don’t put it out there. Don’t live in fear. Cling to hope and the arc of justice always bending in the favor or righteousness and all that. Don’t let the bad become conventional wisdom, don’t let the pain of the past calcify into cynicism. Relish this. Celebrate it. Believe in it.”

I’m angry that that has now been proven to be naive.

I’m angry that Christians were taking to YouTube calling for armed reprisals the day marriage equality happened, and so far not a single Christian I know has voiced any support or agony over this barbaric tragedy that killed 49 gay and trans people and allies.

I’m angry that that will be swept under the rug because the gunman was a Muslim.

...it goes on for a while, and just gets better. Let it out. 

Mr Rick Wilson

10 tweets from a guy who should be fully on board with the GOP nominee.  When a Political Operative total rat-fucking pimp like Rick Wilson bails on your candidate, you've got more than a small problem.

1/ How the actual fuck does anyone at the RNC have standing to act shocked that Trump is not doing the basics of campaigning?

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 16, 2016

2/ You can't elide over his utter dipshittery. No matter how much you try to act surprised, you own this. You're covered in his stench.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 16, 2016

3/ History will be so cruel to you.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 16, 2016

4/ Your off the record sniping and grumbling is no substitute for moral courage. That's so DC.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 16, 2016

5/ You won't escape the stain. It's like a big, visible "No Ragrets" chest tat that will mark your careers forever.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 16, 2016

6/ Go public. Man up. Show courage. Say what's in your hearts; he's insane. He's poison. He's doomed. He's killing the Party.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 16, 2016

7/ None of you are good enough to spin the unspinnable ratfuck that is Trump. None of you can say, "I was just following orders."

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 16, 2016

8/ This weekend, people were lined up hundreds deep to give blood to the victims of Orlando. Your Cheeto Jesus was praising himself.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 16, 2016

9/ There is no better Trump. There is not Presidential Trump. He is a vile stain on the this Republic.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 16, 2016

10/ Your resumes will always read "Worked for a batshit crazy crypto-fascist who destroyed the GOP"

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 16, 2016

Some Kinda Of Sick Sense

Today's tweet, and holy fuck - this makes the whole vulgar charade into an even bigger shit show than we thought.

Trump "considering creating his own media business built on the audience that has supported him thus far in his bid" https://t.co/hdZ2P4nNcd

— Sarah Posner (@sarahposner) June 16, 2016

Here're the first few graphs from the Vanity Fair piece:

Every election cycle has its own breakout media star. In 1992, it was CNN. A few years later, it would be an e-mail blast called the Drudge Report. By 2000, the country had more or less been neatly delineated between MSNBC and Fox News households. The 2008 election introduced Politico and the Huffington Post to the adults’ table. BuzzFeed joined in 2012. 

The breakout media star of 2016 is, inarguably, Donald Trump, who has masterfully—and horrifyingly—demonstrated an aptitude for manipulating the news cycle, gaining billions of dollars worth of free airtime, and dominating coverage on every screen. Now, several people around him are looking for a way to leverage his supporters into a new media platform and cable channel.

Trump is indeed considering creating his own media business, built on the audience that has supported him thus far in his bid to become the next president of the United States. According to several people briefed on the discussions, the presumptive Republican nominee is examining the opportunity presented by the “audience” currently supporting him. He has also discussed the possibility of launching a “mini-media conglomerate” outside of his existing TV-production business, Trump Productions LLC. He has, according to one of these people, enlisted the consultation of his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who owns the The New York Observer. Trump’s rationale, according to this person, is that, “win or lose, we are onto something here. We’ve triggered a base of the population that hasn’t had a voice in a long time.” For his part, Kushner was heard at a New York dinner party saying that “the people here don’t understand what I’m seeing. You go to these arenas and people go crazy for him.” (Both Kushner and Ivanka Trump did not respond to a request for comment.)

Bless You, Charlie

Charlie Pierce:

When are people going to realize that the big bag of fucks to give at 1600 Pennsylvania is not only empty, but it's sitting in a back closet somewhere and nobody's going to find it until the midway point of Sasha Obama's second term in the White House? Why does this continue to surprise people?

On Tuesday, right around lunchtime, the president came out and parked He, Trump onto a rooftop across Waveland Avenue. In brief, the president informed the vulgar talking yam that he, the yam, was screwing with the country's heartbeat because he, the yam, is an ignorant, ridiculous man who doesn't know shit from tunafish about anything beyond where to find good-quality, child-sized gloves in a hurry. He made very short work out of the preposterous notion that if he uses the magic conjuring words, then the entire Middle East will turn into Sweden.

And then Mr Pierce quotes Barry Bams:

"That's the key, they tell us, 'We can't beat ISIL unless we call them radical Islamist.' What exactly would using this label accomplish? What exactly would it change? Would it make ISIL less committed to trying to kill Americans? Would it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by this? The answer is none of the above. Calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away. This is a political distraction…Not once has an adviser of mine said, 'If we use that phrase, we're going to turn this whole thing around.' It's a political talking point. It's not a strategy. And the reason I am careful about how I describe this threat has nothing to do with political correctness and everything to do with defeating extremism.""We now have proposals from the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States to bar all Muslims from entering the United States. To bar all Muslims from emigrating to America. We hear language that singles out immigrants and suggests entire religious communities are complicit in violence. Where does this stop?... These are not religious warriors. They are thugs and they are thieves."

I really hope Hillary's listening.

Today's Meme

It Just Gets Worse

And suddenly, this is an older and - though it doesn't seem possible - an even sadder story.

NY Daily News:

Omar Mateen lived a double life.

The homophobic maniac who murdered 49 people inside Orlando’s gay-friendly nightclub Pulse Sunday morning had been hanging out there for three years — and chatted with men via online dating services like Grindr, said multiple witnesses who claimed to have firsthand knowledge of Mateen’s habits.

Mateen’s family said his bloody rampage was sparked by anti-gay hatred.

But his ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, when asked on CNN Monday if he was gay, sat in silence for a few seconds before answering, “I don’t know.”

The Guardian:

His former classmate Samuel King, who also worked at the same shopping mall as Mateen after high school, said Mateen had known that he and many of his friends were gay but never expressed any disapproval. “He had to know it, but I never got any sense of homophobia or aggression from him,” he told the Washington Post.

The information adds to a complex and often contradictory picture that is emerging of the gunman and his motivation for the outrage. His father, Seddique Mateen, hours after the shooting said that Mateen had once become incensed when he saw two men kissing in Miami in front of his wife and child.

I don't know that any of this will matter much because the narrative has been set for the DumFux News crowd - Radical Islamic Terrorism.  So the part about the guy being a closeted gay is secondary. 

Except when it comes to a maybe kind of a subtle little kink for the Rabid TheoCons.  You've got a Muslim with an assault rifle shooting down a buncha QueerFolk.

Forget about all the social toxicity of the Authoritarian shit and the Daddy Issues and Self-Loathing and the Blame-Shifting, and turning that anger outward to keep from totally imploding, while at the same time taking action that will ensure your own demise.

Let's not think about any of that, and let's be sure we don't even try to keep guns away from the nutty people.

The only thing that matters is that we've got a political trifecta for the Right Radicals - a guy they hate is using a weapon they love to kill other people they hate.  It doesn't get any better than that for a modern GOP, where thinking things thru is just not something they wanna encourage.

They don't do anything about it - and they obstruct everything anybody else wants to do about it - because it's working for them.  They benefit from the problem politically, and their Crony Contributors profit from both the problem itself and the false solutions they support.  USAmerica Inc.

These people have no soul and no honor.

Today's Quickie

Flag Day

Today's GIF

Today's Tweet

pic.twitter.com/bJFs1tgITu

— Randy Prine (@randyprine) June 13, 2016

You're not really gonna try to argue with Morgan Freeman on this, are ya?

It Bears Repeating

Jim Jeffries - Gun Control - Part 1

Jim Jeffries - Gun Control - Part 2

The Essence Of Stoopid

TPM:

The man allegedly behind the largest mass shooting in American history purchased his weapons from a gun dealer and shooting range whose owner has in the past posted anti-Muslim and anti-President Obama comments on Facebook, the New York Daily News reported.

ATF Agent Sal van Susteren confirmed to the New York Daily News that accused Orlando shooter Omar Mateen purchased the weapons he used in the weekend's massacre at St. Lucie Shooting Center, not far from Mateen's apartment in Fort Pierce, Florida.

The New York Daily News reported that the store's owner, Ed Henson, an ex-NYPD officer, had posted on Facebook in December a meme that said, "F--- Islam, F--- Allah. F--- Muhammad. F--- the Koran. F--- people who support terrorism,” as well as a comment in November calling for Obama to be "handcuffed, removed from Office and charged with Treason and then publicly executed!"

No, Mr Henson, fuck you.

You helped amp up the atmosphere of hatred and paranoia, which you knew would make it that much easier for you to sell guns and ammo to weak-minded individuals who don't quite fully understand the deathly shitty game you're playing.

This is on you and The NRA and all the other smarmy little grub worms in the Ammosexual Community who've created a dank and noxious underworld at the nexus of Religion and Politics and Unfettered Free Market Capitalism.

Sorry not sorry if you feel I'm singling you out unfairly, Mr Henson - there's a group of 50 dead Americans who all probably felt the same way when Mr Mateen was killing them; for reasons you contributed to; with a gun you sold to him.  Maybe you could keep that in mind next time you sell guns to somebody who just might be as big an asshole as you are.  

You wrote, "Fuck people who support terrorism" - so yeah - fuck you, Mr Henson.

My Donkeys

1700 guys making almost $5 Billion a year, but it's the jewelry they really play for.

Peyton adds to his collection.#Horsepowerhttps://t.co/2ToDeTQsc9

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) June 13, 2016