It Bites 'Em In The Ass

.@Judgenap: Why do we have a Second Amendment? It's not to shoot deer. It's to shoot at the government when it becomes tyrannical!

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 23, 2016

And this morning, when a "patriot" started shooting at people he apparently thought personified that Gubmint Tyranny, Rand Paul ran away - like a gutless wonder; like a panicky child; like the fucking REMF he is and has always been.

There was no "running toward the trouble" the way Mr Rogers taught us to identify the heroes. Rand Paul ran away, and jumped a fence, and flagged down a car, and left this wounded colleagues in harm's way.

BTW 1: Good guys with guns where in attendance today - and even though they gunned down the bad guy, they were both wounded, along with three others.

So the good guys stopped the bad guy - after he did this shitty bad-guy thing.

BTW 2: "Conservative" boneheads are always quick to jump in and say that while they may (or may not) agree we should be trying to find a way to cut down on the gun violence problem, they just can't get up with Gun Regulation because "it doesn't work".

Fine - maybe you super-geniuses could at least start by acknowledging it really is a fucking problem, and then suggest something you think will work.

Today's Tweet

Emolumentum is Latin for profit or benefit. This is about payoffs from foreign governments which is not a partisan issue

— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) June 14, 2017

--and--

USA Today:



70% - there's an obvious problem with emoluments, and we don't get to know who's paying our president to do what.

The Daddy State can only operate in the dark. When the light goes on, they all skitter back under the dishwasher.

Jeff Sessions: Malignant Leprechaun

I don't know what all was going through Ms Kamala's mind of course, but the look on her face was classic: "You are so full of shit, little man - lie to me again and everybody here will thank me for slapping that smirk all the way around to the back side of your tiny head."

The Virginia Effect

I'm putting up "The Virginia Effect" as a term of art in politics because today's Dem primary could be a harbinger (ya heard it here first)

Vox:

Almost every profile of the Perriello-Northam race has cast Perriello as the progressive, populist outsider insurgent and Northam as the moderate, centrist creature of the establishment.

But in several critical respects, this binary breaks down on closer inspection. Perriello has run as a “Bernie Democrat” determined to get big money out of politics; in reality, his campaign is being backed by Wall Street’s biggest liberal donors.

Perriello has been said to be running against “the establishment,” and, when it comes to Virginia’s Democratic establishment, that’s true. But Perriello received the blessing of national Democrats who certainly have clout, including John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chair.

The two candidates’ voting records also don’t make much of a proxy battle between the party’s left and center-left factions. Both men support a $15-an-hour minimum wage; both have made opposing Trump and defending undocumented immigrants central themes of their campaigns; both have robust plans to expand the state’s community colleges and state infrastructure. “Policy-wise, there really isn’t that much difference,” Kidd said. (The major difference between the two candidates is over the construction of a proposed pipeline through the state; Perriello opposes it, and Northam has drawn ire from environmental groups by refusing to condemn it.)

2 things basically:

First, it'll be a "divided party thing" almost any way it turns out because that's what most of the Press Poodles have been selling.

But second, I'm really just hoping it doesn't degenerate into a re-enactment of 45* vs Hillary, with all the stoopid politically ignorant sniping and tantrum-throwing between the Bernie Bros and the HilBots. Especially if the Dem loses and there's this whole piss-n-moan thing after the fact.

The only thing that bickering does is to sour more people on the whole process.  And guess what - the more people you push out, the easier you make it for the Daddy State.

Grow the fuck up, kids. There's no purity to be had here - this has to be about yanking the "center" away from the far right, and putting it back in the goddamned middle where it belongs.

Today's Tweet Storm

Storified for your convenience

@TheRickWilson I made a #Storify of the rant:

"Fire Mueller. Get it over with." https://t.co/82hO3Msc9l

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 13, 2017

Keith

Hookers. And The Steele Dossier. Wait - what?

About Last November

Bloomberg:

Russia’s cyberattack on the U.S. electoral system before Donald Trump’s election was far more widespread than has been publicly revealed, including incursions into voter databases and software systems in almost twice as many states as previously reported.

In Illinois, investigators found evidence that cyber intruders tried to delete or alter voter data. The hackers accessed software designed to be used by poll workers on Election Day, and in at least one state accessed a campaign finance database. Details of the wave of attacks, in the summer and fall of 2016, were provided by three people with direct knowledge of the U.S. investigation into the matter. In all, the Russian hackers hit systems in a total of 39 states, one of them said.

39 states - most controlled by Repubs, where state government officials balked at the prospect of taking action to prevent Russia from fucking up the elections because (I think) the results of that fuckery would accrue to the GOP's benefit.

But the really bad news right now is that it worked.  Whether it worked or not, it worked. That's the best kind of political maneuver.

The point of the exercise was to disrupt the American election. And there's a good probability that many will feel somehow vindicated for their decision not to vote in this particular election, and to avoid the whole thing altogether from here on out. 

So it worked.

Waist Deep In Dead Canaries

Today's Tweet

Sometimes it is a joy to be alive. pic.twitter.com/gFaWt2O0qs

— Michael Coren (@michaelcoren) June 11, 2017

Pleading Ignorance

I just wanted to put that up so we start to get an idea where some of the lines are.

45*'s behavior is suspect.  At the very least, he needs to understand that just his tweets can constitute Witness Intimidation, bordering on Tampering - and that can be construed as attempts to Obstruct.

But it seems he doesn't understand any of that, even though his actions indicate that he does understand - he just has no intention of staying between the lines.

Even though his actions make it all appear chaotic, he thinks in terms of absolutes and everything he does is aimed at keeping everybody off balance so he can make the decision to move one way or the other - depending on whatever he thinks benefits him the most or hurts everybody else so it accrues to his benefit anyway.

It bears repeating:

"I may or may not do what your lawyers force my lawyers to try to talk me into doing."

And now:

"I am Trump. Trump can do no wrong."

Theater

HuffPo:

President Donald Trump has set a deadline of July 4 for a shakeup of the White House that could include removing Reince Priebus as his chief of staff, according to two administration officials and three outside advisers familiar with the matter.

While Trump has set deadlines for staff changes before, only to let them pass without pulling the trigger, the president is under more scrutiny than ever regarding the sprawling Russia investigation, which is intensifying the pressure on his White House team.
45* believes his main function is to set up the cliffhanger for whatever fucked up Reality TV show he thinks he's hosting this week.

And as long as we tune in for the shit show instead of concentrating on holding the GOP to account for all this mess, we're complicit.

Get woke

Get together

Get focused

Get shit done

Today's Quote

"I suppose one reason people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain."

--James Baldwin

Today's Tweet

FUN FACT: Alpha penguins will push other penguins into icy waters to see if Polar Bears are layin' in wait.https://t.co/7sx0zyzUvX

— Tea Pain (@TeaPainUSA) June 11, 2017

How They Die

According to Pentagon data, more than 6,800 troops have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11 and more than 3,000 additional service members have taken their lives in that same time

Closing in on 10,000 dead uniforms.

And in 2012 and 2013, for the first time ever, suicide caused more military deaths than anything else.

Can we stop handing these kids every shitty problem that we don't feel like dealing with?  And cops too btw, now that I'm thinking about it.

We have to get back to some reasonable facsimile of sanity, and start figuring out how to deal with our shit without always bashing each other over the head with sticks and rocks.

We can't kill our way out of every fucking problem that comes along.

It's A Word

"That's our word now - and you can't have it back".

Oh yeah, Ice Cube gave @billmaher the talk he needed to hear pic.twitter.com/i7jYbCtm5P

— Tommy Christopher (@tommyxtopher) June 10, 2017

Pretty strong. And I think I'm straight with it now.

Thanks, Ice.