Being scolded by an alleged rapist defending a Nazi promoting pedophilia is like getting your Tom Ford tuxedo blazer dissed by a crack whore https://t.co/TSmbRTr6lh— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) February 21, 2017
Feb 21, 2017
Today's Tweet
White Rise
The Atlantic:
President Bannon knows that, because he knows about Stochastic Probability, so he knows he and his merry band have a nice fat lot of plausible deniability.
But this is some more of that shit that doesn't happen by accident, even though it really does, even though it doesn't because Bannon never told anybody to do anything.
Across the United States, Jewish communities are struggling to deal with this new wave of threats. While none of the bomb threats have led to violence, Monday’s calls came around the same time as another attack: Roughly 170 Jewish graves in a Missouri cemetery were desecrated over the weekend, according to The Washington Post. The calls may be a novel form of intimidation, but the context around them is not. American Jews are victims of more reported hate crimes than any other group in the United States, and have been subject to the majority of religiously motivated offenses every year since 1995, when the FBI first started reporting these statistics. The phone calls may not result in violence, but they contribute to an atmosphere of anti-Semitism already well-established in the United States.You can't draw a line between any one thing 45* has said that goes straight to any given incident.
President Bannon knows that, because he knows about Stochastic Probability, so he knows he and his merry band have a nice fat lot of plausible deniability.
But this is some more of that shit that doesn't happen by accident, even though it really does, even though it doesn't because Bannon never told anybody to do anything.
In the presence of English Barons, Henry II—who is now utterly vexed by Becket's actions—cries out: Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest? Believing the King meant for Becket to be murdered, four knights ride to Canterbury Cathedral and kill Becket on December 29, 1170.
CO2 Cycle
From NASA - in 3D - as of Dec 2016.
I can't confirm that this is the kind of thing negatively effected under 45*'s Executive Order that purportedly reduced or eliminated the part of NASA's mission that included research on weather and Climate Change, but with Pruitt at EPA, Sessions at AG and Tillerson at State, am I s'posed to be surprised if that's the case?
Theres a good rendition of this with some decent narration at Vox
Theres a good rendition of this with some decent narration at Vox
Yeah - It's That Bad
From Right Wing Watch
Gotta wonder - why is the Great and Powerful Donald of Oz unable to mount an effective resistance to this evil cabal?
Why would 45* fire Flynn for knowing the truth, when he (45*) could use it to seal the deal on prosecuting Hillary? And what's keeping Flynn from speaking this truth now?
What about god's noble warriors of a GOP that's been in control of Congress for 6 years? They're all powerless against these devil-worshipers?
I also wonder about the morality of someone who just takes this crap at face value, and seems not to care whether it's true or not. But I think always testing for truth ends up being a threat to their faith. They've been trained not to question certain things. They already accept the big absurdity on faith (and they pay handsomely for that), so why not look for other opportunities to trade fairy tales for tribute?
My favorite political fantasy right now is that somebody out of office takes one of these greasy slugs to court. Not to spank 'em or collapse their phony little fiefdoms financially (although that'd be one very enjoyable side effect), but to force them out into the open and expose them as the lying sacks of shit they are by requiring them to present the "evidence" they're basing these crazy-fuck ideas on as they peddle their huge steaming piles of bullshit to the rubes.
Of course, you can't do that because of the whole Free Speech thing and 200 years of precedent allowing anybody to say anything about a public figure with near-absolute impunity.
So what can you say about a system that protects even the lowest and shittiest of the muck divers?
You say, "I give them the benefit of law for my own safety's sake".
And then you say "God bless America"
But still - y'know?
Wiles asserted that “devil-worshiping, Luciferian, demon-possessed maniacs” have formed a “criminal cabal [that is] running this nation and much of the world” that allows them to engage in “child trafficking, child molestation, child rape, [and] child murder.”
Gotta wonder - why is the Great and Powerful Donald of Oz unable to mount an effective resistance to this evil cabal?
Why would 45* fire Flynn for knowing the truth, when he (45*) could use it to seal the deal on prosecuting Hillary? And what's keeping Flynn from speaking this truth now?
What about god's noble warriors of a GOP that's been in control of Congress for 6 years? They're all powerless against these devil-worshipers?
I also wonder about the morality of someone who just takes this crap at face value, and seems not to care whether it's true or not. But I think always testing for truth ends up being a threat to their faith. They've been trained not to question certain things. They already accept the big absurdity on faith (and they pay handsomely for that), so why not look for other opportunities to trade fairy tales for tribute?
My favorite political fantasy right now is that somebody out of office takes one of these greasy slugs to court. Not to spank 'em or collapse their phony little fiefdoms financially (although that'd be one very enjoyable side effect), but to force them out into the open and expose them as the lying sacks of shit they are by requiring them to present the "evidence" they're basing these crazy-fuck ideas on as they peddle their huge steaming piles of bullshit to the rubes.
Of course, you can't do that because of the whole Free Speech thing and 200 years of precedent allowing anybody to say anything about a public figure with near-absolute impunity.
So what can you say about a system that protects even the lowest and shittiest of the muck divers?
You say, "I give them the benefit of law for my own safety's sake".
And then you say "God bless America"
But still - y'know?
Today's Charlie
Esquire's Charlie Pierce is a fucking god:
Today I Learned:
18th century Pamphleteer Mercy Otis Warren
I do not feel compelled to respect a president any more or less than I respect somebody I hire to fix my roof or paint my house. Whomever gets elected works for me. As to the office, well, I understand how it is a single unifying figure within the government, and how he—again, theoretically—represents the whole country. But, in my lifetime, the Oval Office has seen coups, burglaries, and illegal arms sales planned. It has been the venue for criminal mischief and illicit canoodling. That it is also the place where the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were signed is the great paradox. But the idea that I have to respect The Presidency qua The Presidency is something that raises the hackles in my democratic conscience.
First of all, there's this commander-in-chief business. By constitutional mandate, the president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Period. He is not my commander-in-chief. Neither is he yours. Neither is he the commander-in-chief of the civilian government. The Congress can tell him to go whistle. The Supreme Court can slap his agenda back in his face. Nobody outside the military has to salute him. But, in every presidency, there's a temptation to push the commander-in-chief prerogatives a little further into the civilian sphere, and this is powerfully dangerous. To his credit, Garry Wills has been railing against this for years. He points out that, when Richard Nixon decapitated the Watergate Special Counsel's office, Alexander Haig presumed to tell assistant attorney-general William Ruckelshaus that Ruckelshaus' "commander-in-chief" had given him an order. Ruckelshaus told Haig to pound sand and got fired. Nixon wasn't Ruckelshaus' commander-in-chief. He was just his boss.Always go back and read your Charlie. It's not like vegetables at all - it's good and it's for ya too.
Today I Learned:
18th century Pamphleteer Mercy Otis Warren
Too Typical
The dopes who had to cast the Purity Protest Votes didn't help, but as usual, the main problem is the fact that so many of us can't bring ourselves to vote at all.
America - land of the free and the home of the sit on your ass while everybody else does the work.
Feb 20, 2017
About That "Deeply Divided" Thing
Wanna see the real difference between them and us?
They actually believe this shit (or say they do so what's difference?):
And we know better:
They actually believe this shit (or say they do so what's difference?):
And we know better:
I won't be able to reconcile myself with, or pair up with, or find commonality with anybody who insists on being ignorant - especially at a time when there actually are vast resources they can use to find out about stuff.
I just can't.
Are You Ready?
If you're not ready, then you'd best be gettin' ready because I think we'll eventually be told to accept Mike Pence as the guy who rides in and saves us from the clutches of Donald Trump, Evil Super-Genius.
WaPo:
At this point, almost anything beats 45*, and Pence will have to do because the process only requires a few more steps before we're looking at President Rex Tillerson, and then we really are just another oil company with nuclear weapons.
Don't get me wrong, I'm under no illusion that Pence isn't another Daddy State fuck wearing a slightly different uniform. But at least I get the impression the guy has a sense of decency and honor about him where 45* has none.
Also gotta remember there's no provision in the Constitution for a do-over so there's no chance at a President Hillary in store for us. We have rules, and it's usual-and-customary in our little experiment in self-government that we do things by the fucking rules - not just the letter, but the spirit as well. And the spirit of the law? Aye, there's the rub.
We have a guy in office who figured out how to exploit all the loop holes. Everything that's not spelled out in the words of the documents requires people to behave in an honorable way; to act in good faith in accordance with the spirit of the law; to not take unfair advantage.
45*'s built his whole thing on two simple premises:
1) If it doesn't say I can't do it, then that's my opportunity, and that's what I'll do.
2) And if it says I have to do it, then my opportunity is in not doing it until or unless somebody can force me to do it.
It's not that 45* is immoral - he's amoral. There's no Good and there's no Bad - there's only what works for him.
The guy has no soul and no honor.
WaPo:
BRUSSELS — Vice President Pence said Monday that he “fully supported” Michael Flynn’s ouster last week as national security adviser, setting himself firmly against the former general, who told untruths about his contacts with Russian officials.
“I was disappointed to learn that the facts that have been conveyed to me by Gen. Flynn were inaccurate,” Pence told reporters during a visit to NATO headquarters in his first public comments about a scandal that has rocked the young Trump administration.
Pence pushed for Flynn’s ouster after learning from The Washington Post that the national security adviser had been captured on tape speaking to Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak on the topic of sanctions. The conversation happened the day the Obama administration announced measures against Russia to retaliate for what U.S. intelligence services say was the Kremlin’s efforts to influence November’s presidential election. Flynn told Pence that he had not spoken about sanctions with Kislyak, an assertion Pence went on to repeat on television.That performance looked like standard Mike Pence - serenely confident (to the point of condescension) that he'll handle all our troubles if we can just have a little faith in the Jesus-ey goodness of The Lord's America (ie: Mike Pence).
At this point, almost anything beats 45*, and Pence will have to do because the process only requires a few more steps before we're looking at President Rex Tillerson, and then we really are just another oil company with nuclear weapons.
Don't get me wrong, I'm under no illusion that Pence isn't another Daddy State fuck wearing a slightly different uniform. But at least I get the impression the guy has a sense of decency and honor about him where 45* has none.
Also gotta remember there's no provision in the Constitution for a do-over so there's no chance at a President Hillary in store for us. We have rules, and it's usual-and-customary in our little experiment in self-government that we do things by the fucking rules - not just the letter, but the spirit as well. And the spirit of the law? Aye, there's the rub.
We have a guy in office who figured out how to exploit all the loop holes. Everything that's not spelled out in the words of the documents requires people to behave in an honorable way; to act in good faith in accordance with the spirit of the law; to not take unfair advantage.
45*'s built his whole thing on two simple premises:
1) If it doesn't say I can't do it, then that's my opportunity, and that's what I'll do.
2) And if it says I have to do it, then my opportunity is in not doing it until or unless somebody can force me to do it.
It's not that 45* is immoral - he's amoral. There's no Good and there's no Bad - there's only what works for him.
The guy has no soul and no honor.
Feelin' Kinda Cynical
In a democracy, you're the customer and the boss.
As a customer, you pay money in and you get services out.
As the boss you hire managers to run the joint for you - what we still like to call elections.
In this Oligarchy/Corporatocracy, you're no longer considered the customer. If you're the customer, they'd listen to your input. Now the only time you get to talk to them is when they give you a chance to agree with decisions they've already made - a lot like those company meetings we all love so much.
And whatever else you may be, you're sure as fuck not the boss anymore.
So if you're not the customer and you're not the boss, I think that makes you the product.
They're farming you for your tax dollars. They harvest your money and divvy it up with their buddies and their campaign donors.
Because Contributors get them elected, not voters.
As a customer, you pay money in and you get services out.
As the boss you hire managers to run the joint for you - what we still like to call elections.
In this Oligarchy/Corporatocracy, you're no longer considered the customer. If you're the customer, they'd listen to your input. Now the only time you get to talk to them is when they give you a chance to agree with decisions they've already made - a lot like those company meetings we all love so much.
And whatever else you may be, you're sure as fuck not the boss anymore.
So if you're not the customer and you're not the boss, I think that makes you the product.
They're farming you for your tax dollars. They harvest your money and divvy it up with their buddies and their campaign donors.
Because Contributors get them elected, not voters.
Today's Tweet
I'm on the fence as far as whether or not I even care if it's true. Sometimes you fight fire with fire.
My friend @mfab69 was driving home from work, looked up and saw this pic.twitter.com/zTFL2DG4I6— Beth,TheNaziSlayer (@BethW_NoTrump) February 18, 2017
Feb 19, 2017
Charlie Brings It
Charlie Pierce at Esquire
hat tip = Karoli, Crooks & Liars
How many more of these whackadoo performance pieces does he have to present before somebody throws sand in the gears? If four Republican senators—say, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Ben Sasse, and Susan Collins—would agree to caucus with the Democrats under Chuck Schumer, the whole thing would grind to a halt until we could catch our breath and see if we really want to live in the madhouse of this president*'s mind for the next four years. Bold speeches in Munich and chest-thumping on Twitter won't cut it. It's put up or shut up time.
And, please, for the love of god, ye editors and news directors throughout the land, enough with the expeditions into the heartland to talk to people who helped bring this down upon themselves and on us. These folks have nothing new to say. They voted their id and their spleen and they're still on a high from that. Some guy in a café in Dubuque wants to say that he voted for this president* because he "tells it like it is," or because he thinks the steel mills are coming back? Can you watch that rally in Florida and believe that these opinions have any real merit?
hat tip = Karoli, Crooks & Liars
Fake And Alt-Fake News
Beware the double negative - and the triple and the fourple.
Don Lemon gets up and slaps back.
Don Lemon gets up and slaps back.
Yay Don. You are earning your way out of Press Poodle status. Ya did us proud right there, son.
Today's Tweet
Donald Trump is so incredibly not racist that all major racist groups endorsed him purely out of ironic spite.— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) February 18, 2017
Feb 18, 2017
Just In Case
...that Pruitt schmuck actually kills the EPA, I wanted to put up some tiny little tribute to some of the reasons we managed to clean up after ourselves.
Pollution --Tom Lehrer
The story goes that LBJ liked to work with the windows open when the weather was nice, but he couldn't because the prevailing winds brought the stench of the Potomac into the Oval Office and he wanted something done about it.
Two years after Johnson was gone, people had pressured their Congress Critters enough to finally move Nixon to issue an Executive Order in 1970 creating the agency, which was followed by the legislation that would flesh it out and basically create a cop who was supposed to keep the bad guys from poisoning us.
The air got less shitty, the water got better, there was less crap in the soil that ended up on our dinner plates. The Cuyahoga river stopped catching fire. And Lake Erie went back to being something less like a sewer and more like a reason to move to Cleveland (OK, that one's a bit of a stretch - but hey, LeBron likes it there).
Here's the thing: The infrastructure of good government never comes easy, and once it's gone it can be even harder to get it back.
And BTW, a cleaner environment is really good for the economy.
There's no sense in having a job that makes you too sick to work.
And how big does a paycheck have to be to make up for the lousy feeling you get watching your kid gasp for air, and realizing the work you do could be causing that kid's asthma to get worse?
Like they say - the guys who put Scott Pruitt where he is don't like having the EPA around for the same reason muggers and thieves don't like having cops on the beat.
Pollution --Tom Lehrer
Garbage --Biff Rose
Two years after Johnson was gone, people had pressured their Congress Critters enough to finally move Nixon to issue an Executive Order in 1970 creating the agency, which was followed by the legislation that would flesh it out and basically create a cop who was supposed to keep the bad guys from poisoning us.
The air got less shitty, the water got better, there was less crap in the soil that ended up on our dinner plates. The Cuyahoga river stopped catching fire. And Lake Erie went back to being something less like a sewer and more like a reason to move to Cleveland (OK, that one's a bit of a stretch - but hey, LeBron likes it there).
Here's the thing: The infrastructure of good government never comes easy, and once it's gone it can be even harder to get it back.
And BTW, a cleaner environment is really good for the economy.
There's no sense in having a job that makes you too sick to work.
And how big does a paycheck have to be to make up for the lousy feeling you get watching your kid gasp for air, and realizing the work you do could be causing that kid's asthma to get worse?
Like they say - the guys who put Scott Pruitt where he is don't like having the EPA around for the same reason muggers and thieves don't like having cops on the beat.
Here It Comes
The Daddy State is rolling along in spite of what we can see on the surface.
Vox:
Isolate your devotees from outside influence. Give them a comforting substitute for reality.
I'm not going to indulge the ridiculous notion that 45* is playing some amazing 8-Dimensional Chess - that's not something Obama could do, and it sure as fuck ain't something 45* could handle.
That's not to say this shit happens by accident, or that he's not capable of subtlety - just that 45* does what he does with a purpose in mind and it all ends up pretty much out in the open because he can't help bragging about it. And that's the key.
The Authoritarian has to keep score. He has to be able to point to what he's done and count something (rally attendance, Electoral Votes, dead Jews) because he has to show you how great he is as a boss, or to show the boss what a good little follower he is.
And when he runs up against the contradictions he creates (which always in turn create massive fuckups), he just makes shit up so the "facts" will fit around the required outcome.
Keep watching. Keep pushing back.
Vox:
Report: Trump transition ordered government economists to cook up rosy growth forecasts
The Trump University economics department strikes again.
Updated by Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias matt@vox.com
Feb 17, 2017, 2:19pm EST
As the White House staff tries to put together a budget for President Donald Trump, they face a fundamental problem. Trump has promised to cut taxes, increase spending on the military and infrastructure, and avoid cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The only way to do that without producing an exploding budget deficit is to assume a big increase in economic growth.
And Nick Timiraos at the Wall Street Journal reports that Trump is planning to do just that — by making things up.
Deep into his story about Trump budget hijinks, Timiraos reveals that “what’s unusual about the administration’s forecasts isn’t just their relative optimism but also the process by which they were derived.” Specifically, what’s unusual about them is that they weren’t derived by any process at all. Instead of letting economists build a forecast, Trump’s budget was put together with “transition officials telling the CEA staff the growth targets that their budget would produce and asking them to backfill other estimates off those figures.”And all that crapola falling out of 45*'s Putin Receptacle about Fake News?
Isolate your devotees from outside influence. Give them a comforting substitute for reality.
I'm not going to indulge the ridiculous notion that 45* is playing some amazing 8-Dimensional Chess - that's not something Obama could do, and it sure as fuck ain't something 45* could handle.
That's not to say this shit happens by accident, or that he's not capable of subtlety - just that 45* does what he does with a purpose in mind and it all ends up pretty much out in the open because he can't help bragging about it. And that's the key.
The Authoritarian has to keep score. He has to be able to point to what he's done and count something (rally attendance, Electoral Votes, dead Jews) because he has to show you how great he is as a boss, or to show the boss what a good little follower he is.
And when he runs up against the contradictions he creates (which always in turn create massive fuckups), he just makes shit up so the "facts" will fit around the required outcome.
Keep watching. Keep pushing back.
Today's Tweet
I have no clue why Trump voters imagine I'd care about their opinions of me. They're clearly horrendous judges of character.— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) February 16, 2017
And this goes along with a tweet thread from a guy (Georgetown Law Adjunct, and Fellow at a DC Think Tank) observing the FUBAR attempts to fill 45*'s NSA spot, to wit:
"Harward just gave cover for every NatSec Pro who wants to pass on it."
"Offers and refusals for spots at NSC at every level, including DAS & Sched C" (Dept of Administrative Services - Sched C = Policy and Support Staff)
"The feeling is that wanting the job proves you're unsuitable for it."Fine-tuned machine my fat wobbly ass.
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