Another Nail In The Coffin

Former Virginia Governor Robert (Vaginal Bob) McDonnell will stay out of federal prison for a bit longer.

HuffPo:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to take up the case of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), who in October urged the justices to review his multiple convictions on federal corruption charges.

The justices' decision to hear the case effectively allows McDonnell to remain out of prison at least until the court issues a decision -- which could arrive as late as June.

McDonnell's lawyers are trying to convince the court that the kind of "official action" federal law treats as corruption -- and that a jury agreed McDonnell committed while governor -- was no more than "routine political courtesies," including activities such as "arranging meetings, asking questions, and attending events."

"This is the first time in our history that a public official has been convicted of corruption despite never agreeing to put a thumb on the scales of any government decision," McDonnell's lawyers wrote in their appeal to the Supreme Court. "Officials routinely arrange meetings for donors, take their calls, and politely listen to their ideas."

I think we need to be ready for the Roberts Court to use this case to strengthen the link between Money and Speech.  It seems like these guys need to establish precedents that reinforce the system of Legalized Bribery that's been evolving from what continues to look more and more like our failed experiment in self-government.

Some Tweets

Why do NYers vote Democrat? Because we remember the last time we trusted a Republican to keep us safe #NewYorkValues pic.twitter.com/VqNyg2FIm3

— Dandelion Dollars (@DandelionDollar) January 15, 2016

New York slams Cruz after attack on Trump's #NewYorkValues: "Drop dead, Ted" https://t.co/r8TcMfN6Vp pic.twitter.com/ERnVjg1oqx

— The Hill (@thehill) January 15, 2016

"I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement." Trump defended #NewYorkvalues against Cruz https://t.co/bdPU4tOFxk

— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) January 15, 2016

It's kinda hard to take Trump at his word for anything, but with that caveat, if you've said something that makes Donald Trump feel insulted...?  Whoa.

Today's Dead Celeb

Alan Rickman.  Best bad guy ever.  Best badass good guy ever.

Dogma (1999) --from Kevin Smith

RIP

Sweet Tweet

Hug...! pic.twitter.com/TcJUccQBfz

— Suzanne Lepage (@SuzanneLepage1) January 13, 2016

Whoa, Lady

For a minute there, I tho't I'd accidentally surfed into a That Girl rerun.  But anyway.

Governor Nikki Haley, R-SC:

These things are never good and most often flat-out awful, so she gets a little credit just for having the guts to try, and by comparison, it's a shitload better than Rubio or Jindal, so there's that(?)

Conventional wisdom has it that this is mostly a message aimed at Trump on behalf of a GOP Establishment as they finally start to wake up and get worried that the Monster Of The Id that they created in the 80s and 90s and fed for 35 years has crashed through the fence that was supposed to keep it in the Democrats' yard and is now completely fucking up the GOP rose beds, shittin' in GOP swimming pools and sniffin' everybody's butt cracks - which is pretty much exactly what the "Libruls" (and the GOP's very own "moderates") have been trying to tell them would happen for those same 35 years.  Because rational thinkers understand that you don't control people for very long.  And - not to get too nerdily metaphorical on ya here - when you push somebody to tap into something that always includes that "dark side", try not to act so surprised when Kylo Ren shivs you through the fucking heart, Mr Solo.  (hat tip = driftglass)

Anyway.

She makes the GOP's big point about immigration and terrorism, and how we have to be really really really careful and even straight-up suspicious of new-comers and outsiders and people who're different from us.  Then, not more than a few paragraphs later, she slides right into "nine beautiful souls" welcoming a stranger into their worship circle only to be gunned down because he turned out to be a terrorist jerkwad.  Of course, she disguises it by glossing it over with how forward-thinking and courageous she is for having taken down that stoopid fucking flag (props for that BTW), but she's inviting that standard xenophobia inference, and she knows the people she wants to make the connection will make the connection.

This shit doesn't happen by accident, kids. That's some of the best code-speak ever.

She's not saying "stop being a buncha ignorant racist assholes".  She's saying, "stop being ignorant racist assholes out in the open because that embarrasses me because I have to get you to vote for me".  

In the end, she's telling people who're in open revolt against what they see as a party - that they've been taught BY THAT PARTY - to believe is being ruined by "Political Correctness"  to be politically correct.  She's demanding it.

I'd say the horse has left the barn, but that assumes the barn's still there as some kinda point of reference.  You're in a bit of a pickle, Nikki.

SOTU 2016

Some faves:
(about 14:00) 

"It's not too much of a stretch to say that some of the only people in America who're going to work the same job in the same place with a health and retirement package for 30 years are sitting in this chamber."

(about 18:50)

"But after years now of record corporate profit, working families won't get more opportunity or bigger paychecks just by letting big banks or big oil or hedge funds make their own rules at everybody else's expense." 

(about 22:00) Talking about innovation and research. He's trying to reassert government's proper roll in pushing for progress while trying to keep the privateers and the rentiers from controlling the mechanisms of that progress solely for the sake of corporate profit.

(starting about 30:00) Let's go back to being the smart country when it comes to what we do about terrorism.  Let's not help the bad guys by repeating their rhetoric about how big and bad they are, and how they're coming to fucking destroy America. Basically - "Stop losing your shit all the fucking time."   These are bad guys and they "have to be rooted out, hunted down and destroyed", but stop saying that a buncha slavering fanatics charging around in a used Toyota pickup is somehow the equivalent of any random squad of US Marines - why do you not understand how insulting that is to the troops you claim to have the highest regard for?  Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you people? 

NeoLib uh-oh:
(about 17:00)  - This one sounds like he's selling an investment plan for Wall Street - but it ties into the remarks on not letting the too-big-to-fail gang play by their own rules - he's going for that famous "Obama in the middle" thing(?)

"(on a guy losing his job)...he should still be able to save for retirement  and take his savings with him."

Full remarks: Watch @POTUS deliver his final State of the Union address. #SOTU https://t.co/AOyWjdFk4O

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 13, 2016

It was a good one to go out on. I wonder how long before the Repubs get their strategies in place for what to do now.  Gov Haley's "response" seemed to hold some interesting weirdness.  I'll try to get to that later.

Today's Pix

(click a pic)

Homemade Fail

hat tip = FB pal RM

Today's Style Element

A car full of Irish nuns is sitting at a traffic light in downtown Dublin, when a bunch of rowdy drunks pull up alongside of them.

"Hey, show us yer tits, ya bloody penguins!" shouts one of the drunks.

Quite shocked, Mother Superior turns to Sister Mary Immaculata and says, "I don't think they know who we are; show them your cross."

Sister Mary Immaculata rolls down her window and shouts, "Piss off, ya fookin' little wankers, before I come over there and rip yer balls off!"

Sister Mary Immaculata then rolls up her window, looks back at Mother Superior, quite innocently, and asks, "Did that sound cross enough?

Your vs You're 

- or - 

The Apostrophe Is Our Friend

Whose Side Are You On?

Take the quiz and find out who your candidate is.

I wonder why I'm not surprised.

Today In Y'all Qaeda Land

Here's a pretty good look at the latest Wingnut Clusterfuck going on in Oregon, from Al Jazeera:

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2016/01/oregon-standoff-160111172301780.html

hat tip = FB friend DR

Yes, it's Al Jazeera.  And yes, it's biased.  And yes, we have to get used to the fact that nobody's really doing good journalism anymore, so we have to be able to sort thru the shit on our own.

And here's a related bit from Raw Story:

The Bundys have voiced support for a variety of right-wing fringe ideas, particularly the “posse comitatus” notion that no legitimate governments exist above the county level, and they believe in no higher law authority than the county sheriff.

However, posse members have embedded an implicit threat in their belief system.

If the sheriff violates his oath of office, as determined by the right-wing extremists themselves, “he shall be removed by the posse to the most populated intersection of streets in the township and at high noon be hung by the neck, the body remaining until sundown as an example to those who would subvert the law.”

The main point here is that there's not a dime's worth of difference between what these jagoffs are doing in places like Oregon and what their counterpart jagoffs are doing in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Jagoff is as jagoff does, Forrest.

Today's Tweet

Obama's job-killing policies a complete failure, reports Fox News, as US posts best 2 years of job growth since '90s pic.twitter.com/8mGhpojjtD

— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) January 11, 2016

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind

Part 1 from The Real News Network

hat tip = FB buddy DR

The safety gizmo was found to be malfunctioning during an inspection in 1976 - the last time this site was inspected - and it was removed in 1979.

No safety inspections in very nearly 40 years. A safety valve that prob'ly would have prevented the thing from leaking for these last 4 months - but hey, we'll just go on about our bidness because the market will make any necessary corrections all in good time, and only some libtard who hates anybody trying to make a living would think anything might actually go wrong. 

This fits nicely into my take on the GOP Playbook.

1) Fuck up the EPA - cut funding, block appointments, harass in general

2) Wait for an environmental disaster

3) Point at it and say, "The EPA's all fucked up; their job-killing business-hostile regulations were supposed to make sure this didn't happen. The EPA is useless. Let's get rid of the EPA"

Today's Pix

(click the pic)

Movies We'd Like To See

via American News X on FB #BundySnackMovieTitles pic.twitter.com/9IxhwGc2r3

— Mike Roberts (@EvilleMike) January 9, 2016

Tweets

Somebody started a trend called #BundySnackMovieTitles

#BundySnackMovieTitles Rebel Without A Twinkie

— stephanie maguire (@stephaniemagui4) January 9, 2016

Silence of the Yams #BundySnackMovieTitles

— Tengrain (@Tengrain) January 8, 2016

Small Diet On The Western Front #BundySnackMovieTitles

— Shoq (@Shoq) January 8, 2016

#BundySnackMovieTitles The Green Burritos

— JerryB (@BangingChains) January 8, 2016

Dude Where's My Carbs? #BundySnackMovieTitles

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) January 9, 2016

@mtaibbi #BundySnackMovieTitles No Country for Old Crackers

— Patrick Fenner (@PatrickFenner2) January 8, 2016

Poverty Is Expensive

Everybody's Fave

Never Waste A Good Crisis

Raw Story

As the militia stand-off in Oregon comes up on one week, speculation turns to the financial resources that allow men to up and leave their jobs — reportedly for however long it takes — to take an uninvited stand for freedom in an empty bird sanctuary.

According to experts who study right-wing movements, militia members barely get by, with some living on government disability checks and the earnings of their neglected wives.

In an interview with The Oregonian, Mark Pitcavage, who has studied far-right movements for 22 years, said most militia members live hand to mouth.

“These guys are broke,” he said. “Right-wing extremists, generally speaking, have very little money.”

While some members have brought their wives and children with them — leading to dissension within the ranks — others may have to cut out early before leader Ammon Bundy declares victory and heads home to Nevada.

“It’s quite possible that a lot of them will get tired and feel the pressure to go back and care for their families,” Pitcavage explained.

The extended stay at the national bird refuge in the dead of winter has already cost one militia member his job.

Jason Patrick, of Georgia, claims he lost his $80,000-a-year roofing job — with benefits and a company truck — because he took off without notice and had already used up his vacation days attending other Patriot-inspired events.

So I'm wondering - if we include a Y'allQaeda Allowance Clause, would the GOP finally be willing to move forward on some decent legislation for Medical and Family Leave?

Yesterday's News

"Big" story at WaPo yesterday about Jim Webb starting to take a step or two tentatively to see if maybe he should contemplate considering a possible try to investigate whether or not he should maybe run for POTUS as an independent.

“After weeks of study, including consultations with ballot experts and independent activists across the country, we have a handle on what it takes to give voters in every state a real choice,” Webb spokesman Craig Crawford said in a statement. Jones, he said, would help with the next step: “How to pay for it.”

And the "who gives a fuck" silence was deafening.

It's good to have guys out there making some noise about how fucked up the system is right now, so I have no problem with this on its face.  But when you have people running the operation who're basically in the Business Of Politics, trying to position yourself as the guy who wants to take the business out of politics makes you look a little silly.

I dunno how else it gets done or who's supposed to do it, BTW - the only people voting in favor of Women's Suffrage were men (eg) - so maybe it's just that Jim Webb really doesn't strike me as the guy to pull it off.  Or maybe it's because I'm a little suspicious when it comes to ex-military people wanting to make changes to, and asking to be put in charge of a government that's supposed to be civilian-centered.

We have to figure out ways to get together and work the problem, but we also have to keep in mind: 

"Distrust and caution are the parents of security." --Ben Franklin

Dangerously Silly

From Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone

The Bundy militiamen are like a Black September version of an Iron John forest retreat: a bunch of weepy middle-aged guys who dressed up in crisply pressed outdoorswear and took over a bird sanctuary so they could play outlaw for a few days while they "worked on themselves."

They gathered around a bonfire (there really was a bonfire) and presumably engaged in Robert Bly-style mythopoetic healing, getting back to their manly roots by stroking their rifles, wearing camo undies, and complaining about all the wrongs done to them by women/the federal government/wild birds/whoever.
About the camo: yes, the following actually happened. One of the militiamen, Melvin Lee, posted a video on Facebook (these guys are on social media more than most teenagers) where he complained about the popular misconceptions of the movement. "There's nobody in camouflage," said Lee, who was wearing a camouflage jacket. "Well, except for my jacket."

And yes, it did happen that Ritzheimer, who did remember to bring his paperback copy of the Constitution, actually sent out a tweet asking for care packages for things his compadres forgot to pack for their armed dude-seminar. They asked for socks, snacks, energy drinks (!), equipment for cold weather, snow camo, and "gear."

This was after Bundy had told reporters that the group was prepared to stay for "years" and had enough supplies to see them through. "We have food planned and prepared," he said.

What Joe Said

Vice President Joe Biden explains how President Obama's executive actions really don't violate the Second Amendment https://t.co/zitGm9TAoN

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 7, 2016

Today's Tweet

Nice try. Rosa Parks didn't hijack a bus with an assault rifle because she didn't want to pay the bus fare. @Ammon_Bundy

— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) January 6, 2016

And - just throwing in this little extra bit:

The fact that Ammond Bundy wasn't immediately incinerated by several bolts of lightning as he was comparing himself with Rosa Parks proves to my satisfaction that there is no god.

Letters Home

It's pretty rough up there right now for the Y'allQaeda fellers.

hat tip = Mock Paper Scissors

Today's Tweet

BREAKING: Republicans Pass Repeal That Strips Healthcare From Millions GOP Voters https://t.co/dWfqgGzk2U #Obamacare pic.twitter.com/lFBS4zZIBO

— The Baxter Bean (@TheBaxterBean) January 6, 2016

Today's Snark

Give a Republican a fish, and he'll tell you a story about his long hard struggle to become a great fisherman.

Offer to teach a Republican to fish, and he'll denounce you as a socialist.

hat tip = The Daily Shit or maybe it was LOLGOP - I get confused sometimes.

Today's DumFux News

Trying hard not to dismiss this as just a buncha cold spirit-sucking empty-hearted teeny-bop cunts at the mean girls table.

Politics-as-usual?

Or maybe massive unresolved daddy issues?  That could easily be the case with Meghan McCain I guess.

When you slag a guy for tearing up a little while he's trying to get us to do something about too many dead kids - when you feel the need to stonewall against any effort to keep kids from being killed - you have no soul and no honor.

And it's not just because you have no soul and no honor.  As it turns out, it's also because the boss can't afford anything to be done about the problem. And that's what I think is driving such cunt-ish behavior on air.

If you wanna know what's up with any problem here in USAmerica Inc, you have to look at who's currently benefiting from the problem, and/or who stands to profit from any proposed solution for that problem.

And more importantly, since we're talkin' politics now, you have to understand that solutions for these problems are not actually allowed - REPEATING: solutions are not allowed.  There's too much money and too many careers of too many very powerful people at stake.  

It doesn't matter what we're scrappin' about - it can be Abortion or Guns or Taxes or Poverty or Schools or Prisons or any other 'problem'.  As long as we're fighting, we're fueling the revenue streams that keep the fat cats fat.

The people who're making the decisions on what we see and hear over the air or on cable;  what we read online; what emails we receive asking for another 3 bucks to help in the fight for blah blah blah - these are either currently wealthy powerful people, or they're people looking to become wealthy and powerful by monetizing the fight for whatever.

Mike's First Law of Career Self-Nurturing: Anybody with any prospect of enjoying even a relatively low degree of success will never ever EVER try to work himself out of that job.

We have a News Industry that went from Public Service to Cost Center to Profit Center to Money Mill - there is no content available on Fox or MSNBC or WashPo or your local FARMNet station that isn't programmed to push somebody's buttons and move them to  send a generous donation to their newfound favorite cause.

Seems like the only thing we manufacture in this country anymore is this bullshit high-school-fuck-around drama.  But hey - business is booming, so it's all good.

My POTUS

Because there's no contradiction in having a hard head and a soft heart.

I'm not a fan - Obama's done some things I strongly oppose, and he's left some things undone I wish he'd tried a lot harder to get done.  But that's just how this shit works.  And the guy's still pretty fuckin' amazing.

The Farce Awakens

"... we're not about fear; we're not about force; we're not about intimidation ..."  

That's why your action is considered an "armed occupation of federal property"?  And you brought all the guns because you have no intention of threatening violence or making a show of force?  

OK.

BTW - Messianic much, Mr Bundy?  

Here's the thing, schmuck - maybe you and the Goober Squad could just go the fuck home and let the good folks in Harney County decide what's best for the good folks in Harney County.  Could we try that?

An Acculturated Callousness

In WWI, civilian casualties accounted for about 10% of the total.  By the time we got around to invading Iraq almost 100 years later, that number had climbed to 90%. 

It's pretty simple really.  First, it's a transaction - there's lotsa people, so we can spend them - the cost of war.   

Second, in spite of our efforts to impose "Rules Of War", WWII made it very clear that nothing much had actually changed at all. 

Counter Force = kill their soldiers; destroy their weapons and equipment 
Counter Value = destroy roads and bridges and factories and farms
Counter Collateral = kill their people - the ones who become the soldiers, build the roads and grow the food.

Whoever loses the least gets to call themselves the winners, and put the other guys on trial for "war crimes".

All of that gets real clear about 42 minutes into this film:

Forgive The Oxymoron

EJ Dionne points out "conservative thinking":

"Forgive me for noting that conservatives seem to believe that the rich will work harder if we give them more, and the poor will work harder if we give them less."

Here's your visual on that one:

Today's Pix

And Another One

Poe's Law applies.

Give The Lady A Hand

I'm not looking forward to having to vote for Hillary.  I'm down with Bernie and I'll stay with him for as long as I can, but if / when the time comes, I'm not gonna behave like some crackpot wingnut.  We get plenty of that nonsense from the GOP.  This is not the movies; we don't always get everything we want; sometimes we have to go with the least bad option; etc etc etc

And please don't give me the crap about "having to choose between the lesser of two evils".  When faced with that choice, isn't it really kind of an imperative to make every effort to support the lesser of the two evils in an attempt to keep the greater of those two evils out of power?  

Or are you just too fucking stoopid to grasp the basic concept of Greater vs Lesser? 

I very much want Bernie to win it all.

But what I think is actually more important than that is to make sure the Repubs don't win much of anything.

So anyway, Hillary did a townhall thing - always a risk - and of course she got a troll in the audience who stood and heckled her for something, and she nailed the reply:

“You are very rude and I’m not never ever going to call on you. Thank you.”

And in response to the inevitable "what about Bill" question:

"He's not running for President, I am.  And as his wife I've moved on; shouldn't you?"

She'll hit back; she's starting to get that part of her playbook in place.  And she deserves props for that.

Today's Toon

hat tip = Democratic Underground

This Is Just Too Good

From HuffPo:

The gunmen who have seized a federal building in Oregon claim they're patriots.

But on social media, many are calling the self-styled "militia" terrorists -- and mocking the group that has taken over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters with derisive nicknames.

Whomever came up with #YallQaeda to describe the Oregon militia, I take my hat off to you. And then put it back on and take it off again.

— Colin Miner (@cominer) January 3, 2016

The emergence of #VanillaISIS in Oregon sparks fears of radicalizing disaffected hipsters in Portland.

— Khaled Bey (@KhaledBeydoun) January 4, 2016

You know you're a badass Tea Party patriot when your militia takes over an unprotected bird sanctuary

— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) January 3, 2016

Still others have taken to using terms such as #YokelHaram and #al-Shabubba, and say the group is waging #YeeHawd.

Get all the latest on Y'allQaeda and Vanilla ISIS at Mock Paper Scissors

Today's Tweet

Breaking : A member of #YallQaeda leaks his photo out to the public #OregonUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/SwKJLCx596

— Packers (10-5) (@whovian15) January 4, 2016

BTW - "YallQaeda" is courtesy of Mock Paper Scissors

The Bundy Redux

Civil Disobedience being in the eye of the beholder, I'm not at all sure what it is specifically, but there's a fair degree of certainty that what's going on in Oregon ain't it.

militarized law enforcement responses almost always bad idea, but we only raise this point when it's about criminal right wingers

— Atrios (@Atrios) January 3, 2016

Trying hard not to say, "It's time to regulate the fuck outa that militia." https://t.co/n018rc9ENf

— Mike Roberts (@EvilleMike) January 3, 2016

There's so much happening, and so many flips and turns, and so much that's gone before that leads up to this, it's hard to find the room to step back far enough to get the whole picture.

One of the big things is that outfits like The Bundy Gang have been playing this "I'm not gonna be da gubmint's bitch" game for a very long time.  Well sorry-not-sorry, guys, but you're not the government's bitch.  You're Sheldon Adelson's bitch. You're Charlie Koch's bitch.  You're Roger Ailes's bitch.  You've been lied to and manipulated into being pissed off at all the wrong people.  Which makes you a very useful bitch for anybody with a sizable media budget, who plays on your need for martyrdom and pity in order to hide his own power-grabbing agenda.  In the old story, you're Guy of Gisborne to Rush Limbaugh's Prince John.  Not to put too fine a point on it for ya, Sparky, but you're on the wrong fucking side. Again.

So anyway -

Nobody ever taught these moochers about The Tragedy Of The Commons. They see "open land" that belongs to all Americans; they need to expand their operation to make it pay for an expanding clan of (eg) Bundy kids; and so they believe in their hearts that they can just take what they need because all that land is right there and they feel entitled to it.

And none of that ever registers as ironic in their pea-pickin' little brain pans.  And if you try to teach them a little sumpthin' about how they have to share - or at least they have to pay for what they get - they go into that cornered-animal crouch and start whining about being the victims of Oppressive Gubmint again.  

These guys seem never to have matured past being hormone-poisoned teenagers.  They're subsumed by that deadly combination of ignorance and adolescent bravado which makes it impossible for them to know their conclusion can't be true when they start from a false premise.

--BTW: that last bit is Ayn Rand.  You remember Ayn Rand - the patron saint of your Radically Libertarian Douchenozzlery, right, Sparky?  Yeah, no - it never sounds like you remember shit about it even if you ever fucking read any of it.

Don't worry Even as we speak the media is sending their best thesauruses to Oregon to find other words than "terrorists." #OregonUnderAttack

— Steve Marmel (@Marmel) January 3, 2016

I remember watching some Western on TV and the typical barroom brawl breaks out, and I asked my dad why everybody gets in on the fight when it was just a beef between two guys.  He told me something like - some jokers got nuthin' better to do than hang around waitin' for an excuse to punch somebody.  

So now we wait.

Today's Chart

From a few years ago, and still more than a little troubling.

We can't go on like this - and you know it's not any better now than it was in 2012 when the guy put this up. You can see it if you look.