Today's WTF

Charles Kinsey is a Behavioral Therapist.  He was trying to help a 20-something Autistic patient.  Somebody called the North Miami PD because they tho't the patient had a gun (it was a toy truck).  The patient "failed" to respond to officers' commands; Mr Kinsey knew enough not to abandon his patient; the cops apparently don't know one fuckin' thing except the use of force - so they shot Kinsey as he lay on the ground with his hands in the air.

Charles Kinsey must be wondering what else he needs to do in order to be included in the "all" part of All Lives Matter.

That's pretty fucked up right there.

Fun At The Hatefest

First up: Helga, The Nazi She-Wolf Laura Ingraham

via Rolling Stone and AP

That Leadership Thing

The first two nights in Cleveland, the GOP speakers have tried mightily to portray Obama (and Hillary) as some kinda disaster when it comes to how the world views USAmerica Inc - like we're somehow flailing about and we're not where we should be and we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing etc etc etc.

Take a look at the numbers of people in various countries saying they have confidence in American Leadership:

Every day, in every way, the GOP just gets worse.

Today's GIF

Today's Podcast

Bob and Chez:

Today's Tweet

Fact Check: Here's what the FBI Director actually said about the so-called "marked" emails sent to Hillary Clinton.https://t.co/xs3tbrJb9e

— The Briefing (@TheBriefing2016) July 20, 2016

Ben Carson

It comes down to acknowledging that you're pushing for a Theocracy, Ben.  And so, in light of the fact that Government-by-Religion is expressly prohibited in our constitution, I have to ask: Why do you hate America, Dr Carson?

  

Yes Different

Congressional Interns, 2016 - Democrats:

Congressional Interns, 2016 - Republicans:

Questions?

About Last Nite

Some semi-random thoughts on The ShamWow Meeting in Cleveland.

The theme du jour yesterday was "Make America Work Again".  Let's leave aside the imagery invoked by that phrasing - Rich Rent Collectors and Forced Labor - and think for a short little moment about what the speakers had to say last night.

I heard an awful lot of the usual Hillary Bashing, but with the exception of two women who spoke pretty well about their own experiences in business (this is a 5-day bender celebrating USAmerica Inc's reigning champion of shameless self-promotion, so why would you not try to cash in?), there really wasn't much talk about jobs and opportunities for regular folk etc - it was all "fuck China" and "fuck Mexico" and "fuck the immigrants and poor people" and "your jobs were sent to other countries by The Kenyan Usurper while the noble wealth creators had nothing to do with any of that, so let's put Hillary in prison because email!"   

I caught a little bit of MSNBC's after-party thing, where one of the analysts said he Word-Clouded the text of the speeches, and the word "work" was so far down the list as to be nearly invisible.

I think Mr Priebus needs to shift the focus a little and maybe try "Make This Dog-Ass Convention Work." The attendance is sparse, and the "crowds" just aren't into it.  There were at least two speakers who used the standard Call-n-Response thing, and it was more than a little pathetic. When the speakers have to start the USA USA chant, and it runs outa steam before the middle-aged drunk ladies in the cute red white and blue cowboy hats can get on their feet - well, it's a problem.

I'll look for something good about Trump Jr's speech and get back to y'all later.

Slammin' Sam

Samantha Bee

Round Two

But before we get too crazy, I've heard one source saying the guy who wrote Trump Jr's speech is the guy who wrote the article.  Still doesn't look good, but it's prob'ly not a Melania-level fuckup.

👀 pic.twitter.com/QEftnTTwy3

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) July 20, 2016

Breakin' It Down

The media is calling out the Trump campaign for attempting to deny that Melania Trump's speech was plagiarized: pic.twitter.com/qk5YCLX4sG

— Media Matters (@mmfa) July 19, 2016

(UPDATE 3:10pm)

Maybe I've been hoping for it - and always being disappointed when it doesn't materialize - for so long that I'm just too skeptical, but some of the reactions on the part of these Press Poodles makes me think again that they might be ready (at long fucking last) to get up on their hind legs and call the bullshit for the bullshit it so obviously is.

If that's actually the case, then yay.  It'll be interesting to see how it goes from here on.

But - beware the resurgence of the Both-Siderists.

Where Have I Gone Wrong?

• Obama is rotten
• Hillary is rotten
• Hillary in the White House would be a 3rd term for Obama
• The main reason that would be terrible for America is because the Clintons and the Obamas don't "share our values"

--so--

Let's send Melania out in front of a packed house and 35 million TV viewers and have her espouse almost everything Michelle Obama had to say about herself and Barack in 2008 - practically reciting - verbatim - fairly large passages from that speech.

I wonder how this is playing today with the GOP faction that's been very vocal about how Trump isn't a "real Republican". 

Just how far down the Bullshit Expressway are the rubes willing to ride with this?

Today's Tweet

White Melania stealing from black Michelle Obama, hours after GOP Rep Steve King says white people created civilization, is priceless.

— David Atkins (@DavidOAtkins) July 19, 2016

Wow Just Wow

There's nothing truly new.  Everything is derivative.  I get it, and I guess I knew there had to be a reason I liked that speech, but dang - that's some kinda low down shit right there.

I just have to sit here now shaking my head, wondering - who wrote that thing for her?  Did the Trump campaign gurus really think nobody would notice?  Are they so convinced the rubes will be able to rationalize it away that they'll take the negative publicity and spin it up into "high media interest" and "we must be doing something right - look at how everybody wants to know more about Melania"?

It's a rolling clusterfuck.  A traveling dumpster fire.  Amateurish, cynical and clumsy.

HuffPo 

RNC Tweet

#RNCinCLE DRINKING GAME:

Drink every time you hear a verifiable fact.... pic.twitter.com/EqzV6NFRmt

— All Things Flynn (@AllThingsFlynn) July 18, 2016

OK, I Think I Get It

From Robert Reich's FB page:

May I have a word with those of you Bernie supporters who consider Donald Trump to be no worse than Hillary Clinton? It’s a point of view a number of you have expressed on this page, and it's dead wrong.

As I said when I endorsed Bernie for president, I view Hillary as enormously qualified to be president of the political system we now have. She is smart, capable, and experienced. I endorsed Bernie because I thought he would help create the political system we need. But Bernie will not be the Democratic nominee. That does not mean the end of the movement Bernie advanced. That movement was never about Bernie; it was about reclaiming our democracy and our economy. And that movement will live on, and it will grow. It needs your continuing activism and your tenacity.

You are, of course, entitled to support anyone you wish to. But if you don’t get behind Hillary you increase the odds that Donald Trump will be president. That would be a disaster for America and the world. Trump is a menace. He is not just unsuited to being the president of the United States – a bigoted narcissist who incites and excuses violence – but his presidency would threaten everything this nation stands for: tolerance, inclusion, freedom of the press, equal justice, and equal opportunity. It would make it far more difficult ever to achieve the progressive goals you and I share.

What do you think?

Imagine That

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, a staunch advocate for gun rights, vowed that he would get rid of “gun-free zones” at an annual meeting for the National Rifle Association held this spring in Louisville, Kentucky. The convention center he spoke at for the annual meeting for the NRA as well as all of Trump’s hotels are gun-free zones.

In case you missed it - the RNC convention is a gun-free zone.

In case you missed it 2: Steve Loomis (President of Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association) loudly claimed Tamir Rice was threatening the Cleveland cops, and more recently has said Obama has blood on his hands for both Dallas and Baton Rouge, and most recently made a desperate plea to Ohio Gov John Kasich, asking the governor to issue an Executive Order suspending the Open Carry laws in Ohio for the duration of the GOP convention.

This jagoff is an active duty Police Detective - who seems to know practically nothing about how the law actually works.  Which may explain why he's a Trump supporter(?)

The fact that these guys apparently think "a great leader" gets to make law and then suspend the law on whatever whimsy strikes him as expedient - is exactly the kind of authoritarian crap the founders told us to watch out for; exactly why Donald (Law-n-Order) Trump needs to be stomped in November, along with all the other Proto-Nazi assholes we come across. 

Today's Tweet

#JesusChangesEverything is trending... just doing my part... pic.twitter.com/Ag9zwcyYGX

— Think Atheist (@ThinkAtheist) July 16, 2016

Trump On 60 Minutes

Here's a taste:

I was trying to count 2 things here: The times either one of these jokers contradicted either himself or the other.  And the number of times they each spoke of the other in the 3rd person.  I lost track in a big hurry.  I couldn't keep up.

If you're saying you intend to vote for this rolling clusterfuck, I'm gonna feel perfectly justified hitting you in the knee with a 24-oz ball peen until you stop saying that. 

Today's Pix

Another Day, Another What The Fuck

Three dead cops in Baton Rouge - 3 others wounded, one in critical condition. Plus one dead perp and as many as 2 others on the loose. (as of 3pm Sunday)


(update as of 5:30pm Sunday: Cops think it was a single perp - Gavin Eugene Long. No others are known to be involved, and the cops say they're not looking for anybody else.)

Three police officers have been fatally shot in Baton Rouge, La., and three others were wounded, according to East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Department.

East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux III said one gunman was shot dead, but two other suspects may be at large.

"At this point in time the scene is still active," he said. "We are advising the public to please take an alternate route and steer clear of the area."

Corporal L'Jean Mckneely Jr., spokesman for the Baton Rouge Police Department, said officers secured the area around the suspect and sent a robot device in after the shooting, “making sure there aren’t any explosives in the area."

To be sure, this is a truly shitty thing.  As Fugelsang tweeted earlier:

I'm on the side of everyone who's against both police brutality & brutality against police. It's not a complicated position. #BatonRouge

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) July 17, 2016

I do have to wonder though - where are all the Ammosexuals in this?  They should be standing and wildly cheering as these heroic defenders of liberty have exercised their god-given 2nd Amendment rights to fight back against the oppressive tyrannical Police Forces (aka Da Gubmint).  And yet there's this deafening silence.

That level of cognitive dissonance seems to get a bit paralyzing, don't it?  

Today's GIF

Today's Podcast

Certain Press Poodles have been assigned the task of lamenting "our difficulties" in talking about the horribleness of the apparent racism in USAmerica Inc, and about how our political leaders are exploiting the divisions blah blah bah.

So there was a poll asking Americans about how the two major party candidates are doing in the whole Racial Divisiveness thing - ie: Who do you think is more responsible for the negativity regarding our "national conversation about race"?

Trump = 67%
Clinton = 16%

Press Poodles: But remember,folks - overall, 61% of Americans think it's all pretty shitty, which lets everybody slide back into the comfortably numb Both Sides narrative, and so we'll call it a draw.

Today's Tweet

People who are most against homosexuality often have the most secretly homosexual logos #TrumpPence pic.twitter.com/ZY9MUGCB4j

— Mike T (@majtague) July 15, 2016

A Glimmer

Saudi Arabia has roving bands of Morality Police with the power to beat up citizens they deem not behaving as good little Wahabis.

A judge in Kentucky decided he could refuse to officiate at a civil wedding ceremony because the couple didn't mention God in their vows.

Bands of psychotically religious assholes do all manner of shitty things to people everywhere, in the name of their love and devotion for any of a dozen versions of the one true merciful and loving god.

Fuck 'em.

Still, there's this tiny glimmer of hope in USAmerica Inc.

  

Maybe It's Just Me

From a distance, and if you squint just a bit, the GOP Convention logo looks kinda like an advertisement for The La Brea Tar Pits.

Just sayin'.

Metal Working

Anthony Howe

They never told me I could put Shop Class together with Art Class and maybe end up with something this fucking amazing. 

Today's Jeopardy Question

I'll take Blinded By Bullshit for 500, Alex.

And the answer is:

What is "Deflategate"?

Right you are.

Today's Tweet

Hilarious. pic.twitter.com/GZjbA38jum

— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) July 12, 2016

Today's Pix

Jason Explains

Mr Chaffetz seems completely flummoxed by the process of Gubmint.

Normal Human: Whatcha doin'?

House Republican: Looking for my keys - I dropped 'em when I was out in the garage.

Normal Human: So, why are you in the kitchen?

House Republican: The light's better in here.

Today's GIF

See if you can spot the moment Trump heard about Bernie's endorsement of Hillary.

Embarrassed To Tell You

hat tip = Blue Gal via Crooks & Liars

Our Mr Brooks

driftglass does the David Brooks takedown a lot better than I do.

Another in the continuing parade of passive-voiced responsibility-ducking bullshit:

Anybody who spends time in the working-class parts of America (and, one presumes, Britain) notices the contagions of drug addiction and suicide, and the feelings of anomie, cynicism, pessimism and resentment.

Part of this pain arises from deindustrialization. Good jobs are hard to find. But hardship is not exactly new to these places. Life in, say, a coal valley was never a bouquet of roses.

What’s also been lost are the social institutions and cultural values that made it possible to have self-respect amid hardship — to say, “I may not make a lot of money, but people can count on me. I’m loyal, tough, hard-working, resilient and part of a good community.”

 

Don't Be The Asshole, America

Today's Tweet

It'd be cooler'n shit if this was all anybody had to worry about.

Great !👏👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/KRyvF4UfDl

— Asghar Nikoorokh (@nikoorokh) July 11, 2016

Everybody's Doin' It

...so why should I be any different?  

This pic is "important", partly because certain Photo Editors have told us it's important, but I think there may be quite a bit more to it than that.

28-year-old Ieshia Evans, Baton Rouge, July 2016

First, if you show up dressed like you're looking for trouble, I have to think maybe you're looking for trouble.

Along those lines, the feeling of invulnerability the cops have to get from wearing their Play Date Suits* can cause them to be a lot less likely to avoid trouble - and actually, most people become far more likely to start trouble because of that feeling of invulnerability.

(*available at fine Cop Shop outlets everywhere for as little as $400 each - up to $1000 depending on options. And be sure to identify yourself as Military or Police or Security, because they don't sell this shit to just anybody, y'know)

So, do we need to look any further than what seems obvious here?  Do we really have to ask why people get fucked up and fucked over by a police force comprised of officers equipped for urban warfare and trained to deal with American citizens as if they're the enemy?

The shitty little irony is that those cops are convinced they're protecting Ms Evans - nobody seems able to clearly identify exactly what they're protecting her from (which means there's a high probability they're just rationalizing their behavior), but if she's not ridiculously careful, they're gonna protect her to death.  In the end, who protects any of us from our protectors?

And ain't that all kinds of pretty fucked up right there?

Today's Tweet

#TortureReport proves torture doesn't work. Dick Cheney says he'd do it again. For what, fun? (photo by @richardhine) pic.twitter.com/MutNgaFhFv

— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) December 14, 2014

Resistance Is Life

The whole thing from Juan Cole:

Kurdish Women Fighting ISIL Send Solidarity to BlackLivesMatter

“You are among the most radical voices in today’s racist, sexist, capitalist world,” the YPJ wrote to Black Lives Matter.

Fighters from the Kurdish Women’s Defense Units or YPJ, have sent a message of solidarity to the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States.

“To our black sisters and brothers! The people of Kurdistan stand with you!” read the short statement posted Saturday by the group, who has been fighting the incursions of ISIS [Daesh] in northern Syria for close to two years. “Here are the women who fight ISIS in Rojava (northern Syria) – saluting your honorable struggle for freedom, dignity, and resistance!”

The call for Black Lives Matter has become a focal point for discussions around systemic racism and police brutality following the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in 2014, as well as numerous other incidents since. This past week, police killed Philando Castille and Alton Sterling – both incidents filmed and subsequently shared ober social media – touching off more protests across the United States.

For the women of the YPJ, solidarity and building “world revolution” against racism, sexism and capitalism, go hand in hand.

“As the women in Kurdistan know very well, we need to build our self-defense in all spheres of life. You are among the most radical voices in today’s racist, sexist, capitalist world and the freedom-loving peoples of the world deeply respect and salute your fight! Solidarity is the first step to world revolution!,” the statement continued.

Since the most recent string of high-profile U.S.police shootings of Blackpeople, expressions of solidarity from other communities in the United States as well as groups from around the world have been pouring in – with the radical, communist Kurdish groups being the latest.

“Black Lives Matter! As we say in Kurdish: “Berxwedan jiyan e!” – Resistance is life!,” the YPJgroup concluded.

Via TeleSur

I guess I'd worry a little about backlash because of a ringing endorsement from a group that espouses "communism" - if I thought anybody was gonna pay any real attention to it anyway.

We seem to think we can rule the world without actually having to live in it.

You're Gonna Need A Longer List

I guess my only question is - Why are there only 6 items?  "Conservatives" are scared of everything.

Nuthin' but a bunch whiny-butt pussies.

hat tip = FB pal VW-E

Today's Tweet

No BS, I wish every white person on Twitter could see this. Maybe it'll help pic.twitter.com/vae574ysG0

— Tsunami Sea (@carltonspeight) July 6, 2016

The Deafening Roar Of Silence

The New Yorker:

The consistent failure of our politics to take reasonable steps to prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands makes it difficult to predict with any confidence that even the slaughter of police officers will alter the frozen politics. But it may have a subtler effect, causing gun owners to reconsider whether the N.R.A. truly has the country’s best interests at heart. More than a hundred million Americans live in households with guns, but many remain largely uninvolved in gun politics. The N.R.A. has between three and five million members, which means it represents only a sliver of American gun owners. Moreover, even among its members, many are unconvinced, I and others have found, by the belligerent rhetoric; they own and love guns for a variety of reasons—from sports to hunting to self-defense—and they overwhelmingly support reasonable steps to prevent innocent people, civilians or police, from being killed by gunfire.

On Friday, after hours of silence, the N.R.A. issued a statement from LaPierre, who had authored the “jack-booted thugs” letter. This time, he expressed “the deep anguish all of us feel for the heroic Dallas law enforcement officers who were killed and wounded, as well as to those who so bravely ran toward danger to defend the city and the people of Dallas.”

The N.R.A.’s explicit call for a more armed society reveals the lie behind its homage to “coexistence.” By directing rage against the government, by preventing politicians from heeding the overwhelming demands of their constituents for broader background checks, by endorsing Donald Trump’s plan for mass deportations and bans on Muslim immigration, the N.R.A. has assembled a volatile case against the idea of coexistence—and then disavows the result when it explodes.

Today's Tweet

Sign of the times.

Since when did foreign countries issue "warnings" when traveling to the United States? How embarrassing! Yet, true. pic.twitter.com/LqdCm3IJuS

— Mary (@lovealaska1105) July 9, 2016

Trae Crowder

Today's Tweet

#PhilandoCastile #AltonSterling #Me pic.twitter.com/ynpiYuPjSS

— rootwoman123 (@rootwoman123) July 7, 2016

It's like we never have a chance to get past one shitty thing before the next shitty thing happens.

Alton Sterling

Philando Castile



What happens if somebody starts an effort to build a memorial wall in DC to list the names of all the black folk who've been killed by the cops?

Actually, here's a design suggestion: Let's build a memorial that has all the dead white people listed on one wall, and all the dead black people listed on a wall facing that one.

I wonder which one gets all the names, and I wonder which one gets all the attention.

A Poem

Trumpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Trumpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the king's horses

And all the king's men

Were just glad they didn't have to worry about that bigoted little prick anymore.

hat tip = unattributed from my Twitter feed

Getting Our Money's Worth

hat tip = Bob and Chez

Everybody Wants In On The Act

Reuters:

The German government has approved several arms export deals with countries in the Middle East, including delivery of 23 Airbus helicopters to Saudi Arabia, according to an Economy Ministry letter seen by Reuters on Monday.

On the one hand, there's something odd about being pretty sure that selling weapons to people in the Middle East is a pretty stoopid thing to do; while seeing it happen and starting to think maybe this is just what we do. Like stoopid is the new normal.

But then of course, I won't argue that Stoopid is somehow new, or that it's not particularly normal.

Anyway - it still looked like this was all about "small arms", so that's not as bad as it could be.  But then, Financial Times:

The minister cited a €1.6bn contract to sell Leopard 2 battle tanks to Qatar, “which I unfortunately can’t undo”. The deal, which received the government’s green light in 2013, was sharply criticised within Germany because of Qatar’s bombing of Yemen and its alleged support for Islamist groups in the Middle East.

I can't shake that queasy feeling whenever I see a tank with a Maltese Cross painted on it, y'know?

And the only thing worse is when one of the guys who's supposed to know what's going on just shrugs and says, "Oops - oh well, nuthin we can do about it now."

We are so fucked.

Today's Tweet

Reince Priebus: We can finally start playing offense!
Trump: Saddam Hussein was a great leader:
Reince Priebus: pic.twitter.com/7HIWJTIFgX

— jj (@TonyWay31) July 6, 2016