Confirming What We've Known

I got your Equal Opportunity right here, motherfucker.

This is not news to any of us who've been watching things like this - and it's certainly not news to anybody who's been on the short end their whole lives.

What continues to be news is that so many of us are still hot to swallow the malarkey that "we" have to lose everything in order to make it possible for "them" just to get one lousy shot at winning any-fucking-thing at all.

The more money the "unwashed of the low-born" have in their pockets, the more money they're likely to spend on whatever weird shit you carry in your little hobby-career boutique solidly entrepreneurial job-creating noble-rich legacy-schmuck powerhouse bidness.  

So grow the fuck up, Dilbert.

Bullshit Redux

Repeal ObamaCare...

Trump: "We will repeal and replace Obamacare." https://t.co/02FZSPs1J3 https://t.co/8McfJ9OmCn

— CNN (@CNN) October 22, 2016

...and replace it with Healthcare Saving Accounts - because poor people can just take all the money they don't have right now and save it up so that some day in a bright and golden future, they can spend it on an insurance policy that helps pay for the remodeling on the beach house of a Mid-Level Manager whose bonus incentives are driven by the special language of the policies, which makes sure the "coverage" calls for paying out only as much as any given client's lawyer can force the company to pay.

As a recovering Republican myself, here's the basic rebuttal for anyone trying to make the case for repeal by repeating the (mostly) bogus junk about Obamacare being a disaster:

I got to keep my doctor; my premiums haven't gone up at all in 3 years; it covers all but about $10 per prescription on my meds - the point is that it's working for me, so what the fuck do I care? Go bitch about it to somebody else.

If you wanna make noise, you could beat up on the state legislatures that decided not to take the Medicaid Expansion in order to make the thing as shitty as possible for their constituents, knowing a lotta those constituents are actually dumb enough to keep voting for the assholes who're making the thing shitty while blaming all the problems on the voters themselves.

Trouble is, that shit continues to work on way too many people.

This Just In

On That Email Thing

NYT (possible pay wall):

They have not brought a major scandal to the surface, at least not yet, and even won praise from some supporters like The Post’s editorial page, which said they showed Mrs. Clinton’s “sound policy instincts.” They’ve certainly not blown up the system, as might happen in a more closed, undemocratic form of government.

If repressive foreign governments want to make a regular thing of hacking into United States leaders’ email to undermine the country, and domestic politicians like Mr. Trump want to keep embracing that kind of “help,” then the news media may have to rethink how to handle it.

But so far, the hacks have only proved that the United States system knows how to process reality and can handle the truth, which should encourage our leaders to offer more of it.

So for that much, I guess, thanks, Vladimir Putin. Now, ready to share youremails?

There could be a lot more to "the emails" than I've seen - and fake lord knows I haven't seen a whole helluva lot, so I could be standing on the warning track way the fuck off in left field - but I've been wondering for a while why the emails are always and only about the Dems, and never the Repubs, and it seems most of the Press Poodles never make it clear that they include anything that could be considered exculpatory in any real way.

What we get is "Oooh, this could be dark and mysterious and horrible - it prob'ly isn't - but it could be, and that would mean the end of the world as we know it! But I'm afraid we'll have to leave it there and blah blah blah"

Gee - it's almost as if somebody wants us to think a certain way about something.

Politics brings out the liar in all of us, so all I can do is try to test each thing for "reasonable-ness" and follow what I can as far as I can.

But all this shit - it's a wonderment.

Here's Your Daily Keith

Not particularly comfortable with the "foreign" bit, unless he's identifying Trump's ideas and approach as being foreign to American democratic ideals(?)

So, "No, Mr Trump - you're the foreigner here."

NEW: If a foreign leader insulted and threatened America the way @realDonaldTrump has - how would we react? https://t.co/ElutkVuCiG

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) October 24, 2016

Today's Tweet

What do @realDonaldTrump a pumpkin have in common? They're orange on outside, hollow on the inside and should be tossed out in early Nov. pic.twitter.com/zLuqpwyOVr

— Keifer Rockburn (@keiferla) October 23, 2016

Today's Pix

Sorry In Advance (NSFW)

Cuz like the man said (paraphrasing) - nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste or the intelligence of the American consumer.

This Shit Is Not OK

The tweet said this was spotted at a Trump rally in Virginia Beach yesterday (10-22-16).

This goes under the general heading : Stochastic Terrorism.

You Don't Know Cute

You can keep your Kitty Cat / Puppy Dog videos - here's Joe Biden finding 50¢ on the sidewalk:

Terry Tate

...well, allow me to retort.

hat tip = Facebook dude DR

Today's Podcast

"...the flailing inflatable tube man..."

Go to their website and click on the Amazon link

Today's Tweet

Good question

How big of a slime-ball does a person have to be to get booed at a religious charity fundraiser? #AlSmithDinner @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/Fglplbr5ti

— Col. Morris Davis (@ColMorrisDavis) October 21, 2016

Da Wimmins

A quick exercise in Poe's Law:

David Souter

Appointed by Poppy Bush, and confirmed by a Senate with a Democratic majority.

Hometown Hero

Keith

Watch this video on The Scene.

Up In The Rigging

The Hive

With polls showing Donald Trump hurtling toward a landslide loss to Hillary Clinton, the Republican presidential nominee is already calling for a do-over. Whether it’s to save face or to set the stage for a post-election media play, Trump has effectively stopped talking about any policy issues, instead focusing his fire on the “rigged” electoral system itself. It is a message he reiterated Wednesday night during the final presidential debate, when he refused to say whether he’d accept the results of the election if he loses. “I will keep you in suspense,” he said.

A growing number of concerned Republicans are standing up and speaking out.

Among them is Chris Ashby, a lawyer specializing in election law, who has monitored elections in the United States for over 15 years. “The election is not rigged. In fact, it’s anti-rigged,” Ashby wrote in an article and in a series of tweets that went viral earlier this week. “To rig an election, you would need technological capabilities that exist only in Mission Impossible movies,” he explained—and implying otherwise risks damaging Americans’ faith in the electoral system.
We called Ashby up to walk us through why Trump’s “rigged election” rhetoric is wrong, and how it could continue to resonate beyond November 8.

Today's Tweet

pic.twitter.com/CBLoBanpKK

— SciencePorn 🚀 (@SciencePorn) October 21, 2016

I hate it and love it all at the same time.

Now Ya Done It

Ya done went'n made Keith mad's all ya done.

Watch this video on The Scene.

Today's Tweet

#GOP Book Club Selection was the worst! This Doctor creates a monster—and then couldn't control him? Totally UNBELIEVEABLE! #TrumpBookReport pic.twitter.com/VbC58bFY9S

— Scott Wooledge 🌮 (@Clarknt67) October 20, 2016

A Vine To Start Your Morning

The Blue Falcon

Go ahead - tell any one of these tigers she's wrong.  I'll hold her coat while she fucks you up - I just wanna watch.

BTW - Blue Falcon

Make It Count

2016 Sample Ballot for Albemarle County in Virginia:

A note on the "Whatever" thing - we can carve out an exemption in the Tax Code for this. There's no need for an amendment to the state constitution - this always looks like more GOP grandstanding. That said - whatever.

Google your state's Sec'y of State, or your party's local office, or the Voter Registration Office for your county.

Be ready to vote your interests, and don't get fooled - this is politics, which can make people do some shitty things. Read it. Understand it. Do your best.

Watch This Space

Your pre-debate tailgate with Keith:

Our video guide to surviving tonight's debate (one word: Projection. When a Trump accuses, he's actually admitting) https://t.co/kOJVRPva7Z

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) October 19, 2016

On Voter Fraud

About that whole Voter Fraud bullshit: if we can't trust the results of the election, how do we know for sure if Trump "wins"?  

Goose-n-Gander, motherfucker.  Maybe we should just freeze it where it is and stick with Obama for a while longer.

Today's Pix

Click a pic

Colbert Explains It All

I do wish the networks could just get over it with all the censoring shit though. 

A Chart

It happens almost every time.  "Conventional wisdom" has it that the "liberal bias" is working against the noble "conservatives" and they never get a break because of course - Hillary's buddies own all the media and they'd never say anything bad about her.

But they talk shit about her all the time because fuck if I know.  False flag?

Today's Keith

Watch this video on The Scene.

Today's Trump Tale

Newsweek:

Donald Trump loves to put his name on buildings, but there are no hospital wings named for him. No museums have a piece of artwork with a plaque reading “A Gift of Donald J. Trump.” No buildings at the University of Pennsylvania bear his name, even though he constantly cites his graduation from its Wharton School as a sign of his intelligence. (Contrary to Trump’s suggestion, he attended the school for only two years as an undergraduate and did not obtain a degree from Wharton’s far more prestigious graduate business program.)

Trump bears little resemblance to prominent billionaires such as Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg or Charles Francis Feeney, who have dedicated huge sums of their wealth to aiding the less fortunate. There is no evidence that Trump has done much of anything to make the world a better place; what he has left behind is some buildings, along with a lot of wreckage and rancor.

Trump regularly cheats at golf, even revising his scorecard after a match to transform defeat into victory, according to two people who have played with him. He persuaded an elderly couple who ran a Florida antique store to let him “try out” two valuable pieces, then refused to return or pay for them, according to someone close to the Trump family. He bought expensive jewelry at Bulgari on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, then colluded with the store to have empty boxes supposedly containing his purchase shipped out of state so he could dodge New York sales tax, court records show. After dragging a buddy through years of litigation, Trump told the man he had filed the suit only because he was angry the friend had not given him enough public credit for his success, according to a person who witnessed the conversation.

When business executives came to his office, Trump bragged about his current wife, Melania, and showed them nude photographs from her modeling days, two bankers say. Trump encourages staff at the Trump Organization to tell him the faults of co-workers who are standing there, creating a vicious corporate environment, a former executive says. His niece and nephew sued him, alleging Trump used his influence over his then-demented father to rewrite his will and cut out his brother’s side of the family. Enraged by the suit, Trump reneged on a family commitment to pay the medical bills for his nephew’s sick baby. (They settled under confidential terms.)

If I thought he was "legitimately" sick, I'd have to feel a little sorry for him. But he's not sick so much as he's a sick fuck - one really really sick fuck.

Today's Tweet

#trumpgoldenthrone pic.twitter.com/bNipwLUVzb

— mass lady (@masslady06) October 18, 2016

John Oliver

Turns Out She Was Right

Olbermann fills in your scorecard:

A Long One

Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone:

Trump's shocking rise and spectacular fall have been a singular disaster for U.S. politics. Built up in the press as the American Hitler, he was unmasked in the end as a pathetic little prankster who ruined himself, his family and half of America's two-party political system for what was probably a half-assed ego trip all along, adventure tourism for the idiot rich.

That such a small man would have such an awesome impact on our nation's history is terrible, but it makes sense if you believe in the essential ridiculousness of the human experience. Trump picked exactly the wrong time to launch his mirror-gazing rampage to nowhere. He ran at a time when Americans on both sides of the aisle were experiencing a deep sense of betrayal by the political class, anger that was finally ready to express itself at the ballot box.

The only thing that could get in the way of real change – if not now, then surely very soon – was a rebellion so maladroit, ill-conceived and irresponsible that even the severest critics of the system would become zealots for the status quo.

As is usual for Taibbi, it's kind of long and navel-gaze-y and it's a bit emotionally nihilistic, but there's a truth to it that needs to be said, which is not just "Stoopid GOP - what the hell happened to you guys!?!"  

It is in fact partly that, but it's mostly: Hillary's not the horrible thing so many people are so eager to identify her as being, but she's also not the change agent so many of us think we need (at least she hasn't been for quite a while).

And for my own bad self, even though it's almost certain she'll win this thing, don't get happy. Don't start thinking we can hire her into the Oval Office and every shitty thing the GOP's been trying to pull will magically disappear.  The GOP will go on trying to pull shitty things, and a good politician like Hillary Clinton will go along with some of them in order to get a deal on some of things she wants to do.

Constant public pressure and the election of "left-leaning" congress critters will help Hillary stay with what we think we're electing her to do.

Don't Be Fooled

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Democrat Hillary Clinton has opened a 15-point lead over Republican Donald Trump in Virginia among likely voters following the release of a 2005 tape in which Trump bragged about groping women, according to a new tracking survey by Christopher Newport University.

In the CNU survey out Sunday, Clinton leads statewide among likely voters with 44 percent to 29 percent for Trump, 11 percent for Libertarian Gary Johnson, 3 percent for independent Evan McMullin and 2 percent for Green Party nominee Jill Stein.

Clinton has more than doubled her advantage in Virginia since CNU released its first tracking poll on Sept. 26.

“It’s crystal clear why the Trump campaign pulled staff out of Virginia this week,” said Quentin Kidd, director of the Wason Center for Public Policy at CNU.

But did you catch that delicate undertone?
44 Hillary
29 Trump
11 Johnson
  3 McMullin
  2 Stein

If it holds - and if it indicates a strategy of the anti-Trump establishment GOP to help the vote-splitting 3rd parties maintain a double-digit total - this opens the shitty little negativity narrative of "Hillary has no mandate - too many Americans don't like her / don't trust her / think she's always lying etc etc etc".

Gingrich and Lott (I think) used the plurality thing against Bill Clinton in the 90s.  There's no reason for me to think we shouldn't expect McConnell and Ryan et al to come out with "Someone has to represent the x% of Americans who didn't vote for Mrs Clinton".

Whatever that percentage actually is, they're likely to do their damnedest to spin it twist it and warp it into something they can pretend is a majority. Just listen for one of their favorite weasel-terms - "the American people" - and know they're simply inviting the inference that they have the majority on their side and those "others" are trying to steal things away from us and blah blah blah.

And here we go again.

Ya heard it here first, kids.

Today's Tweets

The guy can't help himself.  Nothing goes by without a response.  He has no sense of proportionality - correction: he has no sense at all.

Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me.Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016

Trump was wearing his underwear when I gave him notes at SNL and believe me, I wasn't impressed.

— Paula Pell (@perlapell) October 15, 2016

Heavenly

One good thing I gotta say about this rolling clusterfuck of an election is that it's been a little slice of Meme-y heaven.

hat tip = MockPaperScissors

More Democracy, Not Less

Whenever democracy itself is in trouble, the solution never includes less democracy.

Is this election rigged?

In 2016, the independent democracy non-profit Freedom House scored the United States electoral process as 11 out of 12.

A 2014 university study found only 31 cases of voter fraud out of one billion ballots cast since 2000.

"...by any measure, voter fraud is extraordinarily rare" - Report by NYU Brennan Center For Justice. 

Elections are run independently at the local level, by local citizens, under the supervision of both parties. More info in this thread

Better Get It While You Can

Today's Tweet

I've always wondered about this pic.twitter.com/btbSTtMYp0

— SciencePorn 🚀 (@SciencePorn) October 11, 2016

Today's Keith

Watch this video on The Scene.

What I've suspected for a while.  I can count on Keith to track it down and articulate for me.

Repubs could've glommed onto the main point of the Benghazi thing and gotten after Clinton, but they knew Benghazi was no worse a fuckup than all the other fuckups that get our State Department people hurt and killed on a regular basis. So they didn't pursue it to get at Clinton as the Secretary, and they sure as fuck didn't do it to be noble protectors of our valiant diplomacy warriors. They coulda done that by simply not cutting the State Dept's Security Budgets. 

Those hearings were pure theater - as always.  But none of that was really the point. The point was to damage Hillary Clinton politically for 2016 (Kevin McCarthy admitted as much on the record), and to maintain the "issue" so they could make money off the issue; money that gets them re-elected.

But that's not the onliest thing.  One other thing is how odd it seems that every email portrays Hillary or Podesta or Blumenthal in the worst possible light - and like Keith has said, never a word about GOP or Trump.  But here's the kicker: up until a coupla months ago, a lot of these "leaked emails" were slagging Debbie Wasserman-Schultz for doing shady things to fuck over Bernie. Now, suddenly (ie: magically?), Donna Brazile is the one who spent all that time and energy conspiring and conniving, while Wasserman-Schultz has disappeared completely.

Gee, it's almost like "Chairman Brezhnev has a touch of the flu and is currently under a doctor's care in a secure and undisclosed location."

This has smelled like bear shit for a long time now.

Thank the magic sky-goblin for Keith Olbermann.

They're Donald Right Or Wrong

It's The Consent, Stoopid

The overlooked irony of this photo is that the shirt itself constitutes consent. The lack of which is the entire crux of the issue. pic.twitter.com/7dEoQ4IISa

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) October 14, 2016

Ex-Trump executive Barbara Res says she believes the allegations of sexual misconduct and assault against Trump https://t.co/qeO85Oz44J pic.twitter.com/VsH1UvvLA5

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 13, 2016

I can say I've walked way too close to whatever line there is that separates Healthy Expression from Sexual Assault.  

While we're at it, I have to admit I've crossed a line or two on more than one occasion.

And I won't try to hide behind "too young and too stupid, or too high or too drunk to know better" or "yeah - hormones - whaddaya gonna do?"

For my part - I'm sorry. 

I'm always trying to do better.

Because it's what a man does - a man stands up.

From Across The Pond

The world watches us pretty closely most of the time, but it's still a pretty neat trick when you've made the Brits notice just how fucked up our politics really is.

The lead article:

HOW do people learn to accept what they once found unacceptable? In 1927 Frederic Thrasher published a “natural history” of 1,313 gangs in Chicago. Each of them lived by a set of unwritten rules that had come to make sense to gang members but were still repellent to everyone else. So it is with Donald Trump and many of his supporters. By normalising attitudes that, before he came along, were publicly taboo, Mr Trump has taken a knuckle-duster to American political culture.

The recording of him boasting about grabbing women “by the pussy”, long before he was a candidate, was unpleasant enough. More worrying still has been the insistence by many Trump supporters that his behaviour was normal. So too his threat, issued in the second presidential debate, to have Hillary Clinton thrown into jail if he wins. In a more fragile democracy that sort of talk would foreshadow post-election violence. Mercifully, America is not about to riot on November 9th. But the reasons have less to do with the state’s power to enforce the letter of the law than with the unwritten rules that American democracy thrives on. It is these that Mr Trump is trampling over—and which Americans need to defend.

And in light of some of our less than sterling political moments - Swift Boat, Iraq's WMD, Whitewater, Willie Horton, Iran-Contra, The Enemies List, Southern Strategy, Joe McCarthy (the list goes on and on) - the fact that this one stands out in bold relief is depressing.

Today's Pix