Comments For Cash

No matter what it is.  No matter who it's for or who wants it to happen - somebody's always gonna step up and be willing to pimp out their own children, believing they'll make enough to shield themselves from the shittiness that drowns "everybody else". 

And remember, kids - if you want to know what's up with any problem here in USAmerica Inc, just take a hard look at who stands to benefit from allowing the problem to persist, and then look at who stands to profit from any proposed solution.

One last thing:

On the 31st floor, 

a gold-plated door 

won't keep out the lord's burnin' rain.

Sin City (cover) --Emmylou Harris and Beck

Today's Tweet

Ted (Spindle Face) Cruz had a roomie at Princeton who just can't stop talkin' shit about the guy.

Ted Cruz focused all of his resources on a state with tailor-made demographics for him, and he got 50,000 votes. Dodger Stadium fits 56,000.

— Craig Mazin (@clmazin) February 2, 2016

Black But Not

The Inoculating Attack

FBI Joins Investigation Of #FlintWaterCrisis https://t.co/qlZKC2Rb8a #p2 pic.twitter.com/uZbPVLrePw

— R.Saddler (@Politics_PR) February 2, 2016

The main reason Repubs are always launching what are truly silly "investigations" into non-troversial un-scandals like Benghazi and Voter Fraud and Whitewater and IRS and Fast And Furious and Vince Foster and whether or not Hillary was on the grassy knoll in Dallas and and and - anyway, they do it partly because they know their little fishing trips will uncover something eventually that embarrasses whoever they're sliming, plus they can use it to sell the baloney about "aren't you tired of all the scandal surrounding [insert Democrat's name here]?  But mostly, by constantly using this one government power tool, in the most cynical and manipulative way possible, they set the frame that makes it easier for them to claim "it doesn't mean anything; it's all just political" when (eg) there're legitimate reasons for somebody to slap Rick Snyder's face around to the other side of his head.

And BTW - if you can't point out at least 6 times the Dems pulled this kinda shit, then shut the fuck up with all that Both Sides bullshit.

Today's Toon

Today's Quote

Today's Tweet

Whoever made this, thank you.
Trump v. Manson. pic.twitter.com/ztUx36aY1c

— Steve Marmel (@Marmel) January 31, 2016

Today's Pix

Bob And Chez

These guys are often pretty dang good.  Not Professional Left kinda good, but good.  The best bit for me is their point that Trump is setting up DumFux News to be included in the big bad media megalith, and using Sarah Palin to swing the sledge for him.  Pretty interesting.

And it goes along with driftglass (Professional Left) observing that there are politicians and other power-humpers out there trying lotsa little maneuvers to take advantage of our obsessive acceptance of the Both-Sides narrative in order to position themselves as the "sensible middle".  Trump is a master at playing the ends against each other while staying safely at the center of it all. (have you watched "The Wheeler Dealers" yet, like I told ya?)

The Mic Drop

Nobody's doing it better right now than Larry Wilmore.

Still hoping Trevor Noah will at least start to catch up soon.  Also hoping the suits give him the space and the help he needs to do that.

Listen Up

This week's podcast from driftglass and Blue Gal - Ep. 312, Trump No Trump

Do the Amazon thing

-- or --

1. Give monthly to support the podcast: 

Option 1 : $5.00 USD - monthly Option 2 : $10.00 USD - monthly Option 3 : $15.00 USD - monthly Option 4 : $25.00 USD - monthly

 

2. Make a one-time donation

 

3. Or make checks payable to:

The Professional Left Podcast
PO Box 9133
Springfield, IL 62791

Left Behind

What strikes me is that these people sound like children.  Whether they're 22 years old or 60 - when they speak, they sound like they think they know everything they need to know, and that there's just no way they could be trying to argue their point from a false premise.

The two Goober Squadlings in that report can't believe they won't get their way just because they think they're right and everybody else is wrong and, "Gee, Dad - it's just not fair - all the other kids did it".

And not to give ya too much of a whiplash, but we need to put some real schooling back into schools.  We need to teach kids about critical thinking, so they don't grow up to become easy marks for any random jagoff who can fool 'em into believing whatever he tells 'em in order to serve his own lust for power.

I'm not trying to set myself up as a paragon.  I've bought into all kinds of shit that ends up looking pretty stoopid in retrospect.  I owned a pair of Earth Shoes for fuck's sake - but c'mon, guys - at least I haven't let anybody convince me Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 is the only thing in the US Constitution that matters.

Skepticism is our friend, kids.

Apply the same principles to everything anybody says about their "deeper understanding".

The arrogance that seems always to grow from deliberate ignorance can get your dumb ass killed.

Guerrilla Campaign

If this is real - and I'm hoping it is - it doesn't get much grass-rootsier than this right here.

Who's Foolin' Who?

So Paul Kantner died yesterday, and I went to YouTube to listen to Crown of Creation (which I hadn't heard in quite a while), and holy crap - Star Track comes on and I'm thinking that sounds really familiar, and holy crap again, I start singing Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Was In - and it fits almost perfectly.

Everything recycles.  Everything is derived from something else.  So when something comes along that seems really new, try to understand how rare and exceptional it has to be to make us forget where it came from.

Star Track --Jefferson Airplane

Just Dropped In (cover) --Kenny Rogers & The First Edition

I Have Found God

... oh - sorry, it's just Charlie Pierce - and that's close enough for me.

It seems that, over at The Washington Post, a once-great newspaper now doing business as an adjunct to the home delivery industry, Fred Hiatt's Workshop For Ghastly Writing is getting a little run for this editorial in which Bernie Sanders is posed as the Lord Mayor Of Munchkinland. There's nothing like the scorn of the Church Of The Savvy. To borrow a comparison from the late Molly Ivins, it's like being gummed by a newt. Folks, leave the snark to the professionals, OK? Anyway, it seems that Fred and his minions find Sanders' proposals to be unrealistic, an insight now shared by almost every putatively liberal pundit, as well as every gas station attendant between Des Moines and Ottumwa. Let's look at the argument, shall we?

 

Winning Debate Tweet

Jeb "Goldilocks" Bush: My dad invaded Iraq too little. My brother invaded Iraq too much. I will invade Iraq just right.

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) January 29, 2016

"Ammon" Speaks

Marc Maron's WTF Podcast

You can skip the first 20 or so minutes where Marc gets a little nutty (surprise surprise) trying to get the whole "Amy Schumer controversy" straightened out.  Deep inside baseball stuff.

Anyway Maron gets some really good stuff outa the big dude.

Episode 675 - Michael Moore

Go, Barry Bams, Go

I guess we'll see what we see when we see it, but dang.

Politcus.com:

The President is in the midst of a very serious plan to issue an executive order that requires companies doing business with the federal government to disclose their political contributions. Just think; with a stroke of his pen the President will make “dark money” donors receiving billions of taxpayer money reveal who they contribute to or lose out on those highly-profitable federal government contracts.

Now, of course this does not, in any way, shape or form “overturn” Citizens United. But it is a major step in prompting some companies and corporations doing business with the federal government to rein in some of their dark money efforts to buy influence over the government. The directive, a so-called ‘dark money‘ executive order would mandate that “all government contractors publicly report their contributions to groups that spend money to influence campaigns and elections.”

Yeah yeah - it's Politcus.  But wow - if this is really the plan, and he pulls it off, there's gonna be some folks workin' overtime trying to figure how to love what he's doin' while still hatin' his ass for doin' it. 

 

And BTW - every governor of every state should be doing exactly the same thing.

How Do You Spell "Entitlement"?

... I spell it a-s-s-h-o-l-e-w-i-t-h-a-g-u-n.

via Raw Story:

A Pennsylvania woman was murdered after she rejected the romantic overtures of a man she encountered at a Pittsburgh bar.

Janese Talton-Jackson, the 29 year-old mother of three children, was at Cliff’s Bar as closing time neared on January 22. A man, identified by police as Charles McKinney, approached Talton-Jackson and asked her out on a date, according to CBS Pittsburgh. She rejected the man’s advances and he then followed her outside and eventually shot her in the chest. She was pronounced dead at the scene.