Yes, He Did

45* needs all the humanizing he can get - but he just can't stop stepping on his own dick.

Slate:

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visited children at a hospital in Columbus, Ohio as part of an effort to call attention to the way the opioid crisis affects infants. Plus, it’s always a good idea to have a photo-op with kids at the end of a no good, very bad week. For politicians it’s “a time-honored tradition,” writes Esquire, “sitting in tiny desks alongside adorable kids in hope that the guileless innocence on the little faces surrounding them will take some of the heat off of their craven politicking.”

Yet things didn’t go so well for Trump this time. The president and his wife joined the children in an arts-and-crafts activity that involved coloring in the American flag. But it seems Trump didn’t quite color his flag right. A photo posted on Twitter seems to show that the president colored in a blue stripe on the U.S. flag.

I think it's possible one of the kids tried to tell him he did it wrong(?)

Today's Tweet

Sometimes, social media works the way society in general should work - it knocks down people's shittiness a peg or two.

ALL HANDS ON DECK.

"I just want to let you know what a nigger you are." -Jeffrey Whitman, owner of Uriahs Heating, Cooling, & Refrigeration in Columbus, OH

Jeffrey Whitman, in his own company vehicle, chased a Black man all the way to his home to repeatedly call him a nigger. pic.twitter.com/BMh3bHHBCS

— Shaun King (@shaunking) July 25, 2018

Mr Whitman is complaining that the horribleness of people sharing the video online has "ruined" his life".

No, dummy - what ruined your life was that you willfully forgot (ie: stoopidly ignored) what your grandma always told you: "Don't do anything that you wouldn't wanna see in the newspapers tomorrow".

BTW - this idiot had no qualms about being recorded because he's become convinced that everybody thinks like he thinks, and so nobody will mind that he behaves like a racist asshole.

Gee, I wonder what gave him that idea.

Kara Swisher

On Real Time with Bill Maher:

"...(social media) wasn't hacked by the Russians. They just walked right in and used them exactly the way they were intended to be used."

"...move fast and break things...well you've broken a lot of things, now what're you going to fix?"

I think I've got me a new crush.

Deep Tho't

A woman on the bus asked me, "What is Mansplaining?"

This could be a trap - we've been staring at each other for a good 3 minutes in total silence, and I can feel myself starting to sweat.

Today's Editorial

The proper ladies of the Mormon Church wish to point out that their church-anointed senator done shit the bed.

From The Salt Lake Tribune, Saturday:

By Mormon Women for Ethical Government

Dear Senator Hatch,

As an organization of over 6,000 women, many of whom are your constituents, share your faith, and have worked closely with you and your staff, we are dismayed at your continued defense of things that are fundamentally indefensible. Knowing that you aspire to be a man of honor, we are puzzled by your frequent wresting of truth and logic as you excuse our current administration.

You defended President Trump when he retweeted anti-Muslim videos. You minimized evidence that Donald Trump Jr. had met with a representative of the Russian government about information that could influence the election, saying it wasn’t “relevant.” You defended the president’s endorsement of Alabama Senate candidate, Roy Moore. You defended President Trump again, even after initially denouncing his remarks that “both sides” were to blame in the deadly alt-right rally in Charlottesville last August, when in a later interview with KUTV you called the president a “good man” and placed the blame on his detractors and the media who “distort” what he says.

We do acknowledge and appreciate the few times that you have called the president out. We applaud your courage when, for example, you disagreed with his criticism of Germany earlier this summer and when he recently called former White House Staffer, Omarosa Manigault Newman a “dog.” But again on Wednesday, in an interview with The New York Times, you minimized the testimony by Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, given under oath, that he had been directed by President Trump to break the law. And then, using what can only be characterized as fuzzy and twisted logic, you attempted to justify Mr. Trump’s alleged deplorable and criminal behavior by saying: “I think most people in this country realize that Donald Trump comes from a different world. He comes from New York City, he comes from a slam-bang, difficult world. It is amazing he is as good as he is.”

What?

So we are to excuse Donald Trump — the president of the United States, the holder of the highest office in the land — from possible High Crimes and Misdemeanors because ... he is from New York City? And, therefore, presumably, just can’t help himself? That is an insult to all New Yorkers. (And we won’t even get into the fact that Trump hardly grew up in the slums and had one of the most privileged of all upbringings.)

The truth is, some of our finest are from New York City — including Lady Liberty herself (an immigrant, actually — from France — but a New Yorker now for 132 years) whose uplifted torch still stands as a beacon of hope and freedom and as a call to the world to “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” It’s a wholly preposterous argument that we should cut our president some slack because he’s from NYC, or anywhere else for that matter.

Would you have excused Bill Clinton’s misconduct in the White House because he was from Arkansas? (And we won’t take this occasion to explore the hypocrisy of excusing the behavior of an individual based on where he is from when that same individual is bent on incarcerating or banning from entry into our country people who come from far more treacherous and deadly places.)

Sen. Hatch, our common faith teaches us that truth matters, that decency, honor, integrity and virtue matter. One of the basic tenets of our religion states that “we believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men.” As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we try in all we do to emulate our Savior. We all fall short, of course, but our heart’s purest desire is to follow Him, to act as He acted, to live by His teachings.

Christ, our gentle master, taught us to love one another, to care for the poor and despised among us, to tell the truth, to be meek, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to be pure in heart, to be peacemakers, to reach out beyond socio-political divisions to embrace all our sisters and brothers, and to come unto Him. These are our most deeply-held beliefs and aspirations, and we know that they are yours, too. Please do not defend behavior that flouts these values. You can finish your long career as a servant of the people by standing strong for truth, honor, and decency. We ask you to do so.

Sincerely,

Mormon Women for Ethical Government

Sharlee Mullins Glenn, Diana Bate Hardy, Melissa Dalton-Bradford, Megan Seawright and Lisa Rampton Halverson are part of the leadership team of the nonpartisan, grassroots organization, Mormon Women for Ethical Government. Mormon Women for Ethical Government is not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We do, however, honor and sustain the Church’s leaders and doctrines.

Let's Be Clear

Poppy Bush bailed on the NRA when they put up the ads about "jack-booted thugs of the federal government". And the Republican base turned against him when he made pragmatic decisions on things like women's rights and tax policy.

Bush43 screwed the pooch on Iraq, and again on Katrina. (There's a strong probability that his action/inaction on both were in keeping with the Repub policies, BTW) And then, even though he pushed thru 2 ginormous tax cuts, and he set up a very effective way to syphon tax dollars into the pockets of Big Pharma (again in accordance with "conservative" policies), the GOP has since snubbed that guy so hard, they don't even invite him to their conventions.

Barbara Bush died and 45* was asked to stay away.

Wanna look into the GOP's warm fuzzy feeling towards Mitt Romney?

And now another very prominent figure in Republican politics has died, and the McCain family has told 45* they don't want him at the funeral.

We know the Dems have their own troubles, but they're not eating their own like the Repubs are doing - so how do we get "both sides are the same - they're all alike" out of this one?

But then - along comes the news that the DNC has changed its rules regarding the Super Delegates thing.

NBC News:

The reform package, pushed by DNC Chairman Tom Perez and allies of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, among others, passed overwhelmingly by voice vote at the DNC’s summer meeting here — two years after the process started.

Perez and others hailed the outcome as momentous, saying the reforms will help welcome new people into the party by reassuring them that their vote will never be overruled by the party leaders who can vote for whomever they want for the presidential nomination.

“Today is a historic day for our party,” Perez said. “We passed major reforms that will not only put our next presidential nominee in the strongest position possible, but will help us elect Democrats up and down the ballot, across the country.”

The change will prohibit superdelegates from voting for president at the party’s 2020 convention, unless the outcome is already assured or it deadlocks, which hasn’t happened in decades. The vast majority of superdelegates sided with Hillary Clinton over Sanders in their primary fight two years ago.

- and -

The new rules will also make caucuses more accessible by requiring state parties to accept absentee votes, addressing concerns that the caucuses are less democratic than primaries because they require people to physically attend the events in order to participate in the presidential nominating process in their state.

A number of state parties are already considering replacing their caucuses with primaries, with some state party chairs here predicting the 2020 nominating contest will feature many fewer caucuses than in 2016.

It's being touted as a big deal and a vast improvement, but we just have to wait and see what actually happens. At this point, we have only the speculation of good things to come.

One annoying little voice in my head says, "Congratulations, Dems - you're now one step closer to the kind of mob rule we're seeing on the Repub side".

Have Some Pie

Jonathan Pie:

Friday Tunes

Reina del Cid

The Fall
It's Gonna Hurt
Stay Away From Me
Syrup and Honey
Medium
Death Cap

Brain Science

Raw Story - Bobby Azarian:

As a journalist and a cognitive scientist, I often write about the psychology underlying the seemingly-nonsensical and unwavering support for President Donald Trump, and a very common response in the comments section goes something like, “It’s not that complicated. They are racists, plain and simple.”

While that may be true for a portion of Trump supporters (and perhaps Trump himself), is it really simple? What do we mean exactly when we say someone is racist? An even better question—what are the neural and psychological characteristics of a racist mind? By analyzing the pathways in the brain that underlie racist thought and behavior, we can better understand how this nasty bias is created, and potentially, how to mitigate it.

First of all, how do we know that racial biases actually exist? While some may claim that they have no biases, a clever psychological experiment provides objective evidence supporting the notion that the vast majority of us do. In the implicit bias task, participants are shown words on a computer screen like “happy” and “fear,” which they must categorize as positive or negative. What results have consistently shown is that if a black face is quickly flashed before the words, individuals will be faster to correctly categorize negative words, while the same people will be quicker to correctly categorize positive words when they follow white faces. These troubling findings suggest that over 75 percent of Whites and Asians have an implicit racial bias, which affects how they process information and perceive the social world around them.

However, this bias is subconscious and implicit. Whether or not it leads to overtly racist attitudes and behavior depends on an interplay between different brain areas—specifically those that create feelings of fear and promote tribalism, and those that help us regulate and suppress those bad instincts.
- and -

The problem is, not everyone has a healthy functioning prefrontal cortex, and these people are the ones whose biases control them. They cannot reason those fearful surges away because they lack the cognitive mechanisms that normally allow people to do so.

So yeah - they are the whiny-butt pussies I've been trying to ya they are. And it seems part of the cause for it is that they're a might brain-damaged as well.

I think one conclusion that isn't changed by this newer information is that while most rubes may have an organic predisposition for bias - and an inadequately developed mechanism for coping with it - a lot of them are racist assholes because they choose to be racist assholes.

Today's Tweet

It should seem weird that this didn't get more coverage. The fact that it didn't makes me worry even more about "normalization".

There's no more dog-whistling, folks. He's now pushing outright white supremacist propaganda. https://t.co/LGH4iWXyGh

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) August 23, 2018