Welcome to Buster's Blog

Irregular commentary on whatever's on my mind -- politics, sports, current events, and life in general. After twenty years of writing business and community newsletters, fifteen years of fantasy baseball newsletters, and two years of email "columns", this is, I suppose, the inevitable result: the awful conceit that someone might actually care to read what I have to say. Posts may be added often, rarely, or never again. As always, my mood and motivation are unpredictable.

Buster Gammons















Thursday, August 31, 2017

Skin So Thin Their Organs Will Fall Out


Oh no!  Our poor dear sensitive conservative darlings are so shocked and offended by a couple cartoons they don't whether to shit or wind their watches.  They've convinced themselves the cartoons are mocking and denigrating the victims of Hurrican Harvey, and they've got themselves worked up into a holy uproar about it.  Once again, they've missed the point.



This cartoon appeared on the Politico website.  Does it mock redneck rebel secessionist T-bag religious right-tards who love to bash the government until they need it?  YES!  You betcha!  Does it mock hurricane victims or the Coast Guard?  NO!  It uses the latter to mock the former.  (Politico caved and deleted the cartoon.  Wimps!)



This is the cover of the current issue of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine.  It says, "God exists!  He drowned the neo-Nazis of Texas."  Does it mock the Nazis and white supremacists in Texas?  YES!  Does it mock the victims?  NO!  At least not those who aren't Nazis.

Cartoons, people!


Comedy pushes the envelope, and Nazis and anti-government morons are certainly fair game.  I like it.  If you don't like it, if it's not to your taste, if you don't think it's funny, too bad.  Maybe you'll like the next one.  Probably not.

Some of these delicate righty-flakes have skin so thin I swear their organs are gonna fall out!


Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Back In '74, Blazing Saddles Nailed It


In the classic Western spoof from 1974, an eerily clairvoyant Gene Wilder precisely described today's Trump voters:


Ohio's Anti-Issue 2 "Facts" Ad Short On Facts


Without revisiting the whole thing, let me repeat that I'm for Issue 2, Ohio's Drug Price Relief Act.  It will reduce prescription drug costs for over 4 million Ohioans on Medicaid.

The well-heeled opposition, Ohioans Against the Deceptive Rx Ballot Issue, has been running an ad blitz.  Their latest spot, "Facts," pushes a misleading take on just exactly what constitutes a fact:



To recap, those ominous "facts" are:

Some could pay higher costs.  (Or they could not.  Possibilities are not facts.  It could rain.  Or maybe not.)

Families, veterans and seniors could pay more.  (See the first point.)

The Issue 2 sponsor is a California drug company that sells drugs.  (Shocking.  The opposition is the entire American pharmaceutical industry and their huge army of lobbyists.)

Some groups are against Issue 2.  (And some are for it.)

From the start, if anything has been deceptive regarding Issue 2, it's been the scare-tactic advertising of the Ohioans Against the Deceptive Rx Ballot Issue.  The funding comes straight from Big Pharma, which is all you really need to know.


Regarding Charlottesville, I Heard From The Alt-Right


At least that's what I presume.

On August 13th, I posted my thoughts on the hateful violence in Charlottesville perpetrated by neo-Nazi, racist, white supremacist, anti-Semitic thugs (who generously refer to themselves as the "alt-right").
http://bustergammons.blogspot.com/2017/08/regarding-charlottesville.html

Although I didn't notice it until yesterday, I received a comment on August 22nd from an unknown reader using the blog name "Desert Male" who shared these charming views on fascism and the Civil War South: 


These neo Nazis would have never qualified for the WWII German Army or the SS. As perverse as their regime was those recruits were kick ass combatants. These pot bellied neos waving neo swastikas would most likely have ended up in Sonnenstein.

The left, apparently with a lot of time to waste don't spend it on reading. Lee was not a slave holder nor a sessionist, met with Lincoln not too log before the outbreak, to discuss Lee leading the Federal Army. While slavery became a major issue it was not why most rebels fought. Most rebels did not even know a slave holder.
ReplyDelete


Wow.  When you begin by complimenting the Nazis for being "kick-ass combatants," you're revealing something about yourself.  Sonnenstein?  Desert Male sure does know his Nazis!

Sonnenstein was a German castle which became the "National Socialist Killing Institution" -- a euthanasia facility where the Nazis murdered 15,000 mentally disturbed people and POW's.

Don't know what Desert Male has been reading about the Civil War.  Alternative facts, I suspect.  His second paragraph is hogwash.
  • Robert E. Lee did indeed own slaves, both before and well into the war.  
  • Lee did not favor secession until Virginia voted for it.  Then he promptly joined the Confederacy and fought to defeat the Union. 
  • Lee did not "meet" with Lincoln to "discuss" commanding the Union army.  Lincoln did offer it and Lee turned it down, more loyal to Virginia than to the USA.
  • Slavery did not "become" an issue, slavery was the issue.  It's the reason the south left the Union, as expressed clearly in each state's declaration of secession.  The average rebel soldier, not a rich plantation owner but a poor country boy, may not have understood it, but he was most definitely fighting to preserve slavery.
  • True, most Southern whites did not "own" slaves, but slavery was pervasive throughout the South, not only on large plantations but on smaller farms, in urban areas, in businesses and in homes.  Slaves were often rented out to others by their owners, short-term or long-term.  Slave "holders" were everywhere.  To claim that most "did not even know a slave holder" is specious. 



Much Smarter Than Her Father


Jennifer Detlefsen is a U.S. Navy veteran and the daughter of Ryan Zinke, Dolt 45's Secretary of the Interior.  Ms. Detlefsen dislikes the fake president and is strongly opposed to his recent  transgender military ban, posting this message for DT on her Instagram account:


"This man is a disgrace.  I've tried to keep politics out of my social media fed as much as possible, but this is inexcusable.  This veteran says sit down and shut the fuck up, you know-nothing, never-served, piece of shit.  #ITMFA  #WTF"

It's good to know that Casino Mussolini inspires profanity in a wide range of reasonable people.

As some wag put it, Thanksgiving may be a bit awkward at the Zinke household this year.


Monday, August 28, 2017

Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned. Trump Tweeted While Houston Flooded.


This photo is from yesterday, showing nursing home residents in the Houston area waiting to be rescued as flood waters rise around them.  The facility was evacuated in time and everyone was OK.

While this was occurring, and with FEMA and NOAA critically understaffed, Prima Donald was blithely tweeting about size of the storm --"HISTORIC rainfall!  WOW!" -- (got a thing about size, doesn't he?), the stupid Mexican wall -- "We must have THE WALL.  Mexico will pay for it by reimbursement/other" --  and a lousy book by lousy Sheriff David Clarke -- "A great book by a great guy, highly recommended!".

I can't take much more of this crap.




President Caligula


There Once Was A Great Nation With An Unstable Leader
by Nicholas Kristof


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/26/opinion/sunday/caligula-roman-empire.html?mcubz=1

The new leader was colorful and flamboyant, offering plenty of opportunities for ribald gossip.

He made popular promises of tax reform and grandiose pledges of infrastructure projects.

He had a thing for generals.

Alas, he had no government experience and proved utterly incompetent at actually getting things done.

He was a narcissist and a megalomaniac, becoming increasingly unhinged and showing desperate, cruel and tyrannical behavior.

He scandalized the public, and had a penchant for blurting out whatever was on his mind.

The Senate, dignified and traditional, watched him with increasing alarm.

He aggravated tensions by scathingly denouncing the Senate, relying on sarcasm and insult, and showing utter contempt for it.

Soon he inspired resistance.  He had offended practically everyone, couldn't deliver on his promises, his mental stability was doubted, and he simply had no idea how to govern.

Sound familiar?

And yet Rome survived Caligula.














Monumental Thoughts, Part One


"When Will It Ever End?"

Last week in Columbus, Ohio, protesters called for the removal of the statue of Christopher Columbus in front of City Hall.  No, the old Italian did not fight for the Confederacy in the Civil War.  But just as we find it advisable to remove many old memorials to old rebels who tried to destroy the nation, many today dismiss the popular mythology surrounding Columbus and find monuments to him just as objectionable as a Jefferson Davis statue.

Yes, he showed courage sailing off to wherever the hell it was he thought he was going.  But most of us are now well aware that Christopher Columbus (Cristoforo Columbo) was not a heroic explorer who "discovered" America.  That was just a lie our teachers told us.*  It's more accurate to call him an imperialist plunderer, a greedy profiteer, a purveyor of religious claptrap, a brute, a slave trader, a thief and a killer.

We like our fairy tales, and many people work to maintain them and keep them shiny and bright.  Asked to comment on the issue, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said there were "many perspectives" on the Columbus statue, which is weak-ass double talk reminiscent of Trump's "many sides."

Some conservatives are firmly opposed to removing any statue, anywhere, for any reason.  It's that tired old rhetoric about "changing our history and heritage."  They ask, "When will it ever end?" 

When will it end?  It will end when we stop feeding ourselves happy horseshit, when we stop believing in feel-good legends and distortions of history.  It'll end when we face facts and accept truth, however uncomfortable hindsight may be, and no matter how many monuments we may remove as a result.

Ultimately, it ends when we, as a species, achieve perfect knowledge and perfect understanding, and not a moment sooner.  

Until then, in our pursuit of that ever-elusive perfection, we should continually re-examine our history and challenge our preconceptions so that we may improve our comprehension of this world and our place in it.  To do otherwise, to stop and declare our awareness "good enough," is willful foolishness.
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*I recommend Lies My Teacher Told Me:  Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, by James W. Loewen, published by Simon & Schuster, 2nd edition 2007.  The Old Philosopher D.W. sent me a copy last year.  It's a most enlightening read.

Monumental Thoughts, Part Two


Another Columbus Monument Story

I'm opposed to the concept of cemeteries.  They're a colossal waste of space and money, not to mention an unsustainable practice in the long run.  Imagine if every person on earth insisted on his or her own private 6-foot burial hole and headstone, to be maintianed forever.  Soon there would be nothing but graves and no space for anything  else -- Planet Cemetery.

Obviously, the dead must be disposed of one way or another.  The practice of burial goes back thousands of years, but the "modern" public, landscaped-style cemetery with its markers and monuments dates to the early 1700's in Europe.  Even though these park-like graveyards take up large amounts of land, they're also often beautiful, quiet places with exquisite old carved stonework.

Although such places are essentially obsolete, and I don't want to wind up in one, I must confess I like 'em.  As a very young boy, my father would take me to walk in a nearby cemetery.  And as a young man, I spent a pleasant summer working in a municipal cemetery, cutting grass and tending to the grounds.  I've developed a certain appreciation of, and respect for, historic old boneyards*.

Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio was originally a Civil War training camp for Union soldiers.  It soon became a POW camp for Confederate prisoners.  Today, it includes a cemetery where over 2200 Confederate soldiers are buried.  The grounds feature a memorial arch topped by a statue of a Confederate soldier.

Last week, in the dark and in a misguided act of "protest," the statue was pulled down and the figure's head was removed.

I'm also opposed to public monuments which honor the Confederacy, but I'll grant an exception for military cemeteries with statues commemorating the war dead.  These was no need to vandalize the Camp Chase cemetery. 

We have a right to speak out and demonstrate and protest, but cemeteries -- spots for for peaceful contemplation -- are generally not the place to do it.
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*If you ever have the chance, visit the Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Established in 1844, it is a U.S. National Historic Landmark.  At 733 acres, the place is huge with plenty of wow-factor monuments.  Get a map or you'll get lost for sure.  Famous graves there include Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, New York Yankees manager Miller Huggins, and both Procter and Gamble.


Saturday, August 26, 2017

You Don't Need A Pardon If You're Not Guilty Of A Crime


Contrary to what Dolt 45 says, Joe Arpaio was not "enforcing the law," was not "doing his job," and he did not "keep Arizona safe."  He was doing the opposite.

The publicity-hungry former county sheriff was criminally ignoring the law and taking matters into his own hands.  He was racially profiling Latinos.  He was illegally and indefinitely detaining people who had committed no crimes.  He'd proudly engaged in these practices for decades, but in 2011 and again in 2013 federal judges ordered him to cease and desist with these violations.  He refused.  He and his deputies continued to act like the Maricopa Gestapo, and in July he was properly convicted of criminal contempt.  Just desserts and long overdue.

Let's deport the criminals Trump and Arpaio
Last night, while we were preoccupied by Hurricane Harvey clobbering Texas, Deplorable Don, the sneaky bastard BLOTUS (Bloated Looter of the United States), saw fit to pardon Ol' Criminal Joe, saving him from fines and jail time.  That's a shame.  Arpaio is still a criminal.  His pardon is another crime.

While the storm raged, the fake president also signed a useless and unnecessary transgender military ban.

Trump is a friggin' horrible human being, a load his momma should've swallowed.

#NotMyPresident
#FDT
#ITMFA

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Symbol-Minded Judge


Ohio Supreme Court Justice William O'Neill, reacting on Facebook to a kneeling group of Cleveland Browns, joined all the other people reflexively missing the point about NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem.

























Standing for the anthem is a figurative gesture honoring the USA.  Since kindergarten, most of us have been socially conditioned to stand up when the anthem is played publicly.  (But we never stand up watching a ball game at home.)  The lyrics are filled with battle imagery, but I was never taught that the song's entire purpose was just to pay homage to the military.  It's a broader than that.  So I reject the idea that not standing up is disrespectful to the troops.  Since when did the military take sole possession of the anthem's significance?


Kneeling during the anthem is a gesture too -- one of silent protest.  It has nothing to do with a beef against the military.  The trend began with Colin Kaepernick in the wake of Ferguson and other incidents of police brutality against blacks.  It symbolizes the continuing struggle for racial justice.  Now, post-Charlottesville, it's also a symbol of resistance against white supremacists and neo-Nazis.  Taking a knee has the official support of the league office, coaches, players, many in the military, the ACLU, and me.

Justice O'Neill is way off base.  Kneeling is not anti-military.  No one is a draft dodger.  (The last time we had a draft, these athletes weren't born.  Hell, their parents weren't born.)  And please tell me again about how our brave veterans fought valiantly so NFL players could take the field.  I think I missed that one.

We should expect more of our state's highest judges than an ill-considered Facebook puke-up about an insignificant sports issue (especially from the court's lone Democrat).  But everyone is entitled to his opinion, no matter how silly.  If O'Neill really boycotts the team, there are still tens of us other Browns fans who will carry on without him.

Bottom line, the national anthem is just a song.  Standing, sitting or kneeling is just a symbolic posture.  Do what you like.  Let's leave the symbols to the symbol-minded, drop the faux-patriotic indignation, and play ball! 

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Trump's Afghanistan Rationale


According to reports, military advisers showed Don Frito Corleone an old photo which helped to persuade the fake president to go hawk-ish and "win" whatever the hell it is we're doing in Afghanistan.

This was the photo, from 1972, showing women in Kabul openly wearing miniskirts.

"Those are some gorgeous women, that much I can tell you," said Trump.  "I could grab 'em by the pussy, believe me!"









The military brass contrasted the old photo by showing him this current image* of two Afghan women, telling him it portrayed "the most beautiful woman in Kabul, accompanied by her ugly sister."  

"That's horrible!" Trump roared.  "Look at that!  That's why we've gotta win this thing -- you can't tell which pussy to grab!"

"Send in more troops!"








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* Image replicated from The Rich Sardine and Other New Droodles, by Roger Price, Simon & Schuster, 1954

Monday, August 21, 2017

Afghanistan: Same Old Shit, Different Day (Perpetual Sequel)


Hair Twittler is soon to address the nation on his Afghanistan strategy.  He's listening closely to "his generals" and is expected to call for an increase in troop levels.  Big surprise.  As surgeons believe in surgical solutions, generals believe in military ones.

We've seen this movie before, and I think it's Groundhog Day.  Here's a post from seven years ago.  A few names have changed, but that's about it.
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Thursday, July 29, 2010


Afghanistan: Same Old Shit, Different Day




Tick, tick, tick. Nine years and counting, and what have we accomplished?

In 2001, in an understandable but ill-conceived response to the 9/11 tragedy, Dubya took us charging into Afghanistan so we could catch that bastard Osama Bin Laden and drop a bomb on his head. Just missed him! Damn! But hey, while we're in the neighborhood, let's mess with Iraq!

Now it's 2010, Iraq has been liberated into a pile of rubble, Bin Laden is long gone, but we're still traipsing around in Afghanistan trying to find Al Qaeda bad guys.

General McCrystal is out for saying some stupid shit to a reporter and General Petraeus is back in. This will make absolutely no difference whatsoever.

An online outfit called Wikileaks released a bunch of classified documents that boil down to (1.) Most of our military personnel realize how hopeless our Afghan mission is, and (2.) Most of them feel that the Taliban, despite their penchant for cutting off noses, are far more trustworthy and far less corrupt than President Karzai. No surprises.

President Obama is sticking to his guns and will begin withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011. For that, I give him credit. But I have to discredit his decision to not pull out even sooner. What good is another year in this fucking dump?

Look, Afghanistan is literally the planet's rectum, the end of the earth. It has no strategic value to anyone. It's a good place to hide, and that's about it. It's primitive, lawless, undeveloped, and brutal, and destined to stay that way. It's the one place in the world where people use the words "war lord" and they're not talking about a goddam video game. At the height of their power, both the British Empire and the Soviet Empire made military forays into Afghanistan and got their asses kicked. And we think we're gonna do better? The last guy who had any success at an Afghan conquest was Genghis Khan, but after a short stay, he got out too. After sampling the myriad pleasures of Afghanistan, Khan and his Hordes decided they preferred burning yak turds for heat back home in Mongolia, and so they split.

Our "war" in Afghanistan is unwinnable, and there's nothing to win anyway. Bring 'em home. Now.

How Would Tina Fey Phrase It?


In my 8/16/17 email to Sen. Rob Portman and Rep. Pat Tiberi, my GOP Congressmen, I asked them to "publicly renounce the president by name, condemn his support of racists, Nazis and hate groups, and publicly declare no confidence in him."  I asked them for a response.

I just heard back from Tiberi (his staff, actually).  In his email, he said:  "I issued a statement condemning the hate and bigotry, and particularly [the car driver] James Shield's terrorist act.  Racism cannot be tolerated.  Sadly, the President has failed to stay focused on the groups that created a violent situation, but white supremacists bear the responsibility for Ms. Heyer's death."


The cardboard "Flat Pat" Tiberi at a town hall.
For the notably reticent Rep. Tiberi, that's an unusually strong expression.  Still, he equivocated somewhat.  He did not call out the president by name but mentioned the car driver by name, and said the president was "not focused."  And of course, he did not say anything publicly about the president.  (An email to an individual constituent is not a public condemnation.)

"Flat Pat" is still a no-show for town halls, but at least he said something, however mealy-mouthed.

Portman had no reply at all.  None.  Too busy?*

My Republican Congressmen are -- how would Tina Fey phrase it? -- oh yeah, pussies!
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*  Portman was probably too busy pushing his Bannon-inspired big-business wet dream, a regulatory "relief" bill he calls the Regulatory Accountability Act of 2017.  Robbie's idea of accountability is the "deconstruction of the administrative state."

Saturday, August 19, 2017

It's A Start




One down, many more to go.

Next let's get rid of the Hungarian fascist and bullshit security "expert" Sebastian Gorka, his equally fraudulent security "expert" wife Katharine Gorka, the white nationalist rat-boy Stephen Miller, and the racist Keebler goblin Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.  These deplorables have no business being part of any administration, not even Trump's.











Correction


In my recent post "Statues Are Not History" I wrote, "Washington and Jefferson fought to create and preserve this country."  It has been brought to my attention by several readers and by the cake-faced Tina Fey that the country required no creation, it was already here, and Washington and Jefferson were part of the effort by white European colonists to steal the country from its native inhabitants.  

This is correct.  Buster regrets the error.

Founding Fathers like George and Thomas are rightly honored by historians for throwing off the imperial yoke of British colonialism and establishing the principles of modern democracy.  Historians also point out that they were part of the long, deliberate genocide of our country's original occupants.  Some draw a straight line from the American Revolution and the Constitution (with state representation based on population, and slaves counted as three-fifths of a person) to the Civil War.

We place our idols upon pedestals so we may see their feet of clay. 


Tips On Viewing and Using Buster's Blog


Having recently added a handful of new readers, it occurs to me that a bit of explanation on the origins and usage of this site may be in order.

Buster's Blog began on a whim about eight years ago, transforming from a sporadic sports-centric email "column" into a politics/current events blog.  The nom-de-blog, Buster Gammons, is a mash-up of two of favorite sportswriters, Buster Olney and Peter Gammons.

So far, there have been about 2700 posts and 382,000 individual page views.  Sounds like a lot, but it's not.  Actually, quite tiny -- Buster has a small but deeply disturbed following.

The site uses Blogger, which is a Google platform.  You don't need to have a Google account to access the site.  You can go to http://bustergammons.blogspot.com/ any time you choose.  I try to send alerts of new posts to those masochists who provide me their emails.

You can publicly comment on any post, if you like.  The comment link is at the bottom of each post.  You don't need a Google account.  You may comment anonymously or as yourself, doesn't matter.  You may need to re-key a "captcha" code to prove you're not a robot.

You may become an official "follower," but I'm unaware of any significant benefits which result from being a follower.  It requires a Google account.    I think it's mainly a way for Google Bloggers to follow each others blogs.  Buster's Blog has almost no official followers.

Your phone gives you the mobile version of Blogger/Buster's Blog, which is OK, but the desktop version is better.  So I recommend a laptop or PC when possible.  Obviously, the display is bigger with the desktop version, videos play better, spacing is better, images line up properly, you don't eat up your phone's data plan, and you can see the entire site layout -- not just the individual posts, but also, along the left side of the screen, Buster's Links to other interesting websites, blogs, and articles, and the Blog Archive, a chronological listing of all blog posts inception-to-date.  It's just a lot easier to view and navigate the Buster's Blog website using your laptop or PC.

That's all.  As always, thanks for reading!





Friday, August 18, 2017

Sheet-Caking With Tina Fey (LMAO!)


It's nice to know some of us are on the same wavelength.  Three different readers sent this to me this morning.  Thanks to all!

This is Tina Fey at her very best!  You may have already seen it, but I've re-watched it several times already.  It's that good.


Friday Funnies















































































































Paper Is Not Dead


Sent by a faithful reader.  Thanks, D.W.!


Thursday, August 17, 2017

Statues Are Not History


Dolt 45, our fake president, is stupidly defending the indefensible by calling racists/fascists/Nazis "very good people" and by conflating the American Revolution with the American Civil War.  A historian he ain't!

Disputatious Donny has put the ugly-right's panties in a bunch by whining about the systematic removal throughout the South of statues and monuments honoring the Confederacy.  His tired old argument is a version the Domino Theory:  "First it's Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.  What's next?  George Washington and Thomas Jefferson?  They were slave owners, you know."


Statue of Stonewall Jackson & Robert E. Lee
taken down last night in Baltimore
Trump called the removal of Confederate statuary "so foolish."  Paul LePage, the idiot governor of Maine, likened it to tearing down 9/11 memorials.  The ugly-right insists that taking down these statues will change our history, erase it, re-write it, and dilute our heritage.  Bullshit!

A statue is not history.  Our history is the accumulated knowledge of the past, a compilation of all things remembered, contained in a multitude of written documents, stories and images, preserved in libraries, on the internet, on film and in song.  Our history doesn't change and it never goes away.  It's always there for us, recorded somewhere, somehow.

A statue, monument, or flag is, itself, nothing more than a symbol (and as George Carlin said, "I'll leave those to the symbol-minded.").  It stands for something, it represents something, maybe good, maybe bad.  The Nazi flag, for example, now symbolizes all the evil of Hitler's Germany, the Holocaust, concentration camps, etc.  In today's Germany, you can find many memorials to persecuted, martyred Jews, but none to the Nazis.  The swastika is never displayed or honored.  There are no statues of Hitler or Goerring.  Germans have by no means forgotten their history and heritage.  They deal with it every day, honestly and appropriately.  They still have Nazi flags and images of Nazi leaders, but they're relegated to the archives of history in libraries and museums.  This is where they belong, not in the public square.

Washington and Jefferson fought to create and preserve this country.  A statue of a Confederate soldier honors those who fought to tear it apart.  It symbolizes the dishonorable fight to divide the nation and preserve our most immoral institution -- slavery.

Most of the monuments to the Confederacy were erected well into the 20th century, long after the South had lost the war.  There are hundreds of these memorials across the region, and they had less to do with honoring southern "heritage" than they did with bolstering the self-esteem of southern whites while sending a "don't forget your place" message to southern blacks.

There is no real justification for these meritless public memorials to a horribly unjust cause.  Get rid of 'em!  Yes, the Civil War did take place and many fought and died on the Confederate side.  But if you need a statue of Lee or Jackson on your Main Street, or a rebel flag on your statehouse to help you keep your infamous heritage at full strength, you have a truly weak and lazy mind.  Go to the goddam library and look it up!  It'll always be there.
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Interestingly, Buster himself has a Confederate statue.  Let me explain.

It's a small bust of Robert E. Lee, maybe 7-8 inches tall, and I've had it for maybe 25 years.  It was given to me by my late Aunt Rosalie, a.k.a. Podie, my father's sister.  As I knew her, Podie was a well-off widow who lived on a former tobacco farm in rural Maryland.  She was gregarious, cantankerous, generous and funny as hell.  She was a bit of the Grande Dame of Upper Marlboro, and my dad occasionally called her "The Duchess."

Although Maryland was directly below the Mason-Dixon Line (and therefore part of the South), it was officially neutral during the Civil War.  Public sentiment ran both ways back then, and does to this day.  Aunt Podie, though, firmly maintained that Maryland was "always" a Confederate state, an opinion she signaled by displaying the bust of General Lee front and center on her mantelpiece.

Near the end of her life, she gave away a few of her cherished items and family heirlooms.  I was lucky enough to receive a couple pieces of furniture, some silverware and, for some unknown reason, her little statue of Robert E. Lee.

The piece held no particular meaning to me.  In fact, I always found it mildly embarrassing.  Out of respect to Podie, it was unobtrusively kept in our dining room, on the bottom shelf of a lamp table.  And there it sat for years, in honor of my aunt, not the general.

But this morning, I decided to do the same as Charlottesville, Baltimore, and all the other cities removing their old Confederate symbols -- I took down Robert E. Lee.  Before consigning him to the dustbin of basement storage, I put him on the kitchen table for one last photo.

Now he rests next to our furnace, and our dining room will survive perfectly well without General Lee.    



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Be a good neighbor and redirect your hatred for the Orange Poop-head toward picking up poop with his likeness on a handy biodegradable bag.

Nothing is more satisfying and appropriate than piling poop on Trump's head.

It's kind of like "sweets to the sweet," except with poop.

Learn more at www.DonaldTrumpDogPoopBags.com

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Gut-Check For My Trump-Voting Acquaintances


Believe it or not, Buster has some "readers" who actually voted for Orange O'Haira.  Not many, but some.  They know who they are and so do I.

Considering all the deplorable things he's said and done, capped now by his terrible public statements yesterday supporting Nazis and racists, if you voted for Trump, I call on you to apologize to me.  That's right, I want a personal apology from you.  Now. 


I want you to acknowledge to me that your vote was a monumental, historic mistake.  I want you to admit that your vote damaged our country.  I want you to tell me you're embarrassed by it and you regret it and you wish you could take a Mulligan.  I want you to tell me, personally, that you're sorry.  You know how to reach me, one way or another.

It takes a massively abhorrent individual to move the imminent threat of nuclear war to Page Two all by himself.  Our fake president is that individual.  And some of you voted for him.

So, no more excuses.  It's gut-check time.  It's apology time.

Will you do it?  Can you?  If you can't, I have no use for you.

Gut-Check For GOP Congress


(Email sent today.)
______________________

Sen. Portman and Rep. Tiberi,

I'm your constituent and I'm joining the chorus.  I'm calling on both of you, as my elected officials, to not merely oppose Nazism (easy!) but to publicly renounce the president by name after his despicable comments yesterday in New York City.

His name is Donald J. Trump and, for obvious reasons, you need to abandon him now -- just cut him loose.  Then for as long as he lasts, you do whatever you do and let him do whatever he does all by himself.  You can no longer work with him -- he's unfit for office and has no moral authority.  His administration has been, and will be, nothing but a waste.  He's done.  Deal with it.

You'll do yourselves and your party a great favor by focusing on the future and giving up any hope of redeeming this hot, stinking mess.

Again, you need to call out Donald J. Trump by name, condemn his support of racists and Nazis and hate groups, and separate yourselves from him by publicly declaring you have no confidence in him and can no longer prop him up.

If you have the guts to do this, you'll perform a service for the GOP and place yourselves on the right side of history.

It's time to man up.  Will you do it?  Can you?

Let me hear from both of you on this.

There Goes My Wardrobe


Who knew?

Pardon me for not keeping up on the fashion trends of our nation's fascist-racist-Nazi youth.  In Charlottesville, many of them showed up in a "uniform" of bland, preppy apparel:

















I happen to own some white polo shirts and khaki pants.  Hell, there goes my wardrobe!


Tuesday, August 15, 2017

He Speaks His Mind, And It Ain't Pretty


After two half-hearted, ghost-written attempts to deliver the right message, late this afternoon our fake president went off script at a press conference and showed his ass/his true feelings.

He defended his violent, racist, Nazi supporters -- "very fine people" -- and berated the Charlottesville counter-protesters as the "very violent alt-left."  It was a mind-boggling display of victim-blaming, "both sides" bullshit moral equivalency, and [literal] what-aboutism.

Watch the video.  It's sixteen instructive and excruciatingly long minutes of the real Trump -- angry, ignorant, combative, dishonest, argumentative, delusional, egotistical, incoherent, and ugly through and through.



Naturally, David Duke thought it was great.

Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about  & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/897554574663442432 

WTF?  Which looking glass did we just walk through?  If Black Lives Matter and Antifa (autonomous ant-fascist groups) are "leftist terrorists," I'm the Queen of friggin' England.  And when did David Duke become a "doctor"?

America, we have a serious problem.  Donald Trump is a fraud, a fake president, and no better than his hate-group fan boys.  He's a racist pig, and along with Bannon, Miller, Gorka and Sessions, Trump must go.  Now.

#FDT
#NotMyPresident
#FakePresident







A Lot Like Cats


Regarding the unsavory alliance between the forces of darkness and our un-American fake president:

"Nazis are a lot like cats.  If they like you, it's probably because you're feeding them."
-- John Oliver

"Albert Jones, Former Metal Worker" and Tax Expert


All tax experts wear hard hats, man buns and earrings.  Don't they?



This stupid ad is in heavy rotation in my area.  It's from the American Action Network, a conservative advocacy group headed by Norm Coleman, the right-tarded ex-Senator from Minnesota who lost to Al Franken.  American Action Network is a 501(c)(4), a "non-profit, social welfare organization."  Social welfare, my ass!

Here's a similar ad running now from the Business Roundtable:



The Business Roundtable is comprised of conservative CEO's from some of the biggest, most profitable corporations in the U.S., including AT&T, Xerox, Dow, AEP, Eaton, Exxon Mobil, GE, JP Morgan Chase, Walmart, State Farm, MasterCard, and American Express.

These business behemoths want you to believe that they're not making nearly enough money, and all those awful taxes are to blame.  If only they could get more tax "reform" (i.e., cuts), trickle-down miracles would occur.

Yeah, right.


Monday, August 14, 2017

Donald Ignores Batman, Superman, the U.S. Government, and Frank Zappa


Let's review.  Friday and Saturday, the KKK and the Nazis showed up in Charlottesville wearing MAGA caps, bent on causing trouble.  As you know, the KKK wants to eradicate black people, i.e. kill off an entire race, and the Nazis want to exterminate Jews, i.e. wipe out an entire religion.

And it was two full days -- and way too little, too late -- before our titular leader, Ill Douche, could finally bring himself to renounce these worst-of-the-worst arse-wipes gathered in his name.  (Didn't want to insult his base.)  And again, someone else had to write the words for him and put them on the teleprompter so he'd know what to say.

For damn near anyone, repudiating Nazis and the Klan is a no-brainer, no script needed, the ultimate softball on a tee.  But until he was literally forced, our Cinnamon Hitler didn't just miss the ball, he didn't even try to swing.
____________________________________

A two-minute film released in 1943 by the U.S. War Dept., warning Americans against fascist rhetoric.








































































































Zappa!