Devin Loves Donald

Like this, but worse

It's kinda like "Joanie Loves Chachi," but a lot worse.  "Devin Loves Donald" is an important tragi-comic tale about the behavior of scared, guilty people.  The story began ten months ago, but in the whirlwind of the Trump Freak Show, you've probably forgotten most of it.

In April of last year, U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Cal), Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and Russia's links to Trump, recused himself (temporarily) from that committee.  The House Ethics Committee then announced an investigation into Nunes himself.  Why?

A month earlier Nunes had hastily called a press conference to announce he'd seen classified reports showing some of Trump's people had been under surveillance by the DOJ/FBI for their Russian contacts/activities.  His sudden disclosure of classified information was unauthorized and in violation of House rules.

It came out soon enough that Nunes got his info from staffers inside the White House -- Nunes went to the White House to view the classified docs, then told Trump and went public with it immediately, without discussion with or clearance from his own committee, let alone the FBI or DOJ.  Not cool, Devin.

"Devin!  Sit!  Stay!  Roll over!  Sniff my ass!  Good boy!"

Nunes then was obviously compromised as Chair of the Intel Committee -- outed as nothing more than Trump's slobbering, faithful pet dog.  So, with his prejudice hanging out in the breeze, he recused himself as Chairman, but he needed to do more than that.  At a minimum, he should have been -- hello, Paul Ryan? -- totally removed from the Intel Committee.  Resigning from Congress would have been better still.

Instead, he "recused" while the Ethics Committee got stonewalled.  They were never able to obtain a copy of the classified info in question, and in December they dropped their investigation into Nunes' conduct, citing unnamed "experts" who declared that what Nunes publicly shared was probably not classified after all.  Nunes pronounced himself "completely cleared" (that's not what they said, Devin) and elbowed his way back into chairing the Intel Committee.  The Republican majority on the Committee did not object.

Now you're almost up to date.  Nunes then put together a classified memo summarizing the classified reports he'd seen at the White House.  His memo reportedly characterizes these reports as surveillance abuses conducted by Obama loyalists at the DOJ.  (Of course!  Obama did it!)

Gimme a break!  The Nunes memo is just a pathetic, partisan smear job, a shameless attack on the FBI, the DOJ and the entire Russian probe.

Nevertheless, Nunes' Intel Committee voted to release the memo to the public, despite its classified status, and over the strong objections of everyone except themselves.  Naturally, they voted against releasing a memo written by the Democrats on the committee which refutes Nunes' pandering propaganda.

In the next five days, Trump will make the final decision about releasing this BS to the public.  Odds are he will.

Trump is clearly feeling the heat from Robert Mueller's kitchen.  He and his panicked GOP toadies are like a defeated army trying to destroy everything of value as they retreat.  

In March 1945, in his final desperation, Adolf Hitler issued his "Nero Decree," ordering the destruction of all German infrastructure to prevent its use by the advancing Allies.  The order was deliberately disobeyed by Minister of Armaments Albert Speer, who was appalled by the idea.  He stalled Hitler with contrived excuses while he convinced Nazi generals to ignore the order.

Are there any Republicans in today's American Congress with the backbone of a few vanquished Nazis? 

Cruel And Unusual -- It's Just Not Right

This is a sad story, fairly close to home.  You probably saw it already.

Adi and family

Last night, 57 year-old Amer Othman "Al" Adi of Youngstown, Ohio was deported by ICE agents.  The Palestinian native had lived here for 39 years.  He's a business owner, taxpayer and homeowner.  His wife and four daughters are U.S. citizens.  He thought he was too.

Back in the 1990's, Adi's green card was revoked by immigration officials.  They falsely alleged his first marriage in 1980 was fraudulent.  His first wife denied it, but Adi never got another green card.  He was spared deportation by a so-called "private bill" arranged by U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan in 2013.

Trumpolini the Wall Builder cancelled that arrangement.  In September, ICE agents put an ankle bracelet on him and told him he had to leave by January 7th.  But just days before, ICE told him the deportation had been called off.  Then on January 16th, without warning, he was arrested by ICE and jailed.  On January 18th, the House Subcommittee on Immigration voted to have his case reviewed by Homeland Security, which should have meant a release for Adi and a six month stay on deportation.

Instead, ICE denied his stay and kept him in jail.  Yesterday, he was sent from Youngstown to Chicago, put on a plane and flown to Jordan.

Trumplandia is cruel and unusual.  ICE arrests are up 37% under Trump.  How does deporting this individual serve any reasonable purpose?  Many similar deportations are occurring right now.  It's just plain stupid, arbitrary and mean.  It's a waste of money and effort.  It's not right.  It's bullshit.  It's Trump. 

His Speechwriters

Satire from The Borowitz Report “Fox & Friends” Putting Finishing Touches on Trump’s State of the Union Address Trump reportedly has had input on the speech text from other sources, including the Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and several neo-Nazi Twitter accounts. By Andy Borowitz

Let's Make It The Lowest-Rated SOTU Ever!

Tomorrow night Don the Con will deliver his first State of the Union address.  I will not be watching.  Will you?

Over the past year or two, I've avoided any lengthy exposure to Trump speaking, because it makes me literally ill to look at him and listen to him.  That preposterous hairdo!  The tiny fingers!  Those butthole lips!  The orange-ness!  And that irritating New Yawk squawk!  I just wanna puke.

So I'm not watching his speech as a matter of personal health.  But there are so many good reasons to boycott the SOTU.  For example, among the themes of his speech will be "National Unity" and his fabulous "Infrastructure Plan."  OMFG!  Seriously?  The most divisive douchebag in America will lecture us about unity?  And his infrastructure plan is to loosen environmental laws so as to make life easier for Big Oil/Gas/Coal.  What a fraud!  There will be nothing to learn tomorrow night.

A friend and regular reader has pointed out another fine reason to boycott his speech.  We all know that the Lyin' King is just a narcissistic attention whore with a thing about size.  He's all about his ratings.  So put the time to better use -- read a good book, or listen to some good music, or even to watch the "Gorilla Channel."  If we all skip his speech, maybe the ratings will really suck.  He'd hate that.

I call upon all patriotic Americans of good conscience!  Let's do our part to make it the lowest-rated SOTU ever!

Better do what Auntie Maxine says!

Jerusalem

Trump's idea of how to negotiate a Middle East "peace" plan is P.O.P. -- Piss Off Palestine.  First, move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to disputed ground in Jerusalem.  Then reduce what little aid we send to the Palestinians and threaten to cut it off completely if they don't "come to the table" and do everything Bibi's way.  Good luck with that strategy, Mr. Stable Genius.

Our fake president might want to read a bit of history.  Jerusalem has been a bone of religious contention for about a thousand years.
____________________________________

From "Jerusalem," part of the Trigger Warning collection, by Neil Gaiman

Tourist:  "I suppose you must be looking forward to them sorting all this out.  Er . . . the Palestinian situation.  The politics."

Guide:  "It doesn't matter to Jerusalem.  The people come.  The people believe.  Then they kill each other, to prove that God loves them."

Tourist:  "Well, how would you fix it?"

Guide:  "Sometimes I think it would be best if it were bombed -- bombed back to a radioactive desert.  Then who would want it?  But then I think, they would come here and collect radioactive dust that might contain atoms of the Dome of the Rock, or of the Temple, or a wall that Jesus leaned against on his way to the cross.  People would fight over who owns a poisonous desert, if that desert was Jerusalem."

He's A Branding Genius

That guy who's, like, really smart decided that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue needed his special re-branding touch.

Behold!  It's The Shite House!

It'll Take A Real Sales Job

I read with a combination of amusement and dyspepsia that the Koch brothers and their Americans For Prosperity super-PAC plan to spend $20 million on a P.R. ad campaign to try to convince us that the GOP trickle-down tax scam is thing of beauty.  Call me a cynic, but I must ask:  If the benefits are really so widespread and self-evident, why spend so much money on messaging?  Why spend any?

While Davos Don blows sunshine up his own skirt, remember that U.S. economic improvements are continuing a steady and pre-existing upward trend;  the $1.5 trillion tax cut goes almost entirely to businesses and wealthy individuals;  the average American wage earner will gain about $17 a week;  although some companies are making a big show of one-time bonuses and minimum wage increases, the vast majority of businesses have done neither -- corporate tax benefits are flowing to top executives and shareholders.

And consider these recent announcements:  

• Kimberly-Clark, maker of Kleenex, etc., is laying off 5500 employees.
• AT&T is laying off 4600.
• Macy's is laying off 10,000.
• General Electric is laying off 12,000.
• Sam's Club closed 63 stores and laid off 11,000.
• Toys R Us is closing 180 stores.
• The Gap is closing 200 stores.
• The Carrier plant in Indiana which Trump and Pence "saved" from relocating to Mexico has laid off over 600 workers, including 215 earlier this month.
• Locally, Huntington Bank announced record 4th quarter profits, including $123 million attributed to the corporate tax cut.  Huntington has no plans to pay bonuses or raise wages. 

Will Trump take credit for these developments?

The Kochs and AFP see it clearly:  Trump's tax cut is a crock of shit and it stinketh.  It'll take a real sales job to make it seem like it smells better. 

1968 Crucible

It's the 50th anniversary of 1968.  Much has already been written about that historical, turbulent year.  Allow me to add a few more words.

For me, 1968 was the heart of my adolescence -- I was 13-14 years old, raging with hormones, far from adult but old enough to be aware of, and shaped by, current events.  And the current events of 1968 were something else.  Of course, I wasn't totally attuned to every bit of it back then, but in years to come it was clear to me (and about a gajillion other people) that 1968 was one helluva year.

An unpopular war in Vietnam with unflattering, unvarnished news coverage.  Anti-war protests and draft dodgers.  Racial tensions.  The civil rights movement and protests.  Black Panthers.  Black Power.  Flower Power.  Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.  The women's rights movement.  The environmental movement.  Student unrest and campus protests.  Assassinations.  The Cold War and the possibility of nuclear conflict hanging over everything.




A brief rundown of some memorable 1968 occurrences: 

Navy spy ship USS Pueblo is captured by North Korean military forces.

With 500,000 American troops in Vietnam, North Vietnam launches the surprise Tet Offensive.  U.S. casualties are heavy during the month-long siege, and public opinion of the war sours.

A photographer snaps the iconic photo of a South Vietnamese policeman summarily executing a Viet Cong prisoner on the streets of Saigon.

President Lyndon Johnson announces he won't seek
reelection.

Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis.

LBJ signs the Civil Rights/Fair Housing Act.

The U.S. and North Vietnam begin peace talks in Paris.  South Vietnam boycotts the talks.

Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles.

The anti-war Yippies announce they'll go to Chicago for the Democratic Convention.

The GOP nominates Richard Nixon for president.

The Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia and crushes the"Prague Spring" anti-communist uprising.

In a raucous convention, the Democrats nominate Hubert Humphrey for president.  Outside the convention hall, Chicago police administer brutal, unprovoked beatings on crowds of anti-war protesters.

George Wallace enters the presidential race as an independent.

U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos give the black power salute on the medal stand during the Mexico City Olympics.

LBJ announces a halt to all U.S. bombing in North Vietnam.

Nixon narrowly wins the presidential election.

College campuses mark National Turn In Your Draft Card Day with rallies, card burning and protests.

Apollo 8 becomes the first manned spacecraft to leave earth's orbit, reach and orbit the moon, and return to earth.  Notable for its dramatic Christmas Eve TV broadcast while orbiting the moon.

These days, when I'm constantly disgusted by the daily horrors of the Trump Freak Show, I can find a small silver lining by thinking back to 1968 and saying to myself, "Well, somehow we managed to survive all that!"



And for an even happier disposition, I can always remember the music of 1968, all those catchy ear-worms that burrowed into my young brain 50 years ago and are still there today.

From Billboard's Top 100 Hits of 1968, here are the top ten songs of that year:

1.  Hey Jude - The Beatles.  Paul's sing-along cheer-up anthem written for Julian Lennon.

2.  Love Is Blue - The Paul Mauriat Orchestra.  An improbable instrumental hit with harpsichord and strings.

3.  Honey - Bobby Goldsboro.  A vomitously saccharine ballad about a terminally ill young woman.

4.  Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding.  A posthumous #1 hit, released after singer's death in a plane crash.

5.  People Got To Be Free - The Rascals.  Happy, funky soul from New Jersey white boys.

6.  Sunshine of Your Love - Cream.  Heavy riffs from the classic power trio.

7.  This Guy's In Love With You - Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass.  A rare vocal sung by Herb -- rare because Herb couldn't sing.

8.  The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - Hugo Montenegro.  The instrumental movie theme.

9.  Mrs. Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel.  Movie theme from The Graduate.  How many hit songs name-drop JoeDiMaggio?

10.  Tighten Up - Archie Bell & The Drells.  Hooky rhythm guitar and horns.  A personal favorite.


And I must mention just one more:

38.  Yummy Yummy Yummy (I Got Love In My Tummy) - The Ohio Express.  Wretched bubblegum crap with the worst song title ever.  Yucky yucky yucky.

Those were the days, my friends.  (Another '68 song!)

"Part Of Your World" (Melania's Plea)

Wonderful!

So Secret It Never Even Existed

As Donnie Dipstick now has his tit, his hairpiece and his extra-long tie caught in the wringer, his pathetic Republican defenders have resorted to their favorite ruse -- the incredible conspiracy theory.  This time, take two agents in a 35,000 employee agency, take one joking email sentence out of context, and -- voila! -- there's a treacherous "secret society" inside the FBI plotting against our blameless Dear Leader.

"There may have been a secret society within the Dept. of Justice and the FBI." -- Rep. John Ratcliffe, Tex.

"A level of bias that's stunning." -- Rep. Trey Gowdy, SC

"The greatest coincidence since the Immaculate Conception." -- Rep. Matt Gaetz, Fla.

"Evidence of corruption." -- Se. Ron Johnson, Wis

"Worse than Watergate." -- Sean Hannity, Faux News


This cockamamie nonsense was immediately debunked as 100% false.  How do they keep a straight face while letting such ridiculous bullshit cross their lips?  It's a GOP-specific skill.

In The Not-Too-Distant Future . . .

2018 Trump News Cycle: Who Can Even Keep Up Anymore?

Gotta Love The Guggenheim!

It's not uncommon for the White House to display works of fine art which have been provided on loan from various museums.  Our fake president and his third lady recently made a request of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

They wanted to borrow Vincent Van Gogh's "Landscape With Snow."

The Guggenheim's curator turned down to that request, and offered instead to lend them "America," by Maurizio Cattelan.  It's fully functioning and solid gold.  The museum even offered to install it in any White House bathroom.

Trumpenstein and his bride had no immediate comment.

Fox News called the offer an "insult."

Buster calls it "perfect" for the gold-plated, trailer trash, reality game show host.

Loyalty Pledge

The Disagreeable Don just doesn't get it.  He can't seem to get it through his comb-over that, for the moment, he's in government, that he's not running his own private business, and that he can't demand loyalty and just get rid of everyone who doesn't cover for him and kiss his flabby ass.

Which hasn't stopped him from trying.  Today we learned that he ordered Special Counsel Robert Mueller to be fired back in June, and that he and his entire administration have lied about it ever since, including today.  "Fake news," claimed the fake president.

For a guy who constantly proclaims his innocence, he does a remarkably good impression of someone who's guilty-as-hell.

From an unnamed source in the Deep State, Buster has obtained the secret Loyalty Pledge which our Twitter Tyrant tries to obtain from every member of his administration.  Here it is:


I pledge allegiance to the hair weave
Of spectacular length and lacquer,
And to the Stable Genius on top of which it sits,
One Ruler, under investigation,
With absolute power and obstruction of justice for all.

Net Neutrality Explained By Fast Food

Still confused by net neutrality?  Let Burger King help explain it with Whoppers.

Health & Human Services -- No Health, No Services

The Senate has confirmed Alex Azar as the new Secretary of Health & Human Services.  Azar is a conservative bureaucrat and former Big Pharma executive at Eli Lilly, where he oversaw a Shkreli-style string of constant price increases for prescription drugs.  An outspoken opponent of Obamacare, Azar has said, "The Affordable Care Act has failed millions of Americans who have lost the plans they liked and the doctors they liked."

Azar's comment reveals a shallow understanding of the ACA, as well as his intention to continue sabotaging the landmark legislation.  Those who "lost plans they liked" (and "millions" is debatable) had cheap-ass, pretend insurance plans without essential coverages.  They may have paid little, but they got even less in return.

What Azar doesn't say is that 20 million Americans gained health coverage through the ACA, far more than had their substandard policies cancelled. 

I am covered under a plan on the ACA exchange.  As a self-employed person, the ACA allows me to have real and affordable health insurance, just like employer-provided, employer-subsidized group plans.  I'm a cancer patient, and without the ACA to help cover the extraordinary costs of treatment (over $360,000 in 2017), I probably wouldn't be writing this.  The ACA is working for me, and for many like me.

Azar, Trump and the GOP can go piss up a rope.  When they keep trying to kill Obamacare, they're in effect trying to kill me.  Pardon me if I get a little touchy about that.

In a related note, the HHS just announced a new "Division of Conscience & Religious Freedom."  Seriously.  It's a in-house cabal of culture warriors dedicated to anti-abortion and anti-LGBT discrimination.  God-squad conservative solutions in search of a problem.   

Azar's HHS:  Shit-coverage health policies, yes.  Obamacare, no.  Unwanted babies, yes.  Rainbow cupcakes, no.  How healthy!  What service!  

Shameless R Us

That's the GOP's motto.  If it's unethical, inappropriate, dishonorable, or just plain wrong, today's Republicans are all about it.  Two examples:

Sen. Lamar Alexander

✔@SenAlexander

I enjoyed having dinner tonight at the home of Senator John Cornyn and his wife Sandy with our newest Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch, Transportation Secretary Chao and a few of my other Senate colleagues to talk about important issues facing our country.

9:44 PM - Jan 22, 2018

•  2,7192,719 Replies
 
•  676676 Retweets
 
•  650650 likes

Whoa!  A conservative Supreme Court Justice sits down with a group of GOP Senators for a cozy little strategy session where they discuss "important issues facing our country"?  (And how they'd like Gorsuch to rule on them.)  These cucks don't even care about the appearance of impartiality.  Do you recall the Notorious RBG plotting strategy with Democratic Senators?  Neither do I, because it didn't happen.

In his first meeting with acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, the fake president asked him who he voted for in the 2016 election, and also expressed his unhappiness that McCabe's wife once received campaign donations from Democratic fundraisers affiliated with the Clintons.  McCabe told Donnie Dainty Digits that he didn't vote.  (He should've told him it was none of his fuckin' business!)  McCabe said he found the exchange "disturbing."  Well, yeah.

Trump first denied asking McCabe about his vote, then said he didn't remember, then said it was "no big deal," then said he would ask anyone, "Who'd you vote for?"

I'm sure he would.

gnah.@Gabbienain

When you trust your wife to vote for you, but not really.

11:46 AM - Nov 8, 2016

•  857857 Replies
 
•  81,72681,726 Retweets
 
•  110,765110,765 likes

Another Big-Boy Trip

My Big-Boy Trip to Switzerland

by Donald J. Trump

I'm excited to be going to Davos, Switzerland, which is in Europe.  Europe has too many foreigners, but I'm going anyway.  I'm going to tell all those foreigners about money.  I'm, like, really rich and, like, really smart, so I know all about money, believe me.

I know things about Switzerland too.  

There's Swiss chocolate.  I like chocolate.  Three Musketeers is good.  So is hot chocolate, the kind with mini-marshmallows.

There's the Swiss army knife.  It's got lots of blades and scissors and things to help fight sharks.

Swiss steak comes from Switzerland.  But I won't eat it unless it comes with ketchup.

They make Swiss cuckoo clocks.  Many people are saying I'm a cuckoo clock -- many people are saying it.

There's Swiss cheese.  If it's so good, how come there's holes in it?  It's like they didn't finish making it.  I like cheese with no holes, like Velveeta.

I know about Swiss bank accounts too.  They're, like, really secret and good for laundering money.  But I like to launder my Russian money through Deutsche Bank.

And I know one more thing about Switzerland -- Robert Mueller can't talk to me while I'm there.

Anniversary

Not a happy one.  It seems an eternity, but it's been just one year of Malice in Blunderland.  To mark the the passage of those 365 strange days, the New York Times devoted virtually all of it's Sunday Review section to commentary on our national year in hell.  Excerpts:

"In his first year in office, Trump gave himself credit for numerous accomplishments that he had little or nothing to do with.  But one thing he almost certainly managed to do, without effort or notice, is alter our perception of time."  --  It's Been a Year of This?, by Alan Burdick

"While losing, Hillary made it normal for women to run for the most powerful office on the planet.  It's 2018, a big election year, and women are going to be running everywhere.  Hardly anyone will give their gender a second thought.  That's Hillary's gift."  --  Hillary Lost, But the Future Is Hers, by Gail Collins

"It's inadvertent but indisputable.  He doesn't hide his pettiness, bury his petulance or successfully distract us from his vulgarity and bigotry.  He's too needy an exhibitionist to wear a mask, too sloppy a manager to prevent leaks, and his universe is too chaotic for its mess not to spill ceaselessly into public view."  --  Donald Trump's Radical Honesty, by Frank Bruni

"Trump is a dictator on Twitter, a Dear Leader in his own mind, but in the real world there is no Trumpocracy because Trump cannot even rule himself.  And while real tragedy may arrive eventually, in this historical cycle a dismal sort of farce is what comes first."  --  More Farce Than Tragedy, by Ross Douthat

"You cannot keep writing day after day that 'the president is a jerk' without someone else reporting that 'the president is not as big a jerk as some former White House officials have previously suggested, according to White House officials who spoke on the condition that they should not be identified because Trump said he'd cut off their private parts if they were.'"  --  On the Trump Beat, by Michael Kinsley

"Donald Trump prides himself on destruction.  He smashes conceptions and breaks traditions.  In doing so without suffering any significant consequences, he has made it more difficult for Americans to continue to delude ourselves with fairy tales about our collective values and to indulge in comforting fictions about the fundamental decency of our politics."  --  The Political Mythbuster In Chief, by Jamil Smith

"Something terrible, and perhaps irreparable, has happened.  The idea of America has been sullied.  It has fallen victim to Trump's untruth, indecency, racism, and contempt for our values.  His universe is a place of dread, not deals."  -- Year One in Donald Trump's World, by Roger Cohen

"As part of our effort to resist the exhausting and numbing effects of living under a relentlessly abusive and degrading president, we now present, for the third time in nine months, an updated guide to what Republicans now consider acceptable behavior from the commander in chief.  If you're president you may now:
-- Retweet inflammatory and fake anti-Muslim videos from an ultranationalist British group 
-- Call the American justice system a "joke" and a "laughingstock"
-- Praise the delivery to Norway of fighter planes that exist only in a video game   
-- (Plus 41 other defilements of the office)"  --  Presidential Etiquette Guide, Part III, by the NYT editorial board

     "Trump's first year has been an unremitting parade of disgraces that have demeaned him as well as the dignity of his office, and he has shown that this is exactly how he believes he should govern.
     "Most important, he is the first president to fail to defend the nation from an attack on our democracy by a hostile foreign power -- and to resist the investigation of that attack.  He is the first to enrich his private interests, and those of his family, directly and openly.
     "He is the first president to denounce the press not simply as unfair but as 'the enemy of the American people.'  He is the first to threaten his defeated political opponent with imprisonment.  He is the first to have denigrated friendly countries and allies as well as a whole continent with racist vulgarities.
     "George Washington warned that the actions of a president 'may have great and durable consequences from their having been established at the commencement of a new general government.'  If history is any guide -- especially in light of the examples closest to his, of James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson -- Trump's first year portends a very unhappy ending."  --  They Were Bad.  He May Be Worse., by Sean Wilentz

Cryptic Comment To "Get Out" Post

In a post two days ago, "If You're Not One, Then Get Out," I suggested that with the GOP's servile embrace of Trump's obvious bigotry, the party had allowed racism and xenophobia to become its defining message, that identifying oneself as a Republican today is becoming the equivalent of saying, "I'm a racist," and that self-respecting non-racists ought to simply leave the Republican party.

Yesterday I received this rather mystifying comment:

AnonymousJanuary 22, 2018 at 4:12 AM

My dear boy, please take a step to the right. If you do not, you may suddenly find yourself standing on the other side of the "fence" having become one of the "____ists" you so fervently purport to despise.

ReplyDelete


So if I don't move to the right, I'll become a racist?  How does one arrive at that conclusion?

Too weird for me.  Does Mr. Anonymous think I'm Antifa?  Is he in Alex Jones conspiracy theory territory?  Is the 4:12 a.m. time stamp a clue?

Explanations/translations welcomed.

Negotiation, National Lampoon-Style

Today's GOP turns every routine item of business into a crisis, every bipartisan effort into a ransom demand.  It's all extortion and hostage-taking.

It's as though they saw the 1973 National Lampoon cover, took it literally and said to themselves, "What a great idea!"


And so today the Shithole Shutdown ended after just 3 days.  An agreement has been reached to fund full government operations for 3 whole weeks -- whoopee!  Happily, it also includes 6 years of funding for the CHIP program.  And Mitch McConnell "promised" to do something soon about the looming zero-hour for the DACA Dreamers, a predicament created solely by the Stable Genius.

A promise from Mitch is worthless.  Trust that fuckin' reptile at your peril.

What do you bet we're right back here again in 3 weeks?

Desk Work

Here is the White House photo purporting to show Captain Blunderpants "hard at work" over the Shithole Shutdown weekend.  Hmmm.



Here is the desk of your humble correspondent, as it looks pretty much all the time.



Yes, I may sit there in my underwear, but I'd never log any desk time wearing a cheap Chinese trucker cap.

What a bunch of morons!  Can't even stage a decent PR pic. 

Bozwonk@lolwarlol

Hi Melania, do you know where my hat is?

4:00 AM - Jan 21, 2018

Alistair Coleman@alistaircoleman

POTUS hard at work

3:28 AM - Jan 21, 2018

LMFAO!