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, October 6, 2016

You Got Trouble -- Trump Trouble (Trouble, Trouble, Trouble, Trouble)


Sometimes, a witty gay liberal blogger/YouTube star is exactly what's called for.

Check out Randy Rainbow's parody of  "You Got Trouble" from The Music Man.  It's outstanding!



 https://youtu.be/EufHfhnPKTU
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Wednesday, October 5, 2016

My New Rule


If you're really going to tell me that Donald Trump is a brilliant genius for gaming the system to avoid paying income taxes on over $900 million, don't ever whine to me again about "welfare cheats."  Ever.


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Polishing A Turd


After last night's VP debate, many of the pundit class are giving Mike Pence kudos for remaining "composed and polished."  I suppose he was composed, in comparison to the deranged mental patient who is his running mate.  And if your idea of being polished is the ability to tell bald-faced lies with a straight face ("Donald Trump never said that."  Yes, he did.) and a nice haircut while being unable or unwilling to defend the many lunatic statements of your crazy boss, well then I guess you could say Pence was polished.
Just don't forget the thing that was being polished.

Tim Kaine and Pence both performed as expected.  Kaine did well in supporting his running mate's policies and in highlighting the important differences between Clinton and Trump.  But the whole thing was an exercise in "meh."  Didn't hurt, didn't help.  Nothing will change.  The Veeps are a sideshow.


A couple good jabs from the Twitterverse:

If I wanted to watch two white dudes bicker near a woman named Elaine, I would definitely just watch Seinfeld.
6:59 PM - 4 Oct 2016
1,941 retweets4,224 likes
This debate is subtitled: Lying liar and the frustrated guy trying to interrupt him.
7:20 PM - 4 Oct 2016


A neighborhood friend is dealing with her husband's Alzheimer's disease, but he still watched the debates, as she live-Facebooked some his pithier comments about Pence.  I loved these two:

Schmarmy son of a bitch!
Sententious prig! 
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Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Trump: "I Know More About PTSD Than The Generals, Believe Me!"

Donnie's "military" experience.  Nice hat!
The movie playing in Trump's head

 The world's foremost military expert Donald Trump spoke to the Retired American Warriors PAC (What an awful name.  Warriors?  Really?) about mental health issues like PTSD and suicides, and suggested that some vets like "a lot of folks in this room have seen [combat] and you're strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can't handle it."

 Of course, Trump himself avoided military service with five deferments and a mysterious case of bad feet.

He operates under the delusion that he is always the smartest person in any room and his thoughts on any subject are always the best.  And there's no one is his entourage of ass-kissers to tell him he's full of shit.

To call his comments unenlightened puts it mildly.

Vets protesting in front of Trump Tower
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Sunday, October 2, 2016

How Can He Get Away With This?


Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted is as committed to voter suppression as most of us are to breathing.  But I did have to give him some small credit awhile back when he came out in favor of mailing absentee ballots to all of Ohio's 7.7 million registered voters.

That was three years ago.  Husted couldn't get it together until now, just in time for the big 2016 general election.  And his version of voting convenience is a peculiarly Republican one:  Before his mass mailing, Husted preemptively purged over 1 million names from Ohio's rolls of registered voters.

 He did this to protect us all against the Republican's favorite boogey-man -- the non-existent problem of voter fraud.  Of course, the GOP knows their chances improve with low turnout, especially when those not turning out happen to be likely Democrats.

The million "suspicious" names he targeted had either changed their address, or had not voted in 2012 or 2014.  Most are in typically Democratic/minority/lower income precincts.  And Husted did this despite a recent federal appeals court ruling that he could not legally discriminate against those who had not voted recently.

Husted's attitude is, "Oh, sorry.  And fuck off.  If you one million people care to vote, just re-register by contacting my office or your local board of elections.  See?  No problem!" 

How can he get away with this?  It's like I said just a few days ago:  We have to watch these bastards every second!

 http://bustergammons.blogspot.com/2016/09/we-have-to-watch-these-bastards-every.html
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The Daily Donald WTF (Including Surrogate WTF's)


The Daily WTF List:
  • According to the New York Times, the World's Greatest Businessman claimed a $916 million loss on his 1995 tax return.  That's a shit-ton!  Enough to let Trump erase taxable income and pay no income tax for many years thereafter.  WTF, Donald?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html?emc=edit_na_20161001&nlid=557895&ref=cta&_r=1

  • He didn't dispute anything in the article, still hasn't voluntarily released any tax returns, and has offered no evidence that he has paid any income taxes.  His only response:  "Well, I've paid property taxes and sales taxes."  Hardly unique.  WTF?


  • He said he "knows our complex tax laws better than anyone, and am the only one who can fix them."  So his ability to pay zero income taxes for decades is actually a public service, highlighting our flawed tax code.  WTF?


  • His puppets Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie hit the Sunday morning shows to push the spin that paying no income taxes makes Trump a "genius."  Rudy, Christie, WTF?  Another surrogate, Steve Cortez, claimed that most Americans "respect" Trump for avoiding income tax on $900 million.  WTF again?


  • Here in Ohio, our ambitious yet flexible Republican State Auditor David Yost formerly condemned Trump as "a man who will change any belief and associate with any evil in order to gain power."  Yost is now ready to do the same.  He's endorsing Trump.  Yost admits that Trump "is offensive and I'm concerned about his temperament, but Hillary Clinton is a liar." WTF, Yost?  Trump is the lifetime achievement award winner when it comes to lying, and you know it. 


  • In his first public appearance after the NYT piece, Trump was in full junior-high-insult mode:  Hillary can't protect the country because she got sick and stumbled getting into her car.  WTF, Donald?

https://youtu.be/xEmkIPfa6w8
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Ta Ta For Now!


A North Carolina reader hasn't figured out how to not open emails or not click on links.  He recently sent me the following:

Hey Buster,

Hope all is well...please take me off your list until after the election...I have had my fill of political posts, and I have already unfollowed some family members and friends on Facebook because of it.  For the record, I wouldn't vote Hillary if she was the only candidate running.  I'm voting Gary Johnson!

Thanks!


Poor lad.  I accommodated his request, then sent him this reply:

OK then. TTFN.
 Libertarianism -- a phase most of us outgrew while we were still in college.  A half-baked philosophy of government so great it has never been implemented by any country ever.
And that Gary Johnson!  He's "interesting."  For the record, I wouldn't vote for him for dog catcher.

Here's one more just for you:


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