"Cooch" Is Kaput

Radical wingnut culture warrior Ken "Cooch" Cuccinelli first made a name for himself years ago as Virginia's Attorney General when he advocated that pregnant women wishing to terminate their pregnancies be forced to receive unnecessary and humiliating transvaginal probes. He's gone on to be one of demagogue and misogynist Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump''s most slavish supporters on Fux and other media. Trump wants to reward Cooch's praise by nominating him as the new Director for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Sadly for Cooch, he made the mistake of supporting far-right insurgent challengers to incumbent Rethugs in 2014, defying evil human-turtle hybrid and world-class hypocrite Sen. Mitch "Missy" McConnell, and Missy's vowed revenge:

"McConnell has vowed to block Cuccinelli from getting confirmed for any position, blaming him for leading a 2014 effort defying McConnell that promoted insurgent candidates running against sitting Republican incumbents. And Cuccinelli signed a letter drafted by conservative activists two years ago calling on McConnell to step aside."

Cooch will get his comeuppance from the Rethug establishment that he actively opposed, and Trump has once again demonstrated his prowess at vetting candidates for jobs in his corrupt administration. Sad!

(photo: Cooch giving Trump the straight arm salute. Getty Images)

Judge Blocks Some Border Wall Construction

Authoritarian demagogue Donald "Rump" Trump has lost another case in Federal court. Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam, Jr. issued a preliminary injunction blocking Trump from using funds he diverted from military pay and pension funds and other needs after Congress declined to fund his vanity border wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for. The injunction blocks wall construction using those funds while the Judge considers the merits of the suits.

In his ruling, Judge Gilliam noted Trump's diversion of the funds didn't match the law they cited as a justification. Specifically, the law governing emergency transfer of the funds requires an "unforeseen" event, and Gilliam observed that Trump had been talking about the wall (that Mexico, etc.) for years, going back to his campaign. In fact, when Trump spoke about the "emergency" on February 15, he ignorantly undercut his own argument by saying “I could do the wall over a longer period of time. I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.”

Cover Of The Month

The cover of the current issue of The New Yorker:

(Illustration by Barry Blitt)

For those playing at home, the Trump lickspittles are (l. to r.) Sen. Lindsey "Huckleberry" Graham, Attorney General Trump lawyer William Barr, and Sen. Mitch "Missy" McConnell.  Blitt was reported to have said it was hard to limit the lickspittles to the just the three pictured, since there are so many of them.

Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)


(Joel Pett, Lexington Herald-Leader)


(Ken Catalino, gocomics.com)


(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)


(Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)


(Rob Rogers, robrogers.com)


(David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Daily Star)

Weekend Solar Music

To celebrate the birthday of the late jazz great Miles Davis, we're featuring "Solar," from his 1954 album, "Walkin'".  The composition was apparently of such importance to Davis that the first two measures are inscribed on his tombstone.  We hope you enjoy.

Trump Fails At Smear Of Pelosi

In a doomed-to-backfire smear of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a clumsily doctored video purporting to show Pelosi slurring her words and appearing inebriated has been circulated on social media by members of extremely stable genius and dotard Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump's cult. The Washington Post has done a side-by-side comparison of the original video and the doctored one to demonstrate the obvious fraud. That didn't stop Trump and the despicable Rudi "Ghouliani" Giuliani from retweeting it. Before they go down that road, they might want to consider Trump's own history of public speaking in undoctored videos.

When the Speaker (and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer) reported that Trump threw a tantrum at the earlier infrastructure meeting, the king of projection went out of his way yesterday to enlist the unbiased testimony of a handful of his intimidated toadies that he was "calm" at the meeting. Yes, because we always associate calmness with this dangerous moron.

The Speaker knows the buttons to push to get Trump to perform, while living rent-free in his less than genius mind.

(photo: It takes two little hands to handle a water bottle.)

QOTD

“Basically, Trump is saying is, rather than having our farmers sell soybeans to China, let’s borrow from China to pay farmers to not sell soybeans to China. That is effectively what is happening here because we are transferring from the U.S. Treasury.” -- Catherine Rampell, on the effect of nitwit loser Donald "Rump" Trump's trade war, yesterday on CNN.

Barr Gets Extraordinary Power To Shape False Russia Investigation Narrative

Very Extremely Stable Genius and Putin toady Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump is, of course, desperate to spin a false narrative that the investigation into his campaign's ties with Russia was illegal and "treasonous" (heavy duty projection there).  He's now empowered his toady Attorney General personal lawyer to declassify (or more likely, selectively declassify) documents related to the origins of the Russia investigation:

President Trump took extraordinary steps on Thursday to give Attorney General William P. Barr sweeping new authorities to conduct a review into how the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia were investigated, significantly escalating the administration’s efforts to place those who investigated the campaign under scrutiny.

In a directive, Mr. Trump ordered the C.I.A. and the country’s 15 other intelligence agencies to cooperate with the review and granted Mr. Barr the authority to unilaterally declassify their documents. The move — which occurred just hours after the president again declared that those who led the investigation committed treason — gave Mr. Barr immense leverage over the intelligence community and enormous power over what the public learns about the roots of the Russia investigation.  (our emphasis)

Hmmm.  The power to cobble together their own self- serving narrative that protects not only themselves, but Russian interests, to the detriment of our own intelligence community and national security, while at the same time hiding the un- redacted Mueller report and its supporting documents, and stonewalling efforts to find out what financial leverage the Russians have on Trump ... what could possibly go wrong?

There's a specific set of intelligence that the toadies would like to get their hands on (and spill to their handler in Moscow):

One official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters, said previously that Mr. Barr wanted to know more about what foreign assets the C.I.A. had in Russia in 2016 and what those informants were telling the agency about how President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia sought to meddle in the 2016 election.  (our emphasis)

Make no mistake:  Trump and the Stormtrumpers continue to act as agents of a foreign adversary, who they see as essential for keeping them in power.  It's a dagger pointed at the heart of our democracy.

Reaching Out: A Little Girl's Sweet Gesture

The callous racism and pettiness of extremely stable genius Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump manifests itself in many ways. It was reported that Trump is refusing to approve the substitution of racist Andrew "Trail of Tears" Jackson with abolitionist and freedom fighter Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. His Treasury Secretary Steve "Missing Vowel" Mnuchin confirmed in a House Financial Services Committee yesterday that it would have to wait until Trump was out of office. In 2016, Trump called the proposed placement of Tubman on the $20 bill "pure political correctness."

Tubman is an inspiration to all decent Americans. In a moment that's gone viral, this past week, little 3 year old Auriah "Lovie" Duncan walked up to a wall mural of Tubman in Cambridge, MD and touched Tubman's unpainted hand. Her sweet gesture stands in stark contrast to the petty and vindictive sociopath that is currently soiling the Oval Office, and who has a portrait of Jackson overlooking his desk.

Maiden Maryland/Facebook

Tweet Of The Day -- Extremely Stable Genius

DOPUS today at an event with farmers at the White House: “I'm an extremely stable genius. OK?”

When the “extremely stable genius” starts acting more presidential, I’ll be happy to work with him on infrastructure, trade and other issues. https://t.co/tfWVkj9CLT

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) May 23, 2019

Rethugs Again Pushing Voter Suppression

They never quit. In their latest attempt to have Rethug politicians select their voters, rather than the other way around, Texas Rethuglican legislators have passed a bill to prohibit mobile voting stations. The bill is clearly aimed at Dem-leaning voters like college students, the elderly and the poor who don't have easy access to transportation, making it harder to cast a vote and easier for Rethug candidates to win. Rethug Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign the suppression bill into law.

Mobile voting stations were utilized during the state's two-week early voting window, but that now appears to be ending:

".....getting to the polls can be difficult for people with mobility challenges, including the elderly and disabled, or those who might have limited access to transportation, such as college students and people living in remote areas.

During the two-week early voting period, counties throughout Texas have been allowed to use mobile polling locations at college campuses, nursing homes, food banks, public office buildings and other locations, making it easier for people from underrepresented voting blocs to cast a ballot." (our emphasis)

Texas Rethuglicans have been seeking to suppress Dem-leaning votes for some time now, as they watch the state's demographics turn more to the Dems and away from them.

"The measure is the latest voter suppression bill introduced by Texas Republicans, who have rolled out a number of such schemes since the tightly-contested 2018 midterm elections.

Over the past decade, GOP-controlled states have attempted to retain power by passing a number of laws that make it more difficult for minority voters to cast ballots, including new voter ID laws, restrictions on early voting, and imposing new barriers to registering to vote.

In February, a federal judge stopped Secretary of State David Whitley from purging Texas’ voter rolls by questioning the citizenship of 100,000 voters. Only a fraction of those questioned were found ineligible to vote." (our emphasis)

Let that last part sink in: they were willing to deny citizens the right to vote by saying that they didn't exist. Think of how many veterans, for example, were in the group they targeted. They are ruthless and completely without shame or patriotism.

(photo illustration: Stockbyte)

Today's Cartoons

(click on images to enlarge)


(Jim Morin, Miami Herald)


(Nate Beeler, The Columbus Dispatch)


(Tim Eagan, gocomics.com)


(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)


(Joe Heller, Green Bay Press-Gazette)


(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

QOTD: Buttigieg Slams Trump's Draft Dodging

“I don’t have a problem standing up to someone who was working on Season 7 of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ when I was packing my bags for Afghanistan...I have a pretty dim view of his decision to use his privileged status to fake a disability in order to avoid serving in Vietnam. I think that’s exactly what he did....This is somebody, who I think it’s fairly obvious to most of us, took advantage of the fact that he was a child of a multi-millionaire, in order to pretend to be disabled, so that somebody could go to war in his place.” (our emphasis) -- Mayor Pete Buttigieg, hammering coward and sociopath Donald "Cadet Bone Spurs" Trump at a Washington Post live forum this morning.

No trimming, no hedging: Mayor Pete went right after Trump's character, cowardice and selfishness in a calm but devastating way. He's very impressive.

Tillerson: Trump Unprepared For Putin Meeting

Former Secretary of State Rex "Rexxon" Tillerson appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday in closed session and, according to reports, told the Committee that Russian thug and autocrat Vladimir Putin bested his asset Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump in their meeting in Hamburg in 2017:

"The U.S. side anticipated a shorter meeting for exchanging courtesies, but it ballooned into a globe-spanning two-hour-plus session involving deliberations on a variety of geopolitical issues, said committee aides, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Tillerson’s seven-hour closed meeting with the committee.

'We spent a lot of time in the conversation talking about how Putin seized every opportunity to push what he wanted,” a committee aide said. 'There was a discrepancy in preparation, and it created an unequal footing.'” (our emphasis)

In his delusion and ignorance, Trump believes that he can go into meetings with the barest of knowledge of the subject and prevail by being himself. World leaders know by now that he responds well to flattery and praise (Putin and Kim certainly do) and will do anything to claim a "win," even if the U.S. is disadvantaged as a result.

Tillerson wasn't present at the notorious one-on-one, two hour discussion between Putin and Trump last summer in Helsinki. The only U.S. person present beside Trump was the interpreter, and it's assumed that they discussed matters of a more personal, financial nature related to Trump. The body language after the meeting showed Putin strutting and grinning, while Trump shuffled with his head down.

That's the meeting we should be hearing more about.

Publish And Perish...We Hope

Guess who's writing a book? Or at least hired a ghostwriter for the job. It's corrupt Trump crime family member greasy Donald Trump Jr. Politic-ho had a "scoop" today that greasy Don Jr. has signed a book deal with an obscure publisher, Center Street Books, to write on current events and the MAGA bowel movement. Expect large type and lots of pictures of him with daddy.

Of course, the hashtag #DonJrBookTitles with suggested titles took off like greasy Don Jr. from a subpoena. Some of our favorites:

Gone With the Wind -
How Dad Lost All of Grandpa's Money.
#DonJrBookTitles

— Sylvia "She's MY cop" Harrington (@sylviatx) May 22, 2019

Working title:
‘I Love It!’: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Collusion #DonJrBookTitles https://t.co/Go0Qe8dBTz

— NotARaja (@NotARaja) May 22, 2019

The Fault In Our Genes #DonJrBookTitles

— Dave (@daveabrowne) May 22, 2019

'A Chip Off the Soviet Block' #DonJrBookTitles

— Kisa Smithson 🇲🇼| 🇰🇪 (@StyleWithKisa) May 22, 2019

The Grifts of Wrath #DonJrBookTitles

— Brandon Pierce (@brandonlpierce) May 22, 2019

American Idiot #DonJrBookTitles

— Roland Scahill (@rolandscahill) May 22, 2019

The View From Under The Bus #DonJrBookTitles

— Ben_Yates (@Ben_Yates) May 22, 2019

#DonJrBookTitles

Children of a Lesser Man

I Know Why the Caged Bird Was Trophy-Hunted

Pride & Narcissism

Willy Wonka & the Mob Factory

P.S. You Owe the IRS

Don Jr. Has Three Mommies

50 Shades of Hate Speech

How to Suceed In Business by Really, Really Lying

— 💘J.Mo (@Joys_Desk) May 22, 2019