Mid-Week Birthday Songs

Celebrating his 71st birthday today is Belfast-born rocker Sir Van Morrison, OBE, whose all-out R&B style -- sometimes dubbed "Celtic soul" -- has established him as one of the iconic singers of the rock era. Starting in the mid-1960s as the lead singer for Them ("Gloria", "Here Comes The Night"), Morrison later launched his solo career with the huge hit "Brown Eyed Girl" in 1967.  A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Morrison has won two Grammys and four Grammy Hall of Fame Awards. Here he is, first with the classic rock standard "Gloria" and next with "Real Real Gone."

Tweet Of The Day - He'll Know It When He Reads It

Kellyanne Conway on MSNBC says you “have to listen to his speech tomorrow to find out” Trump’s immigration policies

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) August 30, 2016

That goes for Trump, too.  https://t.co/g9vMn68APC

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) August 30, 2016

As he reads it off the teleprompter...

Trump's Dr. Strange Glove Gets Examined

To Whom My Concern*:

Neo- fascist deployed air bag Donald "Rump" Trump's "physician," gastroenterologist Harold "Dr. Strange Glove" Bornstein is the subject of this fisting examination by Dr. (of Fine Arts) Steven Colbert, who has the sneaking suspicion Bornstein's curiously Trumpesque medical assessment was "yanked from where the sun don't shine."



As with Rump's tax returns, the public has a right to know "What's he hiding?"

Also, is there anything pertaining to Rump that's legitimate?

* Quoth Dr. Strange Glove.

In Rump's Shadow

Two prominent Rethuglicans face the voters in primaries today: bitter ol' fart Sen. John "McNasty" McCain (AZ) and on-again-off-again-on-again opportunist Sen. Marco "Glug Glug" Rubio (FL). Both are expected to win their intra-party primaries over relative nobodies, but the main challenge for them going forward to November is dealing with the elephant turd in the room, their party's candidate: neo-fascist narcissist Donald "Rump" Trump, and his continuing problems with women, Hispanic and other minority voters. Both have indicated their "support" of Rump, despite Rump's smearing of them, disparaging McNasty's POW record and saying he's done little for veterans, and insulting "Little Marco" in many of the party's debates and pointing to his one-time record on immigration reform.

Both have been restrained in their criticisms of Rump, in fear of offending his racist and xenophobic base, although Glug Glug recently said that he stood by what he said in the Rethug primaries about Rump, including calling him a "con man."  With the election heating up, Rump is certain to engage in more outrageous rhetoric, which McNasty and Glug Glug will be asked to comment on endlessly (we hope). The problem going toward November is running on a ticket with Rump at the top, particularly if Hillary Clinton outperforms Rump (more likely in Florida, but not out of the question in Arizona). If swing / "independent" voters decline to vote a split ticket, voting for Clinton and Democrats down ballot, that's bad news for McNasty and Glug Glug. It's good news for the rest of us.

Pic of the Day: Winky's Tumble

"It's OK, Ms. Palin. It's still empty."

Fulltime grifter and halftime former Gov. Sarah "Winky" Palin fell off a bar stool tumbled during a run this past weekend, and gashed her thick head. She shared photos on her policy platform social media, and of course, Winky being Winky, she took the opportunity to say some nonsensical things about Hillary Clinton "cookie baking" and "wedding planning" in her own word-salad way. Clearly her fall didn't knock some sense into her. But perhaps the choicest line was when she said,

“I tripped over my own two feet and crashed and burned face-first.”

Which could also be said about her life in politics.

Today's Cartoon - Trump Immigration Speech Preview

Here's your exclusive preview of the speech on "illegal immigration" neo- fascist white nationalist Donald "Rump" Trump will be reading off his teleprompter this Wednesday (you're welcome):

(click on image to enlarge)



(Stuart Carlson, via gocomics.com)

The Lying Game

Republicans and their media enablers have been peddling The Narrative for decades that Hillary Clinton has a "trustworthy" problem: that, well, she lies.  We're willing to postulate that some of this narrative has roots in (1) the hounding of the Clintons by their political opponents and the media for 25 years, and their consequent desire to erect privacy walls to deflect that hounding, (2) the urge to use cautious, niggling, lawyerly language when a simple declaration is in order, and (3) blahblahblah who gives a crap - it's a lazy, phony narrative.

That said, though, the next time someone tells you "Hillary lies" on Facebook, in a conversation, etc., feel free to cite this data from the independent fact- checkers at PolitiFact (click on images to enlarge):



Displayed differently, with other politicians listed dating back to 2007, here's how she compares:


(Credit: Robert Mann, dataviz)

In the longer duration chart directly above, you'll notice neo- fascist pathological liar Donald "Rump" Trump fares even worse, hitting about 78% Mostly False, False, Pants on Fire.  Which makes sense -- the longer time his lips are moving, the more lies spew out.

You'll also notice Republicans hold down the top 14 spots.

Weiner Roasting Tweets of the Day (UPDATED)

Anthony Weiner would still be in The House if he'd just had an actual affair w/a mistress like a normal congressman.

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) August 29, 2016

It's okay Anthony, it's not like this is a sensitive time or anything. Have fun!

— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) August 29, 2016

The guy with the most fitting name ever, self-destructive former Congresscritter Anthony Weiner, has apparently not given up his "hobby" of tweeting inappropriate pictures of "himself" to women. For the past 19 months, he's been tweeting lewd messages and pictures to an anonymous woman whom he apparently knows. He's since deleted his Twitter account. He should get help -- again.

UPDATE:  His wife, Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, just announced her separation from Weiner.

Our Broken Media, Cont.: Flog That Narrative!

number of times Trump's tax returns were mentioned? 0

— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) August 28, 2016

See also, below.

Our Broken Media: We Stand Uncorrected Edition

When the Associated Press took some cherry-picked e-mails from then-Secretary Hillary Clinton's State Department record, they created a false picture of buying "access" through donations to the charitable Clinton Foundation. Worse still, they were feeding off of information provided by the far-right group Judicial Watch, which has been smearing the Clintons for literally decades.

At the same time that AP ran with the story, which they clearly manipulated to fit an ongoing narrative, they tweeted, "more than of those who met with Clinton as Cabinet secretary gave money to the Clinton Foundation," a statement that was quickly debunked. Yesterday, when CNN's Brian Stelter asked AP's executive editor Kathleen Carroll about the tweet, she said it "could have used some more precision," finally admitting that it was "sloppy." Stelter then asked her whether AP would take it down or correct it since it was false, Carroll replied,

"Well, you know maybe going forward we would need to work more on our precision on the tweets."

Translation from weaselspeak: Well, you know, we won't address the false tweet. But next time, as far as the false narrative we wanted to build, we will be more precise in tweeting our bullsh*t. After all, there's an election to cover and we want to make it as close as possible. (Oops, I hope I didn't say that last part out loud!)

Across The Universe, Cont.

(click on image to enlarge)



From NASA/ESA, August 22, 2016:  This image, courtesy of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), captures the glow of distant stars within NGC 5264, a dwarf galaxy located just over 15 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydra (The Sea Serpent).

Dwarf galaxies like NGC 5264 typically possess around a billion stars — just one per cent of the number of stars found within the Milky Way. They are usually found orbiting other, larger, galaxies such as our own, and are thought to form from the material left over from the messy formation of their larger cosmic relatives.

NGC 5264 clearly possesses an irregular shape — unlike the more common spiral or elliptical galaxies — with knots of blue star formation. Astronomers believe that this is due to the gravitational interactions between NGC 5264 and other galaxies nearby. These past flirtations sparked the formation of new generations of stars, which now glow in bright shades of blue.

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA

Sunday Cartoon Twofer

(click on images to enlarge)


(Signe Wilkinson, via gocomics.com)


(Matt Davies, via gocomics.com)

Alt-Right's Trump Angst Parodied

Here's a hilarious parody of the "alt- right's" supposed angst over neo- fascist colon polyp Donald "Rump" Trump's flip- flop- flips on his racist immigration "plans," with many "alt- right" figures name checked by the "Fuhrer" (Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Matt Boyle, Steve Bannon, Drudge, and Rump's former caddie and current campaign aide (!) meme troll Dan Scavino):



Yes, you save him a donut, Chris "Krispykreme" Christie!

Just remember, though, as Rump spokesdolt Katrina "The Other Disaster" Pierson put it,

"He hasn't changed his position on immigration.  He's changed the words that he is saying."

And that's not a parody.

Sunday Reflection - A Dream 53 Years Old Today

Fifty- three years ago today, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered one of the greatest orations an American -- or anyone -- has ever given. Here, he begins the purposeful repetition of "I have a dream..." that crescendos into the oration's emotionally rousing conclusion:

"Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. 

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. 

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

Many of us (of a certain age) can practically recite the conclusion from heart:

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: 

          Free at last! Free at last!

   Thank God Almighty we are free at last! 

What A Sociopath Says

In one tweet:

Dwyane Wade's cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2016

(Ed. note:  this is a corrected tweet;  in the original tweet, the sociopath managed to misspell Chicago Bulls star Dwyane Wade's name as "Dwayne.")

Making it all about neo- fascist narcissistic sociopath Donald "Rump" Trump, of course.  No condolences, no sympathy, no empathy, not even respectful silence.  Only how it might benefit him.  A personal tragedy reduced to a "VOTE TRUMP" punch line.

Let's see how others are reacting to this soulless, evil man:

Just when I thought Trump couldn't be more disgusting to me, he chooses to politicize @DwyaneWade's cousin's death. https://t.co/ERtND85bzs

— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) August 27, 2016

Besides misspelling an NBA superstar's name @realDonaldTrump shows no empathy for anyone. Classic trait of a psychopath.

— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) August 27, 2016

You are truly a POS https://t.co/cyTwxgxwDh

— Don Cheadle (@DonCheadle) August 27, 2016

Chicago murder:

Dems: Tragic, and it's guns
GOP: Tragic, but it's culture
Trump: This is what I've been tellin' those blacks. I'm awesome.

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 27, 2016

The moral degeneracy is simply without limit. This is basically another "appreciate the congrats" https://t.co/bhtLw0EpFp

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) August 27, 2016

As Josh references, this is the same POS that humble-brag tweeted this after the Orlando massacre:

Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016

Presidential!!!