Sunday, March 4, 2018

The Trump Normalizing Continues



They were all decked out in white tie and gowns last night at the annual Gridiron Dinner in Washington, DC: media and political elites gathered to clink glasses and bask in their own self-importance. Headlining the event was none other than pathological liar and demagogue Donald "Rump" Trump, who was accompanied last night by his damaged wife and grifting daughter and corrupt son-in-law. Some from Rump's inept cabinet were there, including Confederate States Attorney General and evil elf Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, who took a jab from Rump about recusing himself (that really bothers Rump, doesn't it?). Rump's jokes all referred to the crises he's started, from the DACA disaster to the chaos in the White (Supremacist) House. He couldn't resist letting his nasty, vindictive side come out, with a vulgar taunt at former Vice President Joe Biden, whom he referred to as "sleepy Joe," saying "I would kick his ass like no other." That's what you call "down the block tough talk" from a coward.

 It's the nature of social gatherings like this that have corrupted the media and politics, and it's not the only one where the media fetes the politicians they're supposed to aggressively cover, exchanging gentle jokes at each others expense. The White House Correspondents Dinner will be held in April, where the participants were so richly and rightfully mocked years ago by Stephen Colbert (who has never been invited back). The spectacle of a sociopath and bigot like Rump being treated as a conquering hero is disgusting, and shows the depths to which the broken, Beltway media has fallen over generations. Apparently, Rump's incessant war on an independent press is brushed off as "business as usual" by the assembled media elites, business that can be put aside for a night of pathetic wallowing in their tuxedos while Rump has the last laugh.

BONUS: Maybe last night's crowd will think Rump's unscripted comment in a closed fundraising event yesterday about being a "President for life" is hilarious, too.
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: ,

Saturday, March 3, 2018

Trump: The Great Trade Warrior


Unstable f*cking moron Donald "Rump" Trump's threat this morning against the European Union was typically ignorant and unhinged. He's doubling down, while sane observers think he's off his rocker:
Not so fast, Very Stable Genius:




Attention MAGA voters in South Carolina and Tennessee, Rump's coming after your jobs (and guns):
And even patron saint of wingnuts St. Ronnie of Hollywood had an apt analogy from 1982, via Wee Willy Kristol:


Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Attention Pedophiles: Brother Roy Needs Your Help



Failed Alabammy Rethuglican Senate candidate and teen stalker Roy "Teen Spirit" Moore wants you to know that those darned liberal gays/lesbians/etc. ruined his righteous life during last year's special election just because, you know, his tastes in wimmen tend toward the training bra set. Well, tiny gun-totin' Roy wants you to know he's down to his last teen-tempting candy bar, and needs your financial help in resisting the Washington / San Francisco mob of perverts (no projection there!).

Teen Spirit, who has vast pretentions of religiousity, said in his Facebook page:
"The political Left is filled with men and women whose sole aim in life is to overthrow our God-ordained rights which are guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. It is your responsibility and mine to stand up to this vile encroachment on our rights, and defend that for which the Founding Fathers sacrificed so greatly. Please send a generous gift today to the Pedophiles United Roy Moore Legal Defense Fund to help me defeat, once and for all, those who would destroy America in order to usher in their anti-Christian 'kingdom.' May the Lord richly bless you as you stand with me in this critical fight!" (strike out by editor)
Yes, he has a "God-ordained" right to mess with teenaged girls (he even married one), a right for which the Founding Fathers sacrificed. So dig in those pockets, people, and cough up a quarter or two so that Teen Spirit can carry his "Christian" message to teenage girls, so that they might avoid those sinful same-sex predators out there. Less for them is more for him, right?

(photo: Brother Roy on his horse Sassy, perhaps on their way to the Gadsden Mall)
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels:

Kushner's International Pay-To-Play Troubles


Increasingly, the corrupt shenanigans of Clown Prince Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner are coming to light as a result of good, investigative journalism and the Mueller investigation. We've known for many months that Kushner repeatedly lied on his SF-86 security clearance form about contacts he had with an array of shady characters, including a Russian bank official under U.S. sanctions during the transition. His security clearance problems stem from that deviousness and willingness to conceal his wheeling and dealing with agents of our adversaries. Last Wednesday, it was revealed that two major companies loaned Kushner's real estate business $500 million after meeting with him last year in his White (Supremacist) House office.

Thanks to new reporting, we know that the Mueller team is looking at whether Kushner has been trading on his position (official and family) and influencing matters of war and peace in the Middle East. Recall the major dustup in the Middle East last year, when Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates organized a blockade of neighboring Qatar, allegedly over that country's ties with Iran. It was odd that Qatar should be singled out, considering the Saudi establishment's long time involvement in Sunni terrorism and Qatar's hosting of one of the U.S.'s largest air bases in the region. Not so coincidentally, Kushner's real estate mogul father previously met with Qatar's minister of finance to desperately seek a loan for his failing property at 666 (hmmm) Fifth Avenue in New York City. Qatar turned him down, and weeks later Kushner was the major advocate of a blockade against Qatar, a move opposed by Secretary of State Tillerson and Defense Secretary Mattis.

The Qataris sensed that the loan turn down and the U.S.'s backing of a blockade weeks later were connected. According to NBC News:
"Qatari government officials visiting the U.S. in late January and early February considered turning over to Mueller what they believe is evidence of efforts by their country’s Persian Gulf neighbors in coordination with Kushner to hurt their country, four people familiar with the matter said. The Qatari officials decided against cooperating with Mueller for now out of fear it would further strain the country’s relations with the White House, these people said." (emphasis added)
The "for now" caveat is very interesting, and suggests the Qataris feel they have leverage over the Trump Administration. They would be one of several countries that believe Kushner's urgent quest for financing, his naivete, and his ethical blindness can be exploited for their gain. As the NBC News article discusses, the Qatari piece is just one of several concerns the Mueller investigation is considering, including Kushner's dealings with Turkish officials and with the Chinese ambassador to the U.S.  As the dominoes fall in the Mueller investigation, the Qataris and others might feel comfortable cooperating with Special Counsel Mueller.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

"Unglued"


As we noted in the post below, Very Stable Genius Donald "Rump" Trump is unraveling in front of the entire world.  This dangerous cancer on America's body politic poses a more clear and present danger than ever before, due to events unfolding around him that he's essentially powerless to control.

NBC News details how a recent, crucial decision was made on a whim:
According to two officials, Trump's decision to launch a potential trade war was born out of anger at other simmering issues and the result of a broken internal process that has failed to deliver him consensus views that represent the best advice of his team. 
On Wednesday evening, the president became "unglued," in the words of one official familiar with the president's state of mind. 
A trifecta of events had set him off in a way that two officials said they had not seen before: Hope Hicks' testimony to lawmakers investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election, conduct by his embattled attorney general and the treatment of his son-in-law by his chief of staff. 
Trump, the two officials said, was angry and gunning for a fight, and he chose a trade war, spurred on by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro, the White House director for trade — and against longstanding advice from his economic chair Gary Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
It doesn't take a very stable genius to see that someone with this rash, infantile temperament has no business in the Oval Office, making life and death decisions based on whims, or on what might save his rotten neck.

We're reminded that this isn't the first time (nor will it be the last) that Rump's dangerous impetuousness has led to dubious, to say the least, actions:


His risible "all things to all people" performance in the recent bipartisan gun control meeting showed how unmoored this tumor is. He's been "playing government" (to use John Kelly's description of Javanka), but the consequences we're seeing are very real.
Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels: , , ,

Friday, March 2, 2018

Hope Hicks and The Unraveling



We've been struck by the descriptions of outgoing White (Supremacist) House Communications Director and little white liar Hope "No Hope" Hicks as someone who provided "emotional support" as Cadet Bone Spurs' "real daughter," who was regarded as a "Trump whisperer" able to read his volatile personality. This, for someone who's only 29; demagogic sociopath Donald "Rump" Trump will be 72 in June. What kind of psychologically stunted creep would need the "emotional support" of someone more than 40 years younger who has no experience in governing? Perhaps someone who's unraveling before our eyes.

Unless checked and checked soon, that unraveling will have dire consequences for us and the world at large.
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: ,

Today's Cartoon Threefer


(click on images to enlarge)


(Jeff Darcy, Cleveland Plain Dealer)


(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)


(Chris Britt, Illinois Times)
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Weekend Often Forgotten Music Twofer


We're getting very high winds here in the mid- Atlantic, so we thought we'd get these up just in case power goes out.

We lost Barbara Alston, one of the original members of The Crystals, on February 16 at the age of 74. She was the lead singer on most of the earliest Crystals songs, including this often- forgotten gem from 1961 that was the group's first hit:



The late, great Mary Wells was the early "Queen of Motown," helping that label and songwriters like Smoky Robinson make a mark in the music world in the early '60's.  One of her often- forgotten gems was 1963's "Laughing Boy," a song written and produced by Robinson:

Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , ,

"So Much Losing"


Very Stable Genius and school shooting action hero Donald "Rump" Trump surprised his own economic advisors, Rethuglican party leaders, and Wall Street yesterday when, in what was supposed to be a photo-op "listening session," he told steel and aluminum company executives that he'd levy a 25% tariff on imported steel and 10% tariff on imported aluminum. The market responded with a loss of 420 points on Thursday (and opened 250 points down this morning). Allies like Canada, Germany and South Korea are assessing what countermeasures to take in the event Rump follows through on his threat. It's Canada, not China, that's the greatest exporter of steel and aluminum to the U.S.

As we've seen recently, Rump often sides with the last person to bend his ear (see NRA below, for example), but despite the backlash, he was doubling down this morning in a nonsensical tweet that "trade wars are good, and easy to win." We suppose that excludes consumers of steel and aluminum products like the auto and construction industries, and ultimately the American consumer themselves, who will see prices jacked up as a result of the tariffs. Ultimately, while some steel and aluminum industry jobs would be saved initially, the long-term effects would produce many times more job losses in other sectors.

Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska had a good rejoinder to Rump's move:
“Kooky 18th century protectionism will jack up prices on American families -- and will prompt retaliation from other countries,” he wrote in a statement. “Make no mistake: If the President goes through with this, it will kill American jobs -- that’s what every trade war ultimately does. So much losing.”

While action needs to be taken over violations of trade agreements, tariffs are not the answer. Better trade agreements, with credible international enforcement, are.
Posted by at 5 comments:
Labels:

On Guard, Working For You


He's already changed his tune on gun control after a late night meeting with the NRA, he has yet to push back on threats made by Russian thug Vladimir "Vlad the Invader" Putin, his "emotional support assistant" just resigned, and his National Security Advisor is reported to be leaving within the month. But never fear, Very Stable Genius is up very early addressing the issues of most concern to Americans:

And hey, that's the cleaned up tweet. The original (now deleted) was his typical error- ridden effort. And his inspiration for the Baldwin tweet? He saw a segment on Baldwin earlier this morning on Fox and Friends.

Sic transit gloria, America.
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: ,

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Tweets Of The Day -- Paul Ryan, Towering Coward




Randy Bryce is running to unseat the party- before- country, insecure jellyfish. Andrew Janz is the leading Democrat looking to unseat Nunes. Just sayin'.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

The Mooch Is Loose... And Stabbing


Former momentary White (Supremacist) House Communications Director and slick opportunist Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci is making the rounds on cable today with the mission of shivving his nemesis, WH Chief of Staff John Kelly, who fired him and his street-punk mouth after only eleven days on the job. Scaramucci was widely mocked for his over-the-top obsequious praise of incompetent Banana Republican Donald "Rump" Trump during his time in the job. Scaramucci blames Kelly for the rock-bottom morale at the White (Supremacist) House after weeks of intense drama over security clearances and the Mueller investigation, punctuated yesterday by the abrupt resignation of Communications Director and Rump whisperer Hope "No Hope" Hicks.

Besides taking revenge against the man that chucked him out, Scaramucci was also practicing some self-defense by saying in an interview to Bloomberg News that he feared that Kelly might block the sale of his stake in SkyBridge Capital to a Chinese firm. Referring to Kelly as "General Jackass," Scaramucci told Bloomberg:
"'There will be a further evacuation of talent,' Scaramucci said in the interview.

 'The guy is a bad dude,' Scaramucci said of Kelly. 'Fear and intimidation doesn’t work in a civilian organization. If he had any honor he’d resign.'

 He also said he doesn’t mind being quoted insulting Kelly. 'At least I’m an honest front-stabbing dude,' he said."
Ahh, Mooch, the White (Supremacist) House could use a few front-stabbers like you for variation these days.
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels:

Robert Mueller, "Mr. Magoo" And Obstruction Of Justice


The breath on Cadet Bone Spurs' neck is getting hotter:
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has been investigating a period of time last summer when President Trump seemed determined to drive Attorney General Jeff Sessions from his job, according to people familiar with the matter who said that a key area of interest for the inquiry is whether those efforts were part of a months-long pattern of attempted obstruction of justice. 
In recent months, Mueller’s team has questioned witnesses in detail about Trump’s private comments and state of mind in late July and early August of last year, around the time he issued a series of tweets belittling his “beleaguered” attorney general, these people said. The thrust of the questions was to determine whether the president’s goal was to oust Sessions in order to pick a replacement who would exercise control over the investigation into possible coordination between Russia and Trump associates during the 2016 election, these people said. (our emphasis)
Of course, the pressure on Beauregard is continuing, if Cadet Bone Spurs' tweet yesterday morning is any example:
It seems something has changed, though:
Sessions usually opts not to respond to such criticism, but in this case he did. Trump’s criticism faulted the attorney general for not more aggressively pursuing claims that the FBI and Justice Department may have misled a foreign surveillance court on a politically sensitive case in the waning days of the Obama administration. Sessions insisted in his statement that he had reacted appropriately by referring the matter to the department’s inspector general for a possible review of how the surveillance case was handled. 
“As long as I am the Attorney General, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this Department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution,’’ Sessions said in the statement.  (our emphasis)
As if to underscore the point, Beauregard had a very public dinner last night with the next two people in line at Justice:  Rod Rosenstein (Robert Mueller's supervisor in the Russia investigation) and Solicitor General Noel Francisco:

(Francisco, Sessions, Rosenstein. Credit: Axios)

And, if he wasn't aware already, Beauregard knows this now, too:
Behind the scenes, Trump has derisively referred to Sessions as “Mr. Magoo,” a cartoon character who is elderly, myopic and bumbling, according to people with whom he has spoken. Trump has told associates that he has hired the best lawyers for his entire life, but is stuck with Sessions, who is not defending him and is not sufficiently loyal. (our emphasis)
As this high- stakes drama plays out, Cadet Bone Spurs may find that the bullying, demeaning tactics that have taken him so far in his business life might come back to bite him in his yuuuge ass.

(h/t Mock Paper Scissors)
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Today's Cartoons


(click on images to enlarge)


(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)


(Tim Eagan, via gocomics.com)


(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)


(Signe Wilkinson, Philadelphia Daily News)


(Steve Benson, Arizona Republic)
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Putin's New Nuclear Threat


As a former KGB colonel who once described the fall of the Soviet Union as the 20th century's "worst geopolitical catastrophe" and a "tragedy", it shouldn't surprise anyone that Russian thug Vladimir "Vlad the Invader" Putin is assuming the mantle of former Soviet leaders in threatening the West with nuclear weapons. In his state of the nation speech earlier today, the Russian thug announced that his country has tested a variety of technologically advanced nuclear weapons that render U.S. and allied missile defenses "useless."

Some of the technologies include a nuclear-powered underwater drone and nuclear-powered cruise missiles, along with an intercontinental missile that can't be intercepted using current technology. Putin claimed the development of these new generation weapons was in response to Western anti-missile deployment, which Russia had tried to stop, saying ominously, “No one has listened to us. You listen to us now.” Putin went on to boast that the intercontinental missile could fly at 20 times the speed of sound and make sharp maneuvers on its way to the target.

For someone who has long wanted to re-establish Russia as a global power and to hold sway over less powerful neighbors, Putin wasn't subtle in his warning to the Western alliance:
“I want to tell all those who have fueled the arms race over the last 15 years, sought to win unilateral advantages over Russia, introduced unlawful sanctions aimed to contain our country’s development: all what you wanted to impede with your policies have already happened. You have failed to contain Russia.” (emphasis added)
Consider ourselves warned.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)