End of the Year Thoughts

As we head into 2017 with Donald Trump about to take the office of the presidency, I have a great deal of concern for our country. It doesn't necessarily lie with Trump himself who is clearly unprepared and unqualified to be president. It's going to be a disaster, folks. I don't think that's surprising to anyone that is blinded by adolescent fervor.

My concern lies with the folks out there who voted for Trump and are more happy that the smug liberals and crooked Hillary lost than their guy won. I'm not even convinced that they like Trump all that much. They just wanted people like me to lose because they are tired of being told what's best for them. Even if they know, deep down, that it is best for them, they don't want to do it. Why?

Because they are 12 fucking years old.

I'm more concerned that this immaturity is going to hang around for fuck up after fuck up from the Trump administration simply because they are completely incapable of admitting fault. Worse, I'm very concerned that Republicans in Congress are going to excuse Trump as along as they can because they know that they can use him as a puppet to push their agenda. How much damage will this cause our great nation? Their behavior up to this point starkly illustrates this.

• They have ignored the very intelligence agencies they wholeheartedly embraced during the Iraq war and essentially have concluded that Russia and its totalitarian leader are now OK.
• They have ignored repeated warnings over the rise of xenophobic nationalism and its similarity to Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. 
• They have excused Trumps non draining of the swamp and ignored his Wall Street appointments and cronyism.
• They have ignored Trump's clear business conflicts with his presidency and think it's just fine for him to not release his tax returns nor remove himself from his empire, apparently not understanding what third world dictators used to look like. 

Sadly, this is just the beginning. I know it's in their DNA to laugh and point at us smug liberals, viewing our serious and fact based concerns in the same arena where their paranoid hysteria resides. "You guys thought we were all out of our minds about Obama. I guess it's your turn now. HAHAHAHAHH!" they have been chortling.

Honestly, they should be more grateful. As they take over the reins of governing, they are inheriting the following from Barack Obama.

The economy grew at a solid 3.5 percent clip in the third quarter, and is now significantly larger than it was before the Great Recession. The jobless rate is down to 4.6 percent, which almost qualifies as full employment. The stock market and high school graduation rate are at all-time highs, while the uninsured rate, abortion rate and teen pregnancy rate are at all-time lows. Oil imports, crime and health care inflation are also near historic lows, with carbon emissions, foreclosures and illegal immigration falling, too. Meanwhile, retirement assets, auto sales and renewable power have skyrocketed, and the once-teetering Medicare Trust Fund has stabilized.

All of this, despite their intransigence and complete opposition to the president. Of course, this also begs the question...why was this "not great?" Regardless, this is my closing year message to those folks who voted from Trump and are now happy that the smug liberals got their walking papers:

You get to govern now. That means it's all on you and you have to own it. When the responsibility of governing gets to be too tough for you and your guy, we'll do what all responsible adults do when teenagers are home alone for the weekend. We'll clean up after you while you continue to howl at us for thinking that "we are so smart" and "know what's best for you."

That's what people of good nature do.

Bill Maher on Donald Trump

Memo To Right Wing Bloggers and Commenters

Read this.

Reflect. 

Trump In Wonderland

Because of Computers

Donald Trump is still refusing to accept the reality of Russia (Putin) using propaganda to affect the outcome of the 2016 election.

Trump — who, for extra flair, spoke with an American- and Israeli-flag-wielding Don King at his side — blamed the whole controversy on the confusing nature of “computers.” “I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly. The whole age of the computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what’s going on,” he said. “We have speed, we have a lot of other things, but I’m not sure we have the kind of security we need.”

He sounds as bad as Hillary did when wondered if you could scrub a hard drive with cloth. Also, this is not a good image for the president elect...

Just sayin'...

By the way, speaking of election meddling...what happened to all those mouth foamed cries of voter fraud? Now, it's not as rampant since Trump won?

Once again, voter fraud is very rare in this country and in no way did it affect the outcome of the 2016 election. There's a big difference between the hacking of emails combined with the spread of propaganda through fake news to an all too gullible conservative population and the hacking of actual voting machines. The latter never happened and there was virtually zero voter fraud.

Trump Then and Now

Donald Trump has not even taken office yet and he's already broken a series of promises. The Times has a handy check list for keeping track. Here's my favorite:

BIG DONORS

Then: "Crooked Hillary. Look, can you imagine another four years of the Clintons? Seriously. It's time to move on. And she's totally controlled by Wall Street and all these people that gave her millions," Trump said at a May rally in Lynden, Washington.

Now: Trump has stocked his Cabinet with six top donors — far more than any recent White House. "I want people that made a fortune. Because now they're negotiating with you, OK?" Trump said, in a December 9 speech in Des Moines.

The biggest giver? Incoming small business administrator Linda McMahon gave $7.5 million to a super PAC backing Trump, more than a third of the money collected by the political action committee.

Ah, the sweet smell of hypocrisy...I wonder how his supporters feel...

Just Awesome

From an answer on Quora...

Conservatives are more persuaded by passion than facts. Conservatism has a lot of religious people where logic and facts just aren't comfortable to them. Most internet trolls are conservatives not actually interested in discussion but just jabbing at people's sore spots to get a reaction. It's why so many people hate conservatives and will never listen to a genuinely logical conservative argument with a clear mind. For every genuinely interesting conservative I've talked to, there's about a hundred despicable bullies. 

Hmm...reminds me of my comments section before I fixed it:)

A Christmas Gift to the Right Wing Blogsphere

I recently posted a question on Quora wondering whether or not the right wing bloggers and commenters would own the Trump presidency. They elected him and soon they will have control of all three branches of government. Guess what that means?

They have to fucking own it.

Yet, by the looks of the responses, most folks don't think they will. Now, I know how insanely insecure right wingers are so it is in the spirit of the season that I offer them the gift of over 20 responses (and counting) that they can wring their hands over for the next few weeks. Will they reflect upon them?

I bet not. My guess is it will be more end zone celebrations and adolescent taunting of liberals (see also: bullied as youth, making up for it now) rather than actual governing.

14 Defining Points of Fascism

It seems like we are pretty much there. 

Without A Shot

When Trump Declared Martian Law

The day Donald Trump declared Martian law, the world was aghast.

"As my first act as president, I hereby declare Martian law," he said as he squinted at the teleprompter. Looking up, his eyes regained their focus as he roared, "As the first Martian lawgiver, I will make Earth great again!"

The crowd roared. How could they not? They had been mind-controlled by the Martian's orbital laser batteries for years.

The most conspiracy-minded of his followers were not surprised, but the vast majority quickly adjusted their thinking to accommodate this final revelation that explained everything else. Trump's orange hue and his strange alien sex practices should have given them their first inklings as to his true planet of origin.

His close association with Plutonian gray aliens Rudy Giuliani and Vladimir Putin added fuel to the fire.

When bloated Jovians Newt Gingrich and Chris Christie waddled into Trump's orbit it was clear to those in the know that an alien takeover was in the offing.

Trump's recruitment of reptilian Martian generals, men like Michael Flynn, who had been fired from their posts for incompetence and insubordination, provided further hints.

But it was Trump's appointment of Venusians Rex Tillerson and Rick Perry (whose name had inexplicably escaped me) that provided the final clue. Their plan to veneraform the earth by burning all the coal and oil on the planet, increasing CO2 concentrations and accelerating greenhouse warming, would turn earth into a carbon copy of Venus.

This would in turn make Earth suitable for immigration by Venusian guest workers. These alien workers would soon be arriving in huge numbers to take positions at Hardee's and Carl's Jr. restaurants, fulfilling Neptunian labor secretary Andy Puzder's pledge to destroy the minimum wage.

The other members of Trump's cabinet were mostly Mercurians, who had made their billions by paying the miners in Mercury's gold mines slave wages. They were minor players in interplanetary politics, but influential in the financial markets on Uranus.

(Note that Trump's cabinet appointments completely stiffed the planet Saturn -- he wouldn't give that failed car company the time of day.)

No, the Trump administration's alien origins did not give his supporters a moment's pause. They knew it was time to kick out the elites, time to drain the swamp, time for an alien overlord to take charge of earth. Time to trump those bitches.

As the applause died down, Trump squinted back at the teleprompter. "Sorry folks, that was an L, not an N. I hereby declare martial law. And it's gonna be the most bigly martial law ever!"

Trump's supporters blinked, readjusting their finely honed sensibilities yet again. "Oh, martial law," they said. "Does that mean we can start beating blacks, killing Muslims and grabbing pussy right now?"

Trump Has Normalized Gang Rape

A few days ago the University of Minnesota football team announced that they would boycott all football activities, including a bowl game, because 10 fellow players had been suspended in a sexual assault investigation:

A woman secured a restraining order against six Minnesota players — one of whom was later dropped from it — after an episode in September in which she said she was sexually assaulted by several men, some of whom were suspended for three games by the university. The men have insisted the sex was consensual.

The whole team — and its coach — were blackmailing the University, threatening the loss of tens of millions of dollars of revenue from the Holiday Bowl, to go to bat for real-life gangbangers.

Coach Tracy Claeys' tweet was especially dense: "Have never been more proud of our kids. I respect their rights & support their effort to make a better world!"

Huh. How can a world where football players can rape women without consequences be "better?"

Answer: a world where Donald Trump is the president elect, and misogyny is the order of the day.

These punks took a cue from Trump. Instead of admitting wrong, they just blustered through. They thought that if they just screamed loud enough everyone would back down and they'd get their way.

If Hillary Clinton had won the presidency I don't think these idiots would have tried to blackmail the university. But with Trump as president, these football players think all women are fair game.

The boycott was short-lived. A couple of days later the players manned up and decided to do their jobs, instead of pissing and moaning about the unfair treatment of pampered players.

The team had thought their brothers weren't  getting "due process." Minneapolis police had reviewed the case and decided not to press charges. They hadn't committed a crime, the team reasoned, so why should the rapists have to do the time?

There are several spheres of influence that govern human interaction: legal, moral, ethical, cultural, contractual.  What is allowable in one sphere is frequently disallowed in another sphere. This is the source of society's many conflicts.

Football culture finds gangbanging bitches who implicitly asked for it to be perfectly acceptable.

The law, having insufficient evidence to press charges, has so far declined to indict the players (though this decision is under review at the county level).

Football fans are often the most religious and patriotic people; they love to talk about god and country. Many teams, especially in the South, gather for a prayer before each game. Christian morality dictates that gang rape is unacceptable on several levels: it is fornication, and having sex with a woman who just had sex with nine another guys is essentially the same as banging those nine other guys.

Ethically, the incident was clearly gang rape: it is impossible for a lone female to freely give sexual consent to ten hulking football players. The atmosphere of coercion is too strong to give any illusion that the woman had any kind of choice.

But more to the point, this gang rape was contractually banned. Football players are constrained by NCAA regulations. One of the participants in the gang rape is reportedly an underage recruit. Providing sex to recruits is a recruiting violation. The university must sanction NCAA violations, or face serious financial consequences.

Also, while the contents of the team members' contracts have not been disclosed, it's not unusual for such agreements to include morals clauses, which allow termination of the scholarship after morally egregious conduct has been uncovered.

It's easy to see how these gang rapes occur. A player brings a girl to a party. He gets her drunk with vodka shots. They have sex. She's lying in bed, totally out of it. Another guy comes in and bangs her. And another. And another. Pretty soon there's a line.

In their minds, when a girl drinks with a football player, there's only one endgame: sex. Because everyone "knows" what football players are like. And if she did the first guy, she would do them all, because they're team mates!

But Minnesota culture does not want their university to employ gangbangers. It's bad enough that the university's two most expensive teams — football and basketball — never win anything, but they've had one sex scandal after another, year after year after year, including another basketball group sex scandal just this past February, and the resignation last year of the former athletic director Norwood Teague for groping women.

Clearly the men at the U of M athletic department do not have their heads in the game: they're too busy harassing women to do their jobs properly.

But not everything is so grim in the U of M sports program: the women's hockey team regularly wins the NCAA championship, and the women's volleyball team has made three Final Four appearances in the last seven years. And all the players have decent GPAs, some in fields like chemical engineering, and they all graduate.

It's amazing what you can do with a little hard work and discipline. The guys should really try it.

Hey Media, Shut The Fuck Up About White Working Class Voters

I haven't gone off on a full rant in awhile but the douchey hipster sitting next to me at Caribou right now has inspired me (Why do these asshats all the same? Always a goatee...bald...skinny sweater...super complicated coffee order...says the word "useability" 89t times...they are working on via their laptop is cutting edge...vital...limited edition "thing" that will change everyone's lifestyle....like they are a Google engineer or some fucking thing...fucking millenials...)

Anyway, I'm way past tired of all the attention white working class voters are getting these days. Every single media elite is falling all over themselves to breathlessly explain how the Democrats have lost their connection to this group. Of course, Democrats must listen to the media who, just a few weeks ago, were talking about how Republicans had lost their connection to this group, because if they don't they are going to lose every election ever until the end of all that is holy!!! Never mind the fact that Democrats won back seats in both the Senate and the House. Facts be damned!!!

Yes, Hillary Clinton should have gone to Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania more as Barack Obama did. It would have helped if she took of the pants suits and maybe wore jeans and hung around some local cafes in the precincts that mattered. But that's putting all the blame on her and that's simply not fair. Why not look at the people themselves? These are the folks that voted for Donald Trump and they should be accountable for that.

Catering to their every whim and making sure they are all tucked in at night in comfy, flannel pajamas is ludicrous. Someone needs to tell them that their jobs are not coming back. They have been replaced by robots and, unless they go back to school or retrain, they are going to be sitting at home, watching Fox News and reading Drudge all fucking day. In short, they will amount to nothing regardless of what Donald Trump does in the White House.

It's not the rest of the country's fault that they have made shitty choices in their lives. It's certainly not my fault or anyone else's fault that they are so fucking ignorant that they voted for the worst possible human being to run our country. Can anyone honestly think of someone who is worse? Maybe Kim Jong Un....

My point (and rant) is this. White, working class voters, are not the center of the universe. In fact, they are part of a United States that no longer exists. The media's obsession with them does a great disservice to all of the other Americans out there who don't fall into this demographic. Honestly, it's mildly racist to obsess about them so much considering they have lived a life of privilege and your average black person has not.

The worst offender in all of this is Morning Joe. I used to really love this show but since Trump has won (and since Joe and Mika are apparently advising the Donald), their tone has gotten really ugly. They aren't talking much about Russia which I find to be most interesting. They are trying to make the massive train wreck that is coming seem like it's not big deal. They simply refuse to accept anything less than gargantuan criticism of the Clintons and rip anyone who tries to point out that Hillary really had a lot of nasty shit done to her in this election.

Remember, folks, every thing is Hillary's fault...especially her failure to connect with white working class voters!

How Journalists Covered the Rise of Mussolini and Hitler

Smithsonian magazine has a great piece up reminding us how journalists in the past covered the rise of Mussolini and Hitler.

But the main way that the press defanged Hitler was by portraying him as something of a joke. He was a “nonsensical” screecher of “wild words” whose appearance, according to Newsweek, “suggests Charlie Chaplin.” His “countenance is a caricature.” He was as “voluble” as he was “insecure,” stated Cosmopolitan. 

Hmmm...sound familiar....

Propaganda 101

Take a look at the image below.

For me and other citizens living in the US, this represents right about where all the various media outlets fall in terms of political bias. Yet, the right wing blogger mentality that will sadly soon be running our nation would see this and howl in derision. All those "useful idiots" in the middle? Yeah, they're all secret communist agents. Fox is more middle of the road. And the Daily Caller, Drudge and Zerohedge? Well, they are the only truth tellers out there, dammit!!

This is EXACTLY how Donald Trump won the election.

Paul Krugman has a great piece up called "Useful Idiots Galore" which perfectly summarizes how much like a fiddle we were all played. In particular, his comments about the mainstream media were dead on right.

The bigger surprise was the behavior of the news media, and I don’t mean fake news; I mean big, prestigious organizations. Leaked emails, which everyone knew were probably the product of Russian hacking, were breathlessly reported as shocking revelations, even when they mostly revealed nothing more than the fact that Democrats are people. Meanwhile, the news media dutifully played up the Clinton server story, which never involved any evidence of wrongdoing, but merged in the public mind into the perception of a vast “email” scandal when there was nothing there.

I completely agree. But there's something deeper that Krugman has missed. Propaganda 101 tells us that the first thing you have to do is get a good chunk of people to stop listening to trusted news sources. After that, it's merely a matter of introducing alternative news sources that don't cause heads to hurt (see: cognitive dissonance.). Enter the Drudge Report, Zerohedge, InfoWars and, of course, Fox News...all of which peddled pro-Russian stories the entire election. What does all this amount to?

President Donald Trump.

What a bunch of suckers. Putin probably has daily stomach aches from laughing at how easy it was to fool so many Americans. When US hegemonic power begins to erode in the world because of all of this and we start to see hints of authoritarianism here at home, will they still find a way to blame liberals?

Or will they finally understand what they have done and accept responsibility?

The President's Press Conference

A stunning press conference and, I have to say, one that really pissed me off. One of the president's biggest faults is to under react to situations. He sure did when he found out that Russia and Putin personally hacked the DNC and the RNC. You didn't want a scrum, Mr. President?

Well, life is messy...sorry to be the one to inform you...sheesh.

Crack That Nut!

Who is Behind the Great and All Powerful Trump?

Politifact Lie of the Year

Politifact has released its Lie of the Year and it's fake news. The saddest part about this is just how much it's contributed to the election of Donald Trump. At t his point, it's not the fact that Trump is going to be a disaster that's the worse thing. It's that people will blame liberals and the media for his incompetence.

In short, they will continue to believe the fake news.

#Knockitoff

Taking to social media to declare how 2016 sucks because of another celebrity death has become sooooo played. Yes, we all know that your lives are over now that someone you didn't know from a very large demographic (which means every year for the next few years is going to #suck) has passed away.

As both my son and daughter pointed out tonight at dinner...how about all the civilians that have died for the last several years in Syria? Or the family members you know who have suffered and died from cancer? Or the people that simply passed away this year in Anytown, USA that were loved and will be missed by many?

Sure, I miss Prince and David Bowie among others but turning it all into a giant obsession about the year 2016 is completely ludicrous. Knock it off, inter webs!!!

Quote of the Year

Donald Trump understood at least one thing better than almost everybody watching the 2016 election: The breakdown of a shared public reality built upon widely accepted facts represented not a hazard, but an opportunity.

---The New York Times Editorial Board

Hi, I'm A Puppet

TRUMP: I'm a 'smart person,' don't need intelligence briefings every single day

Translation: "I'm a puppet of authoritarians in league with Vladimir Putin."

Full interview below...

Coup D'Etat: 2016

With the recent announcement that the CIA concluded that Russia was trying to help Donald Trump win the White House and that Rex Tillerson, former Exxon exec and Putin tied individual, I think we can officially state that the 2016 election was a coup d'etat. The question is...how did it happen? It's pretty simple when you think about it. Imagine you are Russia and its oligarchy...

First, you cement ties with like minded (and by like minded I mean people that have the same sort of authoritarian ideology that you do) individuals that could be maneuvered in key positions of power. I'm talking here about Michael Flynn, Rex Tillerson, and Donald Trump.

Second, you identify any opponents and exploit their weaknesses. If you hack the DNC and the RNC, for example, you only release information about the DNC. You use dupes like Matt Drudge and Zerohedge to do your propaganda work for you in terms of Hillary Clinton and other Democratic candidates.

Third, you disseminate propaganda to the angry populists in the country you are targeting who are filled with fear and xenophobia. This is half of the people who vote in key counties across the battleground states. You play to their weaknesses and make them believe that your candidate (Donald Trump) is going to solve their problems. Most importantly, you employ fake news that is as enticing to them as catnip. They lick it all up because you have convinced them, quite successfully, that your opponents are the ones who are "commies," "statists," and Marxists. This is the part where you LAUGH YOUR FUCKING ASS OFF because you are actually doing what they are deeply afraid of....

Weakening United States hegemony in the world.

I'm not sure what is going to come from President Obama's deeper dive into all of this. At the very least, it will weaken the Trump presidency and give the Democrats some ammo to stir up the shit storm. I sure hope they do because I don't want to see our country lose power in the world.

There's No Question Any More: Dinosaurs Had Feathers!

It's long been a topic of debate: were dinosaurs warm- or cold-blooded? Were they crocodile-like lizards or were they chicken-like birds? Did they have leathery skin or bright feathers?

Now there is irrefutable proof: dinosaurs were like birds and they had feathers. Scientists have found the tail of baby dinosaur preserved in amber, and it was covered in tiny feathers:

The dinosaur was a coelurosaur, a theropod related to Tyrannosarus Rex and the velociraptors of Jurassic Park fame. It was trapped in amber 99 million years ago.

By coincidence, last night I happened to watch the 1997 sequel of Jurassic Park, in which a human-engineered T. Rex somehow escapes from one island, populates another island and grows to full size in just a couple of years, and then rampages through the streets of San Diego when idiotic humans bent on corporate profits threaten its baby and underestimate its potential for death and destruction.

But the 1997 Jurassic Park T. Rex still had reptilian skin instead of iridescent feathers.

For decades scientists had come to believe more and more that dinosaurs were the precursors of birds, and that reptiles like crocodiles were a separate classification. There were clues in the structure of the hands and wrists, the hips and ankles. There was fossil evidence of feathers in several types of dinosaurs in the past, but rock fossils aren't as detailed or dramatic as amber. Amber almost literally freezes soft tissue in time.

DNA in dinosaur blood in the gut of a mosquito trapped in amber was the conceit for Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park dinosaurs. Sadly, DNA has a half-life of only 521 years, so that means it completely degrades in less than seven million years. It's impossible to recover dinosaur DNA.

Or is it? Birds descended from dinosaurs, so that means their DNA started on the same branch of the evolutionary tree as T. Rex. Might it be possible to "rewind" millions of years of evolution in bird DNA to that branching point, and then engineer that DNA, "fast forwarding" it with mutations that imbue T. Rex characteristics?

Scientists have already done experiments on chicken embryos that cause dinosaur-like snouts to develop. And tooth-like protrusions have been found in chicken embryos with a mutant version of the talpid² gene, which turned on the sonic hedgehog gene (yep, it's really called that), which is involved in tooth production in vertebrates.

If you put that engineered DNA in an ostrich egg and hatched it, you wouldn't have the T. Rex. But you would have a kind of T. Rex that might have existed in some alternate version of reality.

In the Jurassic Park movies the T. Rex was portrayed an unstoppable force of nature that men could not hope to control. So would recreating one be a foolhardy and dangerous experiment?

A T. Rex is about the size of an African elephant: the gigantic T. Rex "Sue" has been estimated to be about nine tons, while the largest elephant discovered weighed in at 11 tons. T. Rex had a bigger brain relative to its body size than most dinosaurs, much of it dedicated to the senses of vision and smell.

But elephants have much bigger brains than T. Rex, and humans are generally able to control elephants. So, yeah, a newly engineered T. Rex might get loose and kill someone. But elephants -- and lions, tigers, wolves and humans -- have been doing that for millennia.

If we want to worry about people getting killed inadvertently by inappropriate use of biotechnology, the potential for death and destruction is much greater from super bacteria created through overuse of antibiotics in hog production than it is from re-engineering dinosaurs.

One Month After the Election...

As of right now, Hillary Clinton has received 65.4 million votes. Donald Trump has received 62.8 million votes. And yet 80,000 people in only three states decided this election. What does that tell you?

It tells me a few things

1. The math has officially become absurd.

2. People that whine about the tyranny of the elite are hypocrites if they think that 80,000 people in three states can decide what is best for the rest of us. 

3. Trump has no mandate. There was no Brexit style rebuke of the establishment. More people in this country voted against him or are ambivalent.

4. Vladimir Putin is laughing his ass off  at how easily the right wing in this country has been duped by fake news and propaganda designed to bring out the worse aspects of nationalism and authoritarianism (racism, xenophobia etc). And they call the left "useful idiots?" Keep an eye on what Putin does in the next four years.

Weather Channel To Brietbart: Shut The Fuck Up

The Weather Channel issued the following statement today.


And, because several readers have requested it, here is the list of all the bullshit arguments climate deniers make fully and completely refuted by peer reviewed science.

If You Are a Right Wing Blogger or Right Wing Blog Commenter...

Anyone that has frequented right wing blogs as I have knows that their news sources are largely full of crap. Considering that they are being utilized in a "Lenin-useful idiot" sort of way by Russian companies (and Vladimir Putin) working to undermine the United States takes the bullshit to a whole new level.

Of course, it's entirely possible that they aren't really being scammed and are doing all of this willfully. If this is indeed the case, then my previous thoughts on the liberals with a little "l" are confirmed. They, not the liberals they foam at the mouth about, are the authoritarians. It's not really all that surprising given their predilection for bombast, hysteria, and out and out bullying.

The recent shooting at the pizzeria in Washington DC illustrates just how serious this issue has become. Making the matters worse is President Elect Trump's choice for national security adviser, Michael G Flynn. Apparently, Flynn and his son are quite the purveyors of fake news.

The elder Flynn, who served as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency before he was pushed out by the Obama administration in 2014, called attention to the phony story just days before the election last month with a breathless posting on Twitter: “U decide - NYPD Blows Whistle on New Hillary Emails: Money Laundering, Sex Crimes w Children, etc...MUST READ!” Hours after the gunman was apprehended, the younger Flynn renewed his support for the lie. “Until #Pizzagate proven to be false, it’ll remain a story,” Michael G. Flynn said on Twitter late Sunday evening. “The left seems to forget #PodestaEmails and the many ‘coincidences’ tied to it.”

Well, that's just great. Everything that we hear is true until proven otherwise. I've said many, many times that this ideology is a national security threat and now they are in charge of national security? Worse, supporters are cheering this on as if this a blog comments section that they so desperately need to "win." I'm wondering what goes through their heads when they read this:

The son traveled with his father to Moscow last year, according to family associates, where his father was seated beside Russian President Vladi­mir Putin at a gala thrown by RT, the Kremlin-controlled propaganda news outlet.

Could this BE any more obvious?

If you are a right wing blogger or right wing blog commenter who has warned us all about the boiling pit of sewage that is communism and are now ignoring this...blaming the liberal media for this...downplaying this as nothing...or secretly embracing this because you are a closet authoritarian...

a). kindly go fuck yourself
b). see someone in the mental health profession because your mind isn't right
c). stop trying to throw our country into the shitter just because you are afraid of progress and aren't getting your way.

This isn't a game anymore, folks.

Great Response!

11h

Donald J. Trump 

✔ @realDonaldTrump

Just tried watching Saturday Night Live - unwatchable! Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can't get any worse. Sad

 Follow

ABFoundation 

✔@ABFalecbaldwin

...@realDonaldTrump

Release your tax returns and I'll stop.
Ha

11:34 PM - 3 Dec 2016

 
•  12,88412,884 Retweets
 
•  31,47831,478 likes

A Liberal Elitist Speaks

As a member of the liberal elite in the US, why am I responsible for the poor life choices and willful ignorance of other people? As a teacher and highly educated person, I've been told in this election by voters, pundits and the right wing media that I am a smug liberal who has been taught a lesson now that Trump has won. Apparently it's my know it all ness and desire for progression that offends them.

At the core of this issue is the concept of responsibility. Far too many people don’t want to take responsibility for their lot in life and want to blame others for their choices. The factory worker in the Rust Belt who voted for Trump and is angry about the liberal elites would serve him or her self better by accepting that the computer chip, not the faux boogieman of media/Democrats/Progressives/academics.

It’s not their fault that he/her chose their path in life. People who are filled with anger, hate and fear need to scapegoat and are incapable of taking responsibility for themselves. It always has to be the fault of someone else and why not someone who is more accomplished and intelligent? In the final analysis, this kind of stuff (seen in the OP’s link) is petty jealousy and insecurity.

Of course, the bigger issue of the coming Trump presidency is not so much the man himself but the masses that will believe when he refuses to accept the responsibility of his actions. They will cheer him because they too always love to blame others, specifically the media and liberals, for their actions not really working out in reality.

We live in a post truth world. and when the reality of the 21st century starts to sink in, the authoritarians like Trump and his supporters will do what their ilk always do: find a scapegoat. Some would argue that they already have…

Ten Days After: Harassment and Intimidation in the Aftermath of the Election

Oh, The Irony...

Right wing bloggers love to haul out H. L. Mencken and use his writings as some sort of prophecy towards the doom that liberal are all leading us towards. How fitting that this cartoon has recently been making the rounds...

At What Point Does The Math Become Absurd?

Clinton Lead Tops 2.5 Million as Trump Popular Vote Lie Spreads

And that's not even the worst part of this piece...

The apparent origin of the 3 million figure and that false claim that Trump would have won the popular vote had it not been for illegal voters—cited by both the Trump supporter and the candidate himself—is the conspiracy theory web site Infowars. Trump, by the way, called Infowars founder Alex Jones to thank him for his support after the election and has appeared on his show.

I wonder if Alex Jones is up for a cabinet post.

Twenty Five

In the season four finale of The West Wing, terrorists kidnap the president's daughter. President Bartlett, played by Martin Sheen, invokes section three of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, temporarily ceding the presidency to the speaker of the House (there is no vice president). Bartlett (correctly) believes he is incapable of making decisions in the best interest of the country while his daughter is being held hostage.

Now imagine that the president has dozens of unguarded children scattered around the globe, susceptible to kidnapping, murder and extortion. Could any decision he makes ever be considered in the best interests of the country, when his babies are constantly under threat?

That scenario will come to pass when Donald Trump assumes the presidency in January. The targets won't be Trump's actual children, but his office buildings, golf courses, hotels and resorts, which terrorism experts call "soft targets." I alluded to this problem in an earlier post, and now security analysts are voicing the same concerns.

Trump has now acknowledged as much, and claims that he'll be separating himself from "business operations" to avoid conflicts of interest. This is totally bogus. He will still own the properties. He will still derive income from them. They will still have his name on them. He will still know and communicate with the cronies who will control them. They will still be his babies.

This vast network of mostly unprofitable properties (i.e., tax dodges) will be a drag on Trump's presidency, making him vulnerable to terrorism, bribery, blackmail and extortion. His ego will never allow him to truly let go of his babies.

He could, of course, ameliorate these concerns by actually selling these properties on the condition that they be renamed, and by releasing all his tax returns from the last 20 years so that we can see that he really has divested himself of these conflicts of interest. But what are the odds he'll do that?

After the first couple of terrorist attacks on Trump properties questions will arise about whether Trump is caving in to terrorist demands. Will the vast majority of Republicans in congress that Trump insulted throughout the election have the balls to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment and install their dream guy Mike Pence as president?

Donald Trump's paranoia is going to make Dick Nixon look like Pollyanna.

New Name, New Package!

Trump Supporter On Airplane

What am I not supposed to think about Trump supporters again?

Memo To Media: Shut the Fuck Up About Rural White Voters

At this point, the media really needs to shut the fuck up about rural white voters. Let's see...some people have lost their jobs because of globalization (along with a steadfast refusal to retrain in a different field) and technology versus hundreds of years of systemic oppression which still continues to this day.

If I were a person of color in the US today, I'd be way past sick over this hyper obsession with people who have honestly enjoyed privilege their entire lives and refuse to accept it.

Not Compromised

The Obama administration effectively threw cold water on the idea that the Russians were involved in hacking voting machines in the 2016 election.

In its statement, the administration said, “The Kremlin probably expected that publicity surrounding the disclosures that followed the Russian government-directed compromises of emails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations, would raise questions about the integrity of the election process that could have undermined the legitimacy of the president-elect.”

I think it's a good idea to do a recount in the states where the margin was so close but at this point, I do not think the election was rigged or hacked. Donald Trump won the electoral college.

Of course, the fact that he lost the popular vote by over 2,000,000 votes is a whole other story. At what point does the electoral college become absurd?

Five Ways To Disrupt Racism

Own It, Bitches

Being Liberal has asked Trump voters to own their vote.

It is your right to vote for an extremist racist, sexist, ableist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic candidate unconcerned with consent, let alone reproductive rights. It is your right to vote for someone who literally built a campaign on a "great wall" and a promise to profile people based on their religion. It is your right to vote for a candidate who actively incites violence and got the loudest cheers at his rallies for vowing to "carpet bomb" other countries (and then to say that he does not want war). It is your right to cite "due process" on multiple sexual assault and rape charges for your candidate and vote for him anyway. 

It is psychological warfare/gaslighting to do that and then say that you do not intend to silence those who disagreed, those who will be affected by the radical changes you signed on for.

Amen!

Of course, being the adolescents that they are, they won't take responsibility for it.

As Long As I Live...

Trump's Unspoken Deal for Not Prosecuting Clinton

Donald Trump and his mouthpieces have now said that he won't call for Hillary Clinton to be prosecuted for the phony email server and Clinton Foundation scandals.

Trump is making the "I'm such a nice guy" excuse for stopping the persecution: “It’s just not something that I feel very strongly about. I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t. She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways.”

Rush Limbaugh is making the "It's just not done" excuse: “I never expected Trump to actually prosecute her. And the reason is…I’m falling back on what some of the standard protocols for politics are after victory and this just, we in America do not prosecute defeated political enemies...If he did it, it was going to be icing on the cake for me. But I never expected him to do it.”

In other words, Limbaugh knew Trump was just blowing smoke when he said that. Many of Trump's supporters seem to believe this about his other promises as well: the ban on Muslims, the deportation of immigrants, draining the swamp, firing lobbyists, starting a trade war, bringing back jobs, and on and on. It was all just red meat to fire up the crowds.

Trump's more delusional supporters are fervently hoping that Trump is lying now rather than lying back then: by saying he'll stop persecuting Clinton, Trump will give Obama a false sense of security so that he doesn't preemptively pardon Clinton before he leaves office. That's what Republicans Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush did when they preemptively pardoned Dick Nixon and the Iran-Contra conspirators. They nobly pardoned their cronies to "heal the nation."

But the most logical reason Trump won't push this is that there's no chance that it would actually result in a conviction: after literally years of congressional and FBI investigations into the email server, Benghazi and the Clinton Foundation, it's obvious that there's nothing there. Trump was just throwing out tired, disproved allegations to fire up the know-nothings at his rallies, giving them something mindless to chant and rant about.

It is these nitwits who are outraged that Trump is breaking his promise to "trump the bitch."

But the real reason he's calling off the dogs is that Trump is making an unspoken deal with the Democrats. And that has to do with Trump's own foundation.

The Clinton Foundation is a legitimate charity that has served tens of millions of the poorest people in the world, helping to prevent malaria and unwanted pregnancies, treat HIV, pneumonia and diarrhea, as well as sponsor midwife and childhood nutrition programs. It does real charity work.

The Donald J. Trump Foundation, however, doesn't do anything of the sort. Trump doesn't even contribute to it. It's basically a slush fund that Trump uses to buy things like a portrait of himself and a Tim Tebow helmet. He also used the foundation's money -- donated by other people -- to pay off hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal settlements incurred by his businesses.

Going after the Clinton Foundation would almost certainly invite retaliatory investigations into the Trump Foundation, which is clearly just a money-laundering and tax avoidance scheme. The most damning evidence is the fact that Trump's foundation paid an IRS fine for making an illegal $25,000 donation to Pam Bondi's reelection campaign for the attorney general of Florida.

This looks like a quid pro quo: it appears that in exchange for the donation and a fund raiser Trump hosted that raised $150K for her campaign, Bondi dropped the Florida Trump University fraud investigation. Just last week Trump settled three other fraud cases for $25 million. Buying Bondi off for $25K probably saved Trump another $10 or $20 million. What an investment!

This is why just yesterday Trump was forced to announce that foundation money wouldn't be used to pay off the $25 million fraud settlement.

No, by letting Clinton off the hook Trump is clearly angling to pressure Democratic attorneys general in New York and California to ease up on the Trump Foundation. He can always change his mind and go after Clinton if the Democrats don't play ball.

On the other hand, investigations into the Trump Foundation could be a blessing in disguise for Republicans. A lot of them still despise Trump, and would love to see him go down. They may quietly urge New York A.G. Eric Schneiderman to go ahead with his investigation. Then they can use whatever Schneiderman digs up at Trump's impeachment trial.

And then they can install the man they really want to be president: Mike Pence.

Heil Trump!

Tell me again about how references to Nazis and Trump supporters is overblown, Godwin's law, nonsense and just like what liberals did with Bush...

And the go fuck yourself. It's morons like you that have helped shit like this happen over and over again throughout history...

Trump's Businesses Make Him Vulnerable to Extortion

One of the biggest concerns over Donald Trump's presidency has been his conflicts of interest and the potential for influence peddling.

Republicans tried to cast Hillary Clinton as corrupt for talking to foreign diplomats whose countries had made donations to the Clinton Foundation, which does things like fight malaria in poor countries.

With Trump it'll be much worse: foreigners are reportedly flocking to the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC to curry favor with the president-elect. When they rent rooms at Trump hotels, play golf at Trump golf courses, buy jewelry from Trump's daughter, they're not helping cure malaria. They're putting money directly into Trump's pockets.

This is what bribery looks like in the age of Trump: naked money grubbing.

Trump was "too busy" preparing to assume the presidency to defend himself in court against the Trump University fraud suits, so he settled for $25 million. This was after he claimed he would never settle because only losers settle.

Trump, however, had plenty of time to meet with business partners from India and Nigel Farage to lobby against wind turbines near his golf courses in Britain. And ask the Argentinian president for a building permit for an office tower in Buenos Aires.

Trump argues that everyone knew that he owned these properties. So it's okay that foreigners would be forking over millions of dollars to Trump businesses to get on his good side.

But there's a darker side to this: Trump is vulnerable to threats against his business interests. Any country could threaten to shut down his businesses unless they get the special treatment from the United States that they want. Trump would be hard-pressed to retaliate diplomatically against such threats because it would underline how vulnerable he is to blackmail.

Worse, criminal gangs have a lot more power over Trump than over past presidents. Mexican drug lords could threaten to burn down a few of his hotels unless he calls off the DEA. Unlike a country, he can't sanction them diplomatically. And once he buckled under these threats, they'd have him forever, pulling him in deeper and deeper by threatening to expose the deal.

The worst, though, is how a Trump presidency empowers and encourages terrorists.

His businesses depend on people having free and easy access. But Trump has already cost high-end restaurants and stores in and near Trump Tower a lot of business due to beefed-up security. Every time he's in residence they shut down Fifth Avenue. Anyone going into the building is searched. Wherever Trump goes, the Secret Service will follow, and that means everyone will be hassled endlessly.

That can't be good for business.

In the past terrorists have targeted U.S. embassies and consulates: the Iranians took over the U.S. embassy in 1979, Al Qaeda bombed our embassies in Africa, and then there was Benghazi. Terrorists targeted the World Trade Center in New York twice.

With Trump the terrorists' job will get a whole lot easier.

Trump's (unprofitable) real estate holdings make him extremely vulnerable to terrorist extortion. Hotels, golf courses and office buildings are soft targets: not only do they have to accommodate lots of customers and visitors who want easy access, they also employ a lot of poorly-paid staff.

How will Trump be able to ensure guests at his properties across the world that every minimum-wage janitor, security guard, maid, busboy and masseuse who has total access to a Trump property has been totally vetted and isn't a member of ISIS?

Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, where he'll be spending Thanksgiving, hires foreigners from countries like Romania in preference to Americans. How can Trump be sure that his Romanian masseuse isn't  really a Moldovan of Russian extraction planted by the Russian FSB, or a Chechen ISIS sympathizer? How can he reliably vet hundreds of employees from former Soviet bloc countries?

Terrorists won't have to fight their way past American marines to invade the walled compounds of our embassies. They can waltz into the lobby of any Trump hotel or office building with a machine gun and start shooting. They can hold the new president hostage with a bombing at a Trump resort, or just by doing doughnuts on the greens at his golf courses.

How many of the ultra-wealthy crowd are going to patronize Trump businesses after a few dozen of them are gunned down by radical Islamic terrorists?

With all these vulnerable interests worldwide Trump is totally exposed to blackmail by anyone with an axe to grind. All they need to do is phone in a threat against a Trump property and suddenly they have the ear of the president.

Trump's businesses aren't just conflicts of interest and fetid cesspools of bribery. They are pressure points that enemies of the United States can use to force the new president into decisions that benefit him personally, but aren't in the best interests of the United States of America.

How will we know whether anything Trump does is for the good of the American people, or is part of some scam to profit him or protect one of his interests?

Given Trump's history of deal-making and bankruptcies that make him rich and screwed everyone else involved, the answer is already clear.

More Than Any White Man In History

An Optimistic Note

I have to admit that I've been pretty bummed since Donald Trump won the presidency. How can someone with such an ugly personality be representing our country? Further, consider how he would do, minus his celebrity, if he was applying for a job. His background check? Fail, due to poor credit and the bankruptcies. And most companies look at social media activity which would be a giant red flag. The video of him bragging about sexual assault would be an automatic disqualifier.

Yet I am optimistic about a couple of things. With the Republicans controlling all three branches of government, they are going to be held accountable for what they do. No more bitching about the Democrats ruining everything. Sure, they will try to blame the liberal media but they are the ones running the show so they have to do a good job. No doubt they will try to dodge the responsibility but the people that voted them in likely won't let them.

It's also nice to see that Trump is nominating old guard Republicans, going back on his promise to "drain the swamp," to key posts in his administration. Bannon by himself can likely be handled. Thankfully, there won't be a cabinet filled with Bannons, although ol' Steve-O is also going to see just how fun it is to be the responsible one. I'm going to be very interested to see a right wing blogger try to spin away mistakes.

If Trump ends up nominating Mitt Romney as Secretary of State, that would be his first good move. It would also be a sign that his cozying up to Russia was all an act. We'll see...

Outrage Over Outrage

I've been very amused at just how clueless conservatives have been over the protests and anger over the election of Donald Trump. How dare they question his racist statements and stated policy paths? He doesn't really mean those things so why should people be upset? Silly, silly liberals...

Even more hilarious is how fucking dense they over what exactly happens when leaders use scapegoats to cement nationalistic rule. Surely they can't be so ignorant to have forgotten about what happened in Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia in the early 20th century. Getting angry over people (Muslims, Hispanics) being naturally worried that they are now targets of either civilian or government oppression makes you more than stupid.

It makes you a dick.

In fact, it makes you like these guys...

Oh, and by the way, Godwin's law no longer applies in this situation. Reality is not the internet. And when someone openly advocates for the registration of an ethnicity or religion, it's time to recognize it for what it is.

Fascism.

Ivanka Babysits Trump at Meeting with Japanese Prime Minister

Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka attended the meeting with Shinzo Abe, prime minister of Japan. 

The New York Times headline says her presence "raises questions:"

WASHINGTON — The potential for conflicts of interest between President-elect Donald J. Trump and his family’s business ventures emerged again Thursday evening, when a photograph was distributed that showed his daughter Ivanka at a meeting between Mr. Trump and the prime minister of Japan.

News reporters were not allowed to attend the session, Mr. Trump’s first with a foreign head of state, and no summary was provided about what was discussed. A separate photograph was distributed — press photographers were not allowed to cover the event — showing that Jared Kushner, Ms. Trump’s husband, was present for at least part of the gathering.

Questions like, was she there to make sure he didn't talking about pussy-grabbing? Or start yakking about how Japan is killing us?

Or was she there just to hawk the $11,000 bangle from her jewelry line?

The Trump administration is shaping up to be the most ignorant, uninformed, incompetent, corrupt and nepotistic in history.

Hi. My Name is Dennis Carstens. And I am 14 years old...

The liberal elites finally got their walking papers

I voted for Donald Trump because I am one of the millions who are tired of the liberal elites — the politicians, academics, media people and self-absorbed celebrities constantly telling me that they know what is best for me and everyone else. Now they are practically hysterical in their shock at finding out that so many of us don't see the world through their smug eyes. How could we not see the world the way they do? What is wrong with us? Actually, nothing. We simply are tired of you.


You know what I'm tired of, Dennis? People who are so fucking adolescent that they refuse to reflect and think that maybe there are people out there who know more than they do...

It's not really very difficult.

My name is Mark Ward. And I know that there are people out there who are smarter and more accomplished than I am. Some are leaders in the public sector and some are leaders in the private sector. I support them in their endeavors and trust them to do the right thing, most of the time.

See how easy that is?

And I really don't feel like I've lost any sort of control of my life:)

Communists Past and Present

The Times has a great piece up about Steve Bannon, Donald Trump's new Chief Strategist. Everyone knows how much of a racist asshole the guy is but what I can't figure out is why right wing bloggers like him so much. After all, he said this:

I’m a Leninist. Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment. 

Wow. Just...wow...I made the quote red on purpose so the right wing bloggers and commenters that I know still read this site every day have a hurt head the rest of the day. Seriously. How the fuck does this guy rate so high with the alt right? Aren't they the ones who foam at the mouth about how liberals are turning us into Russia?

It seems like they are the ones that have some bromance issues with communists, both past and present!