Friday, June 09, 2017
Comey A Go Go
My first reaction to James Comey's testimony yesterday was not the remarks themselves but the reaction to them from various media.
CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and most of the regular news media looked at the entirety of his testimony and gave fairly honest reporting. The right wing media (and President Trump) all cried vindication which I found to be quite at odds with reality. They also accused Comey of lying so I don't understand how Trump was vindicated if Comey was lying. How can it be both? The right wing media also went on about Hillary's emails and leakers which entirely avoids the core issue: Trump and his people colluding with the Russians.
There were no major revelations yesterday. Comey said what everyone thought he would say. The investigation with a special prosecutor (Robert Mueller) will continue and that's a good thing. Trump is not going to be able to avoid what's coming next. Honestly, I'm less worried about him these days because he's so fucking stupid. Clearly, he is his own worst enemy.
What concerns me is his legion of followers who now have all become willing receptacles of Russian propaganda. Here's a clue, assholes. Just because a link on your social media feed looks all hot and stuff with it's political porno words like "mainstream media" and "smug liberal elite" doesn't mean you should pay attention to it. They are trying to fucking brainwash you, morons. Ignore it!
Oh, and if you are offended by me calling you an asshole or a moron, you can take your precious snowflake attitude and juxtapose it with your dear leader. He won an election by doing the exact same thing.
Telling it like it is!
CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and most of the regular news media looked at the entirety of his testimony and gave fairly honest reporting. The right wing media (and President Trump) all cried vindication which I found to be quite at odds with reality. They also accused Comey of lying so I don't understand how Trump was vindicated if Comey was lying. How can it be both? The right wing media also went on about Hillary's emails and leakers which entirely avoids the core issue: Trump and his people colluding with the Russians.
There were no major revelations yesterday. Comey said what everyone thought he would say. The investigation with a special prosecutor (Robert Mueller) will continue and that's a good thing. Trump is not going to be able to avoid what's coming next. Honestly, I'm less worried about him these days because he's so fucking stupid. Clearly, he is his own worst enemy.
What concerns me is his legion of followers who now have all become willing receptacles of Russian propaganda. Here's a clue, assholes. Just because a link on your social media feed looks all hot and stuff with it's political porno words like "mainstream media" and "smug liberal elite" doesn't mean you should pay attention to it. They are trying to fucking brainwash you, morons. Ignore it!
Oh, and if you are offended by me calling you an asshole or a moron, you can take your precious snowflake attitude and juxtapose it with your dear leader. He won an election by doing the exact same thing.
Telling it like it is!
Wednesday, June 07, 2017
Entitled Consevatives
Conservatives think that liberals have the corner market on entitlement. They whine and foam at the mouth about how liberals, especially the ones on college campuses, are massively entitled, need their safe spaces and want to protest everything.
Yet, this recent piece in the Times shows that climate deniers on the right are the absolute worst when it comes to entitlement. Check this out.
What an entitled baby! I'm hearing information I don't like.....wah!!!!! Seriously, how is this any different from the folks that whine on campus about hearing words they don't like or that offend them. Like most climate deniers, they are in eternal, adolescent rebellion mode. Oh well...
At least some of the folks in the class recognize reality and changed their minds.
Yet, this recent piece in the Times shows that climate deniers on the right are the absolute worst when it comes to entitlement. Check this out.
When the teacher, James Sutter, ascribed the recent warming of the Earth to heat-trapping gases released by burning fossil fuels like the coal her father had once mined, she asserted that it could be a result of other, natural causes.
When he described the flooding, droughts and fierce storms that scientists predict within the century if such carbon emissions are not sharply reduced, she challenged him to prove it. “Scientists are wrong all the time,” she said with a shrug, echoing those celebrating President Trump’s announcement last week that the United States would wit“It’s not about opinions,” he told her. “It’s about the evidence.”
“It’s like you can’t disagree with a scientist or you’re ‘denying science,”’ she sniffed to her friends.
Gwen, 17, could not put her finger on why she found Mr. Sutter, whose biology class she had enjoyed, suddenly so insufferable. Mr. Sutter, sensing that his facts and figures were not helping, was at a loss. And the day she grew so agitated by a documentary he was showing that she bolted out of the school left them both shaken.hdraw from the Paris climate accord.
When Mr. Sutter lamented that information about climate change had been removed from the White House website after Mr. Trump’s inauguration, she rolled her eyes.
“It’s his website,” she said.
At least some of the folks in the class recognize reality and changed their minds.
Trump Is Losing . . . Our Allies
The United States, after being the only superpower in the world for almost 30 years, is quickly losing influence around the world. All because Donald Trump is a stupid dickhead trying to impress stupid dickheads in the United States.
Trump attended a NATO meeting last month and refused to endorse the core tenet of the organization: the pledge that if one member state is attacked, all member states will come to its defense.
Trump has insulted Germany, our ally for over 70 years, over and over again. As a result, Chancellor Angel Merkel recently said that it's time for Europe to takes its fate into its own hands -- a clear rejection of Trump and the United States.
Trump has insulted the French, our ally since, well, before we were even a country, by pulling out of the Paris climate treaty and claiming that he was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris. Yes, we know they both start with P, but alliteration won't help Trump: the citizens of Pittsburgh voted for Hillary Clinton by a landslide of 75%.
Trump's rejection of the climate accord has the effect of handing over our dominance in world affairs to the Chinese.
Trump has insulted the South Koreans by rushing to install a missile defense system before the newly elected president, Moon Jae-in, was in office. Moon has now suspended the installation of the missile system, and is talking about doing an environmental review to delay it even further.
Trump thinks he's protecting South Korea (and the American troops stationed there) from North Korean missile attacks, but all Trump is doing is driving South Korea into the arms of China.
Trump has insulted England, again and again. Most recently it was in the person of Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, whom Trump insulted in his typical mendacious fashion after seven Londoners were murdered by terrorists.
The UK is having an election tomorrow, and Theresa May, the conservative pro-Brexit prime minister, was a shoo-in just a month ago. But now the polls are neck-and-neck, in part because May is perceived as a Trump puppet who will never criticize the boorish American.
The United States used to be the most reliable and stable country in the world. Now we're run by a childish nutjob who makes Kim Jong-un look like an elder statesman.
Don't believe me? Just watch Trump's Twitter feed, where he undermines himself and his own administration's agenda every time he lays his fat fingers on his phone.
And that statement must be true because it used alliteration three times instead of just two!
Trump attended a NATO meeting last month and refused to endorse the core tenet of the organization: the pledge that if one member state is attacked, all member states will come to its defense.
Trump has insulted Germany, our ally for over 70 years, over and over again. As a result, Chancellor Angel Merkel recently said that it's time for Europe to takes its fate into its own hands -- a clear rejection of Trump and the United States.
Trump has insulted the French, our ally since, well, before we were even a country, by pulling out of the Paris climate treaty and claiming that he was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris. Yes, we know they both start with P, but alliteration won't help Trump: the citizens of Pittsburgh voted for Hillary Clinton by a landslide of 75%.
Trump's rejection of the climate accord has the effect of handing over our dominance in world affairs to the Chinese.
Trump has insulted the South Koreans by rushing to install a missile defense system before the newly elected president, Moon Jae-in, was in office. Moon has now suspended the installation of the missile system, and is talking about doing an environmental review to delay it even further.
Trump thinks he's protecting South Korea (and the American troops stationed there) from North Korean missile attacks, but all Trump is doing is driving South Korea into the arms of China.
Trump has insulted England, again and again. Most recently it was in the person of Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, whom Trump insulted in his typical mendacious fashion after seven Londoners were murdered by terrorists.
The UK is having an election tomorrow, and Theresa May, the conservative pro-Brexit prime minister, was a shoo-in just a month ago. But now the polls are neck-and-neck, in part because May is perceived as a Trump puppet who will never criticize the boorish American.
The United States used to be the most reliable and stable country in the world. Now we're run by a childish nutjob who makes Kim Jong-un look like an elder statesman.
Don't believe me? Just watch Trump's Twitter feed, where he undermines himself and his own administration's agenda every time he lays his fat fingers on his phone.
And that statement must be true because it used alliteration three times instead of just two!
Monday, June 05, 2017
Save Your Anger for Someone Other Than Bill Maher
Everyone is piling on Bill Maher for saying that word on live TV last week. But it shouldn't be all that surprising. He used to be on a show called "Politically Incorrect," which was canceled when Maher argued that the 9/11 hijackers weren't cowards because they were in the planes when they crashed.
Saying that word was stupid and insensitive and inexcusable, and he shouldn't have said it. He's admitted this himself in an apology, though people are blasting him because of an op-ed he wrote saying that such apologies are meaningless precisely because the offense is inexcusable.
That word has been used by whites for centuries in the most offensive way possible: to deny the very humanity of people who were abducted from their homelands and forced into slavery, treated like animals and worse.
Yet that word has gained currency in countless hip-hop songs. It is sometimes used almost as a term of endearment in some exchanges among African Americans.
Which makes some whites really angry. "Why do they get to use that word among themselves, and why can't I?" they moan.
It's a difference of quality: when African Americans use it, it can be self-deprecating, and almost humorous in certain contexts -- but not all contexts. When whites use it against blacks, it is always an insult, even if it's intended as a jest.
Hearing a white person say that word pours salt in an open wound that has festered for more than four centuries.
Which brings us back to Bill Maher. He was attempting to use that word as a self-deprecating joke. He was intending to insult himself, not black people: he's a wimpy New Yorker who hates the outdoors and always stays inside.
A lot of white people in the audience thought it was funny too. But descendants of slaves didn't get a chuckle out of it, though they probably grimaced in a sorrowful sort of smile that people do when they see someone who should know better do something very stupid.
However, there's different in quality between what Maher did and Klansman are doing when they use that word. When whites use it against African Americans it they're committing verbal homicide. Maher's use was merely verbal manslaughter. The victim is just as dead, but the penalty for the infraction is different.
People should instead direct their outrage at the Orangutan from New York who ran an election campaign that emboldened racists around the country, instead of at the comedian who has been fighting the good fight against that clown in the White House for more than a decade.
Saying that word was stupid and insensitive and inexcusable, and he shouldn't have said it. He's admitted this himself in an apology, though people are blasting him because of an op-ed he wrote saying that such apologies are meaningless precisely because the offense is inexcusable.
That word has been used by whites for centuries in the most offensive way possible: to deny the very humanity of people who were abducted from their homelands and forced into slavery, treated like animals and worse.
Yet that word has gained currency in countless hip-hop songs. It is sometimes used almost as a term of endearment in some exchanges among African Americans.
Which makes some whites really angry. "Why do they get to use that word among themselves, and why can't I?" they moan.
It's a difference of quality: when African Americans use it, it can be self-deprecating, and almost humorous in certain contexts -- but not all contexts. When whites use it against blacks, it is always an insult, even if it's intended as a jest.
Hearing a white person say that word pours salt in an open wound that has festered for more than four centuries.
Which brings us back to Bill Maher. He was attempting to use that word as a self-deprecating joke. He was intending to insult himself, not black people: he's a wimpy New Yorker who hates the outdoors and always stays inside.
A lot of white people in the audience thought it was funny too. But descendants of slaves didn't get a chuckle out of it, though they probably grimaced in a sorrowful sort of smile that people do when they see someone who should know better do something very stupid.
However, there's different in quality between what Maher did and Klansman are doing when they use that word. When whites use it against African Americans it they're committing verbal homicide. Maher's use was merely verbal manslaughter. The victim is just as dead, but the penalty for the infraction is different.
People should instead direct their outrage at the Orangutan from New York who ran an election campaign that emboldened racists around the country, instead of at the comedian who has been fighting the good fight against that clown in the White House for more than a decade.
Bill Whittle Wordy Squirts Some Tired Old Shit
Bill Whittle is a hero to many in the right wing blogger sphere and now that he's officially a commentator for NRA TV, he can officially order his big boy pants. Yet Media Matters points out that he's resurrecting some very old and familiar lines about race.
During a 2016 appearance on libertarian-turned-“alt-right”-commentator Stefan Molyneux’s webshow, Whittle revealed his acceptance of theories commonly called “academic” or “scientific” racism that tie together IQ scores, race, and crime. He also positively cited a white nationalist to claim people in inner cities “don't have access to cognition.”
In the February 12 broadcast, which was released with the title “Why Liberals Are Wrong About Inequality,” Molyneux premised his discussion with Whittle with claims that in terms of average IQ scores, Ashkenazi Jews “clock in at about 115” and “after the Jews come the East Asians, right, the Koreans, the Chinese, the Japanese, and so on. They clock in at 105, 106, but very good on visual-spacial skills and very, very fast reaction times, which is another way that they measure intelligence. Caucasians come in at about 100 and then below that are Hispanics, clocking in at around 90, and then American blacks, clocking in at around 85 -- partly because they have 20 percent European mixture in their gene pool -- and then sub-Saharan Africans, clocking in at around 70, which is obviously very tragic, but this is the reality of what's happened. And slightly below that are the aboriginals in Australia, clocking in around 67 or whatever.”
Wow. Hey, right wing blogger and commenter dudes, hitch your wagon to this star. He's a winner!
During a 2016 appearance on libertarian-turned-“alt-right”-commentator Stefan Molyneux’s webshow, Whittle revealed his acceptance of theories commonly called “academic” or “scientific” racism that tie together IQ scores, race, and crime. He also positively cited a white nationalist to claim people in inner cities “don't have access to cognition.”
In the February 12 broadcast, which was released with the title “Why Liberals Are Wrong About Inequality,” Molyneux premised his discussion with Whittle with claims that in terms of average IQ scores, Ashkenazi Jews “clock in at about 115” and “after the Jews come the East Asians, right, the Koreans, the Chinese, the Japanese, and so on. They clock in at 105, 106, but very good on visual-spacial skills and very, very fast reaction times, which is another way that they measure intelligence. Caucasians come in at about 100 and then below that are Hispanics, clocking in at around 90, and then American blacks, clocking in at around 85 -- partly because they have 20 percent European mixture in their gene pool -- and then sub-Saharan Africans, clocking in at around 70, which is obviously very tragic, but this is the reality of what's happened. And slightly below that are the aboriginals in Australia, clocking in around 67 or whatever.”
Wow. Hey, right wing blogger and commenter dudes, hitch your wagon to this star. He's a winner!
Sunday, June 04, 2017
Friday, June 02, 2017
Putin Admits Russians Hacked US Election
It looks like the investigation into Russian hacking of the US election is starting to uncover solid evidence. Vladimir Putin has basically admitted the hacking:
Shifting from his previous blanket denials, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia suggested on Thursday that “patriotically minded” private Russian hackers could have been involved in cyberattacks last year that meddled in the United States presidential election.Putin ultimately said similar things about patriotic Russians fighting in Crimea, after denying that there were any Russian troops there. But Russian troops were constantly fighting in Crimea, indiscriminately killing civilians -- including those from the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Great Britain:
A Dutch-led investigation has concluded that the powerful surface-to-air missile system used to shoot down a Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine two years ago, killing all 298 on board, was trucked in from Russia at the request of Russian-backed separatists and returned to Russia the same night.And how does Trump respond to Putin's admission of hacking? The Donald is going to let the Russians reopen their den of spies:
The Trump administration is moving toward handing back to Russia two diplomatic compounds, near New York City and on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, that its officials were ejected from in late December as punishment for Moscow’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.This is particularly disturbing in light of this news:
President Barack Obama said Dec. 29 that the compounds were being “used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related purposes” and gave Russia 24 hours to vacate them. Separately, Obama expelled from the United States what he said were 35 Russian “intelligence operatives.”
In the throes of the 2016 campaign, the FBI found itself with an escalating problem: Russian diplomats, whose travel was supposed to be tracked by the State Department, were going missing. The diplomats, widely assumed to be intelligence operatives, would eventually turn up in odd places, often in middle-of-nowhere USA.Yes, it appears that the Russians are not satisfied with sabotaging our elections via the Internet, they appear to be planning to sabotage our Internet hardware infrastructure as well.
One was found on a beach, nowhere near where he was supposed to be. In one particularly bizarre case, relayed by a U.S. intelligence official, another turned up wandering around in the middle of the desert. Interestingly, both seemed to be lingering where underground fiber-optic cables tend to run.
Trump keeps claiming that he's not colluding with the Russians. But every time Vladimir Putin says "bend over" Trump asks "how far?"
Whining Wonder Woman Wankers
After a couple of theaters announced they were going to have women-only screenings the new Wonder Woman film, a flock of insecure little bitches had to whine about it.
One childish wanker apparently wrote a letter to the mayor of Austin threatening to boycott the city if they didn't host a men-only event:
"I hope every man will boycott Austin and do what he can to diminish Austin and to cause damage to the city's image. The theater that pandered to the sexism typical of women will, I hope, regret it's decision. The notion of a woman hero is a fine example of women's eagerness to accept the appearance of achievement without actual achievement. Women learn from an early age to value make-up, that it's OK to pretend that you are greater than you actually are. Women pretend they do not know that only men serve in combat because they are content to have an easier ride. Women gladly accept gold medals at the Olympics for coming in 10th and competing only against the second class of athletes. Name something invented by a woman! Achievements by the second rate gender pale in comparison to virtually everything great in human history was accomplished by men, not women. If Austin does not host a men only counter event, I will never visit Austin and will welcome it's deterioration. And I will not forget that Austin is best known for Charles Whitman. Does Austin stand for gender equality or for kissing up to women? Don't bother to respond. I already know the answer. I do not hate women. I hate their rampant hypocrisy and the hypocrisy of the 'women's movement.' Women do not want gender equality; they want more for women. Don't bother to respond because I am sure your cowardice will generate nothing worth reading.The mayor gamely responded by alerting the writer to the fact that his email had been hacked. And then he proceeded to list several things that women did invent, including a system for torpedo control that actress Hedy Lamarr patented in 1941, which just happened to become the basis of spread-spectrum communications systems like wi-fi and cell-phone service. But that's not important.
"Richard A. Ameduri"
The mayor didn't mention Marie Curie, but she won the Nobel Prize in physics for her work on radiation in 1903 and then went on to win another Nobel in chemistry in 1911, after the death of her husband, becoming the first person of any gender to win Nobels in two different disciplines. And those "10th place" women Olympic martial artists would wipe the floor with Mr. Ameduri.
Speaking of the martial arts, Gal Gadot, the star of Wonder Woman, was a combat trainer in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), where she served for two years. Why? Because Israel requires women to serve two years in the military -- though, yes, Israeli women get an easy ride: the men have to serve for three years. Except for ultra-Orthodox conservative Haredi men, who don't have to serve in the military, or even work at all. But their wives do.
In any case, a private theater chain is hosting this special one-shot screening. All the other showings of the film will be to mixed gender audiences. The mayor can't demand the theater schedule a men-only screening any more than the mayor of Houston can demand that the Astros hire a female pitcher.
On average men make 25% more than women doing the same job. Men constitute 95% of all Fortune 500 CEOs. Men like Donald Trump think they can just do whatever the hell they want with women's bodies. 47% of the workforce is women, yet women still do the vast majority of housework, cooking and child care. Men are not the oppressed victims of estrogen-stoked rapine and plunder.
But back to the movie. The guys whining about it are oblivious: the film is about an island full of Amazons. That means that it only has women on it. The whole conceit of the movie is that there's a place where there are only women, with no petty little wankers constantly spewing misogynistic hatred about how mean women are to them.
Screening this film to a female audience is a tip of the hat to its basic conceit.
If these guys want to go see a movie with just men, they can go to any theater showing gay porn.
Oh, wait. That would mean...
Thursday, June 01, 2017
Joining Syria and Nicaragua
President Trump officially announced today that the United States would be withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accords. This agreement was signed on to by every other country in the world except Syria and Nicaragua. What great company to be in! Actually, considering who we have as president and how he is trying real hard to turn this country into a banana republic, I guess we fit right in.
Trump is a total fucking moron. Whether you "believe" in climate change or not, by pulling out of this agreement, we are essentially handing the keys to the renewable energy market over to the Chinese. We are saying to the world that we don't want to get into the business of renewable energy because our leader and his followers want to win a blog argument about global warming (hint: they already lost.)
We had 8 years of a great president moving us forward in the world. Now, we have a reality show buffoon whose only conviction is vanity moving us backwards. Worse, his followers are likely cheering this right now in one giant mouth foam at how they are sticking it to those smug liberal elites who think they know so much. Again, why is our country having to pay for their personal problems in life?
If we truly want US values in the world, we can't allow countries like China to lead on anything. This withdrawal means they get to run the table on us in countries that will be hit the hardest on climate change. China, not us, will be allowed to instill their values on these countries.
What a fucking disaster.
Trump is a total fucking moron. Whether you "believe" in climate change or not, by pulling out of this agreement, we are essentially handing the keys to the renewable energy market over to the Chinese. We are saying to the world that we don't want to get into the business of renewable energy because our leader and his followers want to win a blog argument about global warming (hint: they already lost.)
We had 8 years of a great president moving us forward in the world. Now, we have a reality show buffoon whose only conviction is vanity moving us backwards. Worse, his followers are likely cheering this right now in one giant mouth foam at how they are sticking it to those smug liberal elites who think they know so much. Again, why is our country having to pay for their personal problems in life?
If we truly want US values in the world, we can't allow countries like China to lead on anything. This withdrawal means they get to run the table on us in countries that will be hit the hardest on climate change. China, not us, will be allowed to instill their values on these countries.
What a fucking disaster.
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
The US has a Trade Deficit Because We're Rich -- At Least Some of Us
Donald Trump has a serious Twitter problem. No, I'm not talking about "covfefe". (Trump seriously needs to get more sleep.)
I'm talking about him using Twitter to sabotage our relationship with our NATO allies.
“We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military,” an angry Mr. Trump said on Twitter on Tuesday morning. “Very bad for U.S. This will change.”Has Vladimir Putin stolen Trump's Twitter password, or is Trump just following the orders Sergei Kislyak gave him when the Russian ambassador visited the White House?
No, it's not that: Trump is just being dense again. As has been pointed out in numerous places, German companies build a lot of their cars in the United States:
German companies employ roughly 700,000 people in the United States. Carmakers like BMW and Mercedes-Benz have huge American assembly plants, which export vehicles to China and Latin America. BMW’s factory in Spartanburg, S.C., is the largest single exporter, by dollar value, in the American automotive industry.Yeah, the trade deficit can be a problem. But the real reason that we have a trade deficit with most (though not all) of the rest of the world is that the United States is the richest and most successful country in the world.
Being the richest country in the world means we have the most disposable wealth. In 2015 the average American salary was higher than every other country in the world except Luxembourg, which also has a trade deficit.
Luxembourg's banking sector is a huge part of its economy, just as finance is in the United States and Switzerland, which has the third highest average salary. Banks don't build a lot of cars.
Since we're so rich, other countries step up to sell us things. We don't have to buy those things, but a lot of rich Americans like to buy expensive things from foreign countries. Things like Italian marble:
Trump himself, after riding down an escalator through the tower’s six-story atrium, announced his candidacy from the sky-lit basement level, perched on a temporary platform rigged over the basin of a sixty-foot waterfall that—along with twenty-four hundred tons of rose-colored Italian Breccia Pernice marble—is the atrium’s signature feature.Donald Trump bought 2400 tons of rock from Italy. Wasn't American rock good enough for Trump?
Trump bitches about German manufacturers who have invested billions of dollars in the United States to build factories in states like South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama. Japanese car manufacturers have plants in Ohio, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Indiana. Korean companies have factories in Georgia and Alabama.
Not only does Donald Trump import Italian marble, Trump and his offspring import foreign workers using the H-2A program. Two months ago this happened:
Trump Vineyard Estates, owned by Eric Trump, is seeking permission to hire 29 foreign workers through the federal H-2A visa program to cultivate grapes at its Virginia winery, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. The immigration program lets agricultural employees temporarily hire foreign workers to do the jobs Americans don't want or can't do.This is an ongoing thing:
This isn't the first time a Trump business has looked to hire outside the U.S. Trump's older daughter and close adviser, Ivanka Trump, has also shown a preference for foreign workers. Her jewelry line applied for five guest worker visas to hire foreigners from 2008 and 2013 at salaries from $41,370 to $45,000, a Huffington Post investigation found last year.Maybe Trump could find Americans who would work part time if he would pay them enough money, instead of hiring Mexicans and Romanians.
And while Trump promised on the campaign trail to create new jobs for American workers and vowed to come down hard on trade deals that benefit foreign labor markets, companies owned by the New York business mogul requested 1,100 foreign worker visas between 2000 and the time he entered the presidential race in 2015, according to a Reuters analysis of Department of Labor data. Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, sought the most foreign workers, with applications for 787 workers such as maids, cooks and servers since 2006 under a H-2B visa program that tends to benefit Mexicans.
"You cannot get help during the season. The season goes from like October to March. It's almost impossible to get help," Trump explained at one point during his campaign. "And part of the reason you can't get American people is they want full time jobs."
The United States used to be the biggest exporter in the world. Our workers got great salaries. But then the rest of the world started to catch up to us. American CEOs started building factories in countries with lower wages.
People like Donald Trump shipped manufacturing off to China:
[V]isitors to the Trump Store in the lobby of the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York City, or to the displays of Trump clothing at Macy's in New York's Herald Square, would be hard-pressed to find much labeled "Made in the U.S.A."Trump claims he had to do this because China was manipulating their currency. Nonsense. Trump can't find an American supplier for an $80 cotton sweater? That's 10 cents worth of raw materials and a dollar worth of labor, even in America -- sweaters are made on automated looms these days. The only reason that $20 sweater cost $80 was because it said Trump on it.
At the same time Trump was speaking in New Hampshire, his Trump Store was contributing to the growth of Chinese manufacturing, arguably at the expense of American workers, selling $80 Trump-branded cotton sweaters and $70 Trump-branded warm-up tops, all made in China. Also available with the made in China tag: golf hats stamped with the Trump crest and stuffed animals.
Like all the other corporate shills, Trump just wants more profit for himself. He could have put more money in the pockets of working Americans, but he wanted more. So he sold America out.
Monday, May 29, 2017
Trump Literally Unfit to Be President
At the G7 conference in Italy Donald Trump proved he was physically unfit to be president:
Barack Obama played basketball while president. George W. Bush used to run but switched to mountain biking when his knees gave out. Donald Trump plays golf, but has to use a golf cart between holes.
Being 70 years old is no excuse. I know 60-, 70- and 80-year-old women who rode bicycles 332 miles in six days from St. Paul, MN, to the Canadian border, going 60 and 70 miles some days, through cold and driving rain. Trump would be dead like a beached whale on the side of the road after one day.
Trump used to play sports in high school but gave up physical activity because he holds this idiotic idea that exercise uses up the body's "finite" energy. He might have more stamina if he actually got enough sleep every night, instead of deluding himself that he only needs four hours. And what's he doing when he should be sleeping? Watching TV. And tapping out Twitter rants that make him look like a moron.
Research has shown over and over that physical activity -- even modest exercise such as walking -- increases mental acuity and improves memory. It's no wonder that the weakest and laziest president in decades is also the dumbest and least coherent. Trump makes W. look like a genius.
Republicans are celebrating the victory of a man who bodyslammed a reporter for asking a health care question. This happened right in front of Fox News reporters. Yet Greg Gianforte, the congressman-elect from Montana, was elected anyway, even though he was charged with assault.
Republicans used to pretend to be the party of moral values: truth, faithfulness, chastity, honor. But in a heartbeat they threw all that away and elected a lying, cheating, womanizing sexual predator and admitted fraud. Yes, fraud: settling the Trump University lawsuit for $25 million was an explicit admission of fraud, no matter how much Trump whines it ain't so.
This is how low Republicans have sunk. Their president ripped off thousands of people who were trying to make a better life for themselves. Their politicians beat up reporters. They sucker-punch protesters at rallies. Their politicians brag about how rough and tough they are, how violent they'll be, how much they'll kill and torture their enemies. How they can grab women's vaginas.
Republicans are constantly railing against political correctness and demand they have the right to call it like it is. Okay, then: this is how it is.
Donald Trump is a weak, old, pansy-assed, fat slug who can't even walk a third of a mile up a hill because he's afraid he'll stroke out or keel over from a heart attack. How in hell is he going to survive four years of the most stressful job on the planet?
Trump likes to brag about grabbing pussy, but he is a pussy.
President Trump chose to ride in a golf cart while his foreign counterparts took a walk through Taormina, Sicily, on Saturday during the Group of Seven summit.Trump is so fat and lazy that he cannot walk 700 yards up a hill. He is the most infirm president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had polio. What's Donald "Two Scoops" Trump's excuse? Gluttony?
The Times of London reported the six other world leaders — from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — walked 700 yards to take a group photo at a piazza in a hilltop town. The U.S. leader decided to wait until he could get a golf cart.
Barack Obama played basketball while president. George W. Bush used to run but switched to mountain biking when his knees gave out. Donald Trump plays golf, but has to use a golf cart between holes.
Being 70 years old is no excuse. I know 60-, 70- and 80-year-old women who rode bicycles 332 miles in six days from St. Paul, MN, to the Canadian border, going 60 and 70 miles some days, through cold and driving rain. Trump would be dead like a beached whale on the side of the road after one day.
Trump used to play sports in high school but gave up physical activity because he holds this idiotic idea that exercise uses up the body's "finite" energy. He might have more stamina if he actually got enough sleep every night, instead of deluding himself that he only needs four hours. And what's he doing when he should be sleeping? Watching TV. And tapping out Twitter rants that make him look like a moron.
Research has shown over and over that physical activity -- even modest exercise such as walking -- increases mental acuity and improves memory. It's no wonder that the weakest and laziest president in decades is also the dumbest and least coherent. Trump makes W. look like a genius.
Republicans are celebrating the victory of a man who bodyslammed a reporter for asking a health care question. This happened right in front of Fox News reporters. Yet Greg Gianforte, the congressman-elect from Montana, was elected anyway, even though he was charged with assault.
Republicans used to pretend to be the party of moral values: truth, faithfulness, chastity, honor. But in a heartbeat they threw all that away and elected a lying, cheating, womanizing sexual predator and admitted fraud. Yes, fraud: settling the Trump University lawsuit for $25 million was an explicit admission of fraud, no matter how much Trump whines it ain't so.
This is how low Republicans have sunk. Their president ripped off thousands of people who were trying to make a better life for themselves. Their politicians beat up reporters. They sucker-punch protesters at rallies. Their politicians brag about how rough and tough they are, how violent they'll be, how much they'll kill and torture their enemies. How they can grab women's vaginas.
Republicans are constantly railing against political correctness and demand they have the right to call it like it is. Okay, then: this is how it is.
Donald Trump is a weak, old, pansy-assed, fat slug who can't even walk a third of a mile up a hill because he's afraid he'll stroke out or keel over from a heart attack. How in hell is he going to survive four years of the most stressful job on the planet?
Trump likes to brag about grabbing pussy, but he is a pussy.
Honoring the Fallen
Today, our nation honors those who have fallen in our country's history. It's especially important to be there for our veterans, many of whom have lost fellow sisters and brothers over the years. Make some time today to support them.
And remember...
And remember...
Sunday, May 28, 2017
Saturday, May 27, 2017
Refugees Welcome Back!
Flying very low under the radar, news came this week that the US State Department, overseen by Donald Trump, is now doubling the amount of refugees allowed in the country. It looks like we will be back up to the Obama-era levels of 1500 refugees allowed in a week.
I'm wondering how this sits with Trump's supporters...
I'm wondering how this sits with Trump's supporters...
The New Russian Dupe, Clueless Person
I've now had more than a few emails regarding Kevin Baker's latest "uberpost" (see also: cut and paste job passed off as evidence of high intellect) entitled "The New Soviet Genderless Person." I still check in on Kevin from time to time to make sure he's still just blowing hot air and not actively fomenting domestic terrorism. It was nice to see that he still has me featured prominently on the sidebar of his web site. Years later, the obsession still continues from him and his followers.
It's actually serendipitous that some of my readers wanted me to comment on this latest piece. I was thinking about Kevin and other gun bloggers in general as I have realized something recently that was profoundly ironic. Consider that this is a group of people who WON'T REGISTER and WON'T TURN OVER THEIR GUNS. EVER!!!! They bemoan government intrusion in their lovemaking to their guns and are terribly afraid of those smug, liberal elites getting a hold of too much information on them. And yet...
THEY PUT EVERYTHING ABOUT THEMSELVES AND THEIR GUNS ON THE FUCKING INTERNET!!!
Seriously, if I was working for the federal government, ATF division, why would I even need surveillance? I'd merely check out Kevin's blog to find out what kind of weapons he owned, where he lived, who he associated with and when he would be at the range. In fact, why do we even need registration when these guys are easily traceable and tracked? What a bunch of fucking morons...
It's this same stupidity that also leads to the massively ignorant mentality seen in this latest post on how evil liberals are going to turn us all into commies. All of the people that emailed me wondered...does Kevin not see the irony of this belief considering the deep connections between Trump and the current Russian regime? The answer is no, no he does not.
Like many on the right, Kevin believes that the entire Russian-Trump story is liberal propaganda. Never mind the fact that ALL of our intelligence agencies has confirmed Russian meddling in the last election. Never mind the fact that his meddling took the form of propaganda disseminated via the news sources that Kevin reads on a daily basis. Never mind the fact that President Trump fired James Comey and then MET WITH THE RUSSIANS IN THE OVAL OFFICE, BARRED US MEDIA FROM ENTERING, AND THEN LEAKED CLASSIFIED INFORMATION TO THEM.
And it's the liberals that are leading us down a Soviet path...
Wow...just wow...
I've come to the conclusion that folks like Kevin hate the fact that liberals are smarter and more accomplished than them so much that they are blinded to reality. Vladamir Putin and Russian intelligence knows this very, very well. Kevin tells them.
Rush Limbaugh was vilified for stating, after Obama won the Presidency the first time, "I hope he fails." Right now we're watching the Ruling Class and its enablers in the media do absolutely everything they can to pull off a coup d'état because the man who won the White House this go-around isn't one of them. He's not one of the New Genderless Persons who mean to Do Good, who Care About You, who just want to help.
Isn't one of them? Are you FUCKING kidding me? First of all, Donald Trump is a card carrying member of the Hollywood Elite. He had a show on NBC called "The Celebrity Apprentice." Like Rush Limbaugh, he is a rock solid member of the media who uses it to manipulate people like Kevin. In fact, I'd put quite a bit of money on the idea that he's merely playing a role.
Consider that he was a Democrat up until 2011 when he jumped on the birther bandwagon. I think he saw rubes like Kevin out there and recognized a grand opportunity. He's tapped into the anger, hate and fear that was already out there and is now playing the role of their dear leader. Like fascist leaders of the past, Trump has made it OK for people like Greg Gianforte to beat up reporters. Supporters of Gianforte think that the reporter had it coming to him. Why? He asked a question that Gianforte didn't like. This is what an authoritarian regime looks like. Trump and his followers have made this possible.
So, when Kevin talks about enablers, brainwashing, and propaganda that ends in authoritarian control he should look no further than the mirror. He is the one who is willingly being played like a fiddle by people who want to take away the very freedom he claims to cherish. He is being led down the garden path by folks who are taking advantage of his completely irrational hatred of liberals in order to cement their power. Another great irony here is that it's these very liberals...people like me...who are going to save Kevin and other Trumpsters from what they are unwittingly creating. Let me be one of the first to say this.
You're welcome.
It's actually serendipitous that some of my readers wanted me to comment on this latest piece. I was thinking about Kevin and other gun bloggers in general as I have realized something recently that was profoundly ironic. Consider that this is a group of people who WON'T REGISTER and WON'T TURN OVER THEIR GUNS. EVER!!!! They bemoan government intrusion in their lovemaking to their guns and are terribly afraid of those smug, liberal elites getting a hold of too much information on them. And yet...
THEY PUT EVERYTHING ABOUT THEMSELVES AND THEIR GUNS ON THE FUCKING INTERNET!!!
Seriously, if I was working for the federal government, ATF division, why would I even need surveillance? I'd merely check out Kevin's blog to find out what kind of weapons he owned, where he lived, who he associated with and when he would be at the range. In fact, why do we even need registration when these guys are easily traceable and tracked? What a bunch of fucking morons...
It's this same stupidity that also leads to the massively ignorant mentality seen in this latest post on how evil liberals are going to turn us all into commies. All of the people that emailed me wondered...does Kevin not see the irony of this belief considering the deep connections between Trump and the current Russian regime? The answer is no, no he does not.
Like many on the right, Kevin believes that the entire Russian-Trump story is liberal propaganda. Never mind the fact that ALL of our intelligence agencies has confirmed Russian meddling in the last election. Never mind the fact that his meddling took the form of propaganda disseminated via the news sources that Kevin reads on a daily basis. Never mind the fact that President Trump fired James Comey and then MET WITH THE RUSSIANS IN THE OVAL OFFICE, BARRED US MEDIA FROM ENTERING, AND THEN LEAKED CLASSIFIED INFORMATION TO THEM.
And it's the liberals that are leading us down a Soviet path...
Wow...just wow...
I've come to the conclusion that folks like Kevin hate the fact that liberals are smarter and more accomplished than them so much that they are blinded to reality. Vladamir Putin and Russian intelligence knows this very, very well. Kevin tells them.
Rush Limbaugh was vilified for stating, after Obama won the Presidency the first time, "I hope he fails." Right now we're watching the Ruling Class and its enablers in the media do absolutely everything they can to pull off a coup d'état because the man who won the White House this go-around isn't one of them. He's not one of the New Genderless Persons who mean to Do Good, who Care About You, who just want to help.
Isn't one of them? Are you FUCKING kidding me? First of all, Donald Trump is a card carrying member of the Hollywood Elite. He had a show on NBC called "The Celebrity Apprentice." Like Rush Limbaugh, he is a rock solid member of the media who uses it to manipulate people like Kevin. In fact, I'd put quite a bit of money on the idea that he's merely playing a role.
Consider that he was a Democrat up until 2011 when he jumped on the birther bandwagon. I think he saw rubes like Kevin out there and recognized a grand opportunity. He's tapped into the anger, hate and fear that was already out there and is now playing the role of their dear leader. Like fascist leaders of the past, Trump has made it OK for people like Greg Gianforte to beat up reporters. Supporters of Gianforte think that the reporter had it coming to him. Why? He asked a question that Gianforte didn't like. This is what an authoritarian regime looks like. Trump and his followers have made this possible.
So, when Kevin talks about enablers, brainwashing, and propaganda that ends in authoritarian control he should look no further than the mirror. He is the one who is willingly being played like a fiddle by people who want to take away the very freedom he claims to cherish. He is being led down the garden path by folks who are taking advantage of his completely irrational hatred of liberals in order to cement their power. Another great irony here is that it's these very liberals...people like me...who are going to save Kevin and other Trumpsters from what they are unwittingly creating. Let me be one of the first to say this.
You're welcome.
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Trump's Worst Enemy: His Own Big Fat Mouth
Today Donald Trump suffered another humiliating loss on his Muslim ban:
A federal appeals court refused Thursday to reinstate President Trump’s revised travel ban, saying it “drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination.”Why? Because calling it a "Muslim ban" was de facto religious discrimination, something Trump blared over and over on the campaign trail:
The decision, from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., was a fresh setback for the administration’s efforts to limit travel from several predominantly Muslim countries.
Writing for the majority, Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory said Mr. Trump’s statements on the campaign trail concerning Muslims showed that the revised order was the product of religious hostility. Such discrimination, he wrote, violates the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion.Trump's voters claimed to love him because he spoke the truth. But the truth is, they loved him because he said racist, bigoted things that they say all the time. Smarter politicians avoid this kind of speech because it causes so many problems down the line.
“Then-candidate Trump’s campaign statements reveal that on numerous occasions, he expressed anti-Muslim sentiment, as well as his intent, if elected, to ban Muslims from the United States,” Judge Gregory wrote. He cited, as an example, a 2015 statement calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our representatives can figure out what is going on.”
If Trump has just decried Islamist extremism and vowed to keep America safe, like most politicians do, he could have slipped his Muslim ban past the courts. But he's an idiot, and doesn't understand how the law works.
His Muslim ban might ultimately win in the Supreme Court. But that's only because Republicans stole a Supreme Court appointment from Barack Obama by refusing to consider Merrick Garland's nomination after Antonin Scalia died a year before the election.
Almost every problem Trump is facing today is due to his big fat mouth.
He just couldn't shut up about the FBI's investigation into Russia's meddling in the election: he told James Comey to drop it and the FBI director refused.
The president demanded multiple times that Comey pledge his personal allegiance to Trump, something Comey could not do without violating his oath of office to defend the United States of American from enemies foreign and domestic. Despite what Trump might think, the president is not the same as the country.
Trump couldn't shut up about James Comey's firing, bragging to Lester Holt on national TV that he fired Comey because Comey wouldn't drop the Russia investigation.
Trump couldn't shut up about the fabulous intelligence the NSA and the CIA gives him: he had to brag about it to the Russian ambassador and burn an intelligence source of a close ally.
Trump still couldn't shut up about his own leak, confirming later that the intelligence source was in fact Israel by blabbing that he never said it was Israel, when he was visiting Israel. The Israeli defense minister subsequently confirmed that Trump had blown their source.
While talking to the murderous Philippine dictator Trump again leaked sensitive information by bragging that there are two nuclear subs off the coast of North Korea, according to a Philippine transcript of the call.
Trump just cannot shut up. He cannot be trusted with sensitive information. He is clearly not fit to be president. All you need to do it butter him up, give him an opening to brag about himself and he'll divulge pretty much anything.
It really makes you wonder about all those leaks coming out of the White House. Are there really that many dissatisfied aides sabotaging Trump, or is he the actual source of all these leaks? After all, the leaker-in-chief used to pose as "John Miller" or "John Barron" and release juicy gossip about himself. He never seemed to care how bad he looked in public, just as long as people were talking about him.
Historically, Trump has taken to heart P.T. Barnum's adage that "There is no such thing as bad publicity."
But Trump is supposed to running a country. Not a circus.
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Curiouser and Curiouser
The New York Times reports that Russian spies planned to use Trump campaign advisors to influence Donald Trump:
American spies collected information last summer revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald J. Trump through his advisers, according to three current and former American officials familiar with the intelligence.Manafort has been gone a long time, but Donald Trump -- incredibly -- still thought he could get Michael Flynn back after he fired James Comey, thinking he could quash the FBI's investigation into Russian interference with the presidential election.
The conversations focused on Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman at the time, and Michael T. Flynn, a retired general who was advising Mr. Trump, the officials said. Both men had indirect ties to Russian officials, who appeared confident that each could be used to help shape Mr. Trump’s opinions on Russia.
Some Russians boasted about how well they knew Mr. Flynn. Others discussed leveraging their ties to Viktor F. Yanukovych, the deposed president of Ukraine living in exile in Russia, who at one time had worked closely with Mr. Manafort.
And then there's this photo of Michael Flynn with Vladimir Putin -- and another very surprising person: Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate who siphoned thousands of votes away from Clinton in the three states where Trump barely beat Clinton:
After the election Stein pushed for recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where she may have garnered enough votes to deny Clinton the presidency. Was Stein feeling guilty for getting Trump elected?
This looks extremely bad: the implication is that Russia was going after Clinton from the right with Flynn/Trump, and from the left with Jill Stein.
I certainly hope Stein wasn't colluding with the Russians, but it looks like we can add her to the list of useful idiots in the last election.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)